Azure Container Deployment

Overview

Deploy and manage the Chuuk Dictionary application on Azure using Container Apps, Azure Container Registry (ACR), Cosmos DB, and Key Vault. Supports multi-container deployments including the main Flask application and Ollama for LLM-based translation.

Architecture

┌─────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐ │ Azure Static │────▶│ Azure Container │────▶│ Azure Cosmos │ │ Web Apps │ │ Apps │ │ DB │ │ (React) │ │ (Flask + Ollama)│ │ (MongoDB API) │ └─────────────────┘ └──────────────────┘ └─────────────────┘ │ ▼ ┌──────────────────┐ │ Azure Key │ │ Vault │ └──────────────────┘

Configuration

Environment Variables

Resource configuration

RESOURCE_GROUP=rg-chuuk-beta-eastus2 LOCATION=eastus2 CONTAINER_APP_ENV=chuuk-dictionary-env ACR_NAME=chuukdictregistry MAIN_APP_NAME=chuuk-dictionary OLLAMA_APP_NAME=chuuk-ollama COSMOS_DB_NAME=chuuk-dictionary-cosmos KEY_VAULT_NAME=chuuk-kv-beta

Deployment Script Reference

deploy-chuuk.sh Structure

#!/bin/bash set -euo pipefail

Configuration

RESOURCE_GROUP=${RESOURCE_GROUP:-rg-chuuk-beta-eastus2} LOCATION=${LOCATION:-eastus2} ACR_NAME=${ACR_NAME:-chuukdictregistry} MAIN_APP_NAME=${MAIN_APP_NAME:-chuuk-dictionary}

Logging helpers

log() { printf "${BLUE}%s${NC}\n" "$1"; } success() { printf "${GREEN}%s${NC}\n" "$1"; } warn() { printf "${YELLOW}%s${NC}\n" "$1"; } die() { echo "$1" >&2; exit 1; }

Ensure Azure CLI logged in

ensure_login() { if ! az account show >/dev/null 2>&1; then az login fi }

Core Operations

1. Resource Group Setup

Create resource group

az group create
--name "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--location "$LOCATION"

2. Azure Container Registry

Create ACR

az acr create
--name "$ACR_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--sku Basic
--admin-enabled true

Get ACR credentials

ACR_SERVER=$(az acr show --name "$ACR_NAME" --query loginServer -o tsv) ACR_USERNAME=$(az acr credential show --name "$ACR_NAME" --query username -o tsv) ACR_PASSWORD=$(az acr credential show --name "$ACR_NAME" --query "passwords[0].value" -o tsv)

Login to ACR

az acr login --name "$ACR_NAME"

Build and push main app image

docker build -t "${ACR_SERVER}/${MAIN_IMAGE}:${IMAGE_TAG}" . docker push "${ACR_SERVER}/${MAIN_IMAGE}:${IMAGE_TAG}"

Build and push Ollama image

docker build -f Dockerfile.ollama -t "${ACR_SERVER}/${OLLAMA_IMAGE}:${IMAGE_TAG}" . docker push "${ACR_SERVER}/${OLLAMA_IMAGE}:${IMAGE_TAG}"

3. Cosmos DB Setup

Create Cosmos DB with MongoDB API

az cosmosdb create
--name "$COSMOS_DB_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--kind MongoDB
--capabilities EnableServerless
--locations regionName="$LOCATION"
--default-consistency-level Session

Get connection string

COSMOS_CONNECTION_STRING=$(az cosmosdb keys list
--name "$COSMOS_DB_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--type connection-strings
--query "connectionStrings[0].connectionString" -o tsv)

4. Key Vault Setup

Create Key Vault

az keyvault create
--name "$KEY_VAULT_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--location "$LOCATION"
--enable-rbac-authorization true

Store secrets

az keyvault secret set
--vault-name "$KEY_VAULT_NAME"
--name "cosmos-connection-string"
--value "$COSMOS_CONNECTION_STRING"

az keyvault secret set
--vault-name "$KEY_VAULT_NAME"
--name "flask-secret-key"
--value "$(openssl rand -hex 32)"

5. Container Apps Environment

Create Container Apps environment

az containerapp env create
--name "$CONTAINER_APP_ENV"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--location "$LOCATION"

Get environment ID

ENV_ID=$(az containerapp env show
--name "$CONTAINER_APP_ENV"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--query id -o tsv)

6. Deploy Main Application

Deploy main Flask app

az containerapp create
--name "$MAIN_APP_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--environment "$CONTAINER_APP_ENV"
--image "${ACR_SERVER}/${MAIN_IMAGE}:${IMAGE_TAG}"
--registry-server "$ACR_SERVER"
--registry-username "$ACR_USERNAME"
--registry-password "$ACR_PASSWORD"
--target-port 8000
--ingress external
--min-replicas 1
--max-replicas 3
--cpu 1.0
--memory 2Gi
--env-vars
"DB_TYPE=cosmos"
"COSMOS_DB_URI=secretref:cosmos-connection-string"
"FLASK_ENV=production"

7. Deploy Ollama Service

Deploy Ollama container (internal only)

az containerapp create
--name "$OLLAMA_APP_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--environment "$CONTAINER_APP_ENV"
--image "${ACR_SERVER}/${OLLAMA_IMAGE}:${IMAGE_TAG}"
--registry-server "$ACR_SERVER"
--registry-username "$ACR_USERNAME"
--registry-password "$ACR_PASSWORD"
--target-port 11434
--ingress internal
--min-replicas 0
--max-replicas 1
--cpu 2.0
--memory 4Gi

Update Operations

Update Container Image

Build new image

docker build -t "${ACR_SERVER}/${MAIN_IMAGE}:${IMAGE_TAG}" . docker push "${ACR_SERVER}/${MAIN_IMAGE}:${IMAGE_TAG}"

Update container app

az containerapp update
--name "$MAIN_APP_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--image "${ACR_SERVER}/${MAIN_IMAGE}:${IMAGE_TAG}"

Scale Application

Scale up

az containerapp update
--name "$MAIN_APP_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--min-replicas 2
--max-replicas 5

Scale down (cost saving)

az containerapp update
--name "$MAIN_APP_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--min-replicas 0
--max-replicas 1

Update Environment Variables

az containerapp update
--name "$MAIN_APP_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--set-env-vars "NEW_VAR=value"

Monitoring & Logs

View Logs

Stream logs

az containerapp logs show
--name "$MAIN_APP_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--follow

View recent logs

az containerapp logs show
--name "$MAIN_APP_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--tail 100

Check Status

Get app URL

az containerapp show
--name "$MAIN_APP_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--query "properties.configuration.ingress.fqdn" -o tsv

Check replicas

az containerapp revision list
--name "$MAIN_APP_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--query "[].{name:name, replicas:replicas, active:active}"

Cost Optimization

Serverless Cosmos DB

Use serverless tier for development

az cosmosdb create
--name "$COSMOS_DB_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--capabilities EnableServerless

Container Apps Scaling

Scale to zero when not in use

az containerapp update
--name "$MAIN_APP_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"
--min-replicas 0

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

• Container won't start: Check logs and ensure all env vars are set

• Database connection failed: Verify Cosmos DB connection string

• Image pull failed: Check ACR credentials

• Memory issues: Increase container memory allocation

Debug Commands

Check container app details

az containerapp show
--name "$MAIN_APP_NAME"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"

Check environment

az containerapp env show
--name "$CONTAINER_APP_ENV"
--resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP"

Check secrets

az keyvault secret list --vault-name "$KEY_VAULT_NAME"

Best Practices

• Use managed identity for Azure resource authentication

• Store secrets in Key Vault, never in environment variables

• Enable auto-scaling based on HTTP traffic

• Use staging slots for zero-downtime deployments

• Monitor costs with Azure Cost Management

• Enable logging to Log Analytics workspace

Dependencies

• Azure CLI (az )

• Docker

• Azure subscription with appropriate permissions

• ACR, Cosmos DB, Key Vault, Container Apps resource providers enabled