Access "Azure Dev Tools for Teaching"

To create an account, use the Azure for Students page.

Click the green Start free button, then click Sign in.

When prompted to sign in, log in similarly to MAIS. Use the ad.tuke.sk prefix:

ad.tuke.sk\ab123cd
PASSWORD

You may be required to enter a phone number for SMS verification (MFA).

After verification, open the Azure Portal.

Check the Azure CLI

Open a WSL2 Ubuntu terminal. Install the latest version of Azure CLI (requires Python 3).

Azure CLI should now be available in your environment:

az --version

Login to Azure

Create a connection with your account on the Azure cloud. Login and authentication will take place using a web browser:

az login

If for some reason a graphical web browser does not work, use

az login --use-device-code

Then open a web browser and enter the displayed device code.

Check which subscription is active:

az account show

Working with Azure CLI

Azure CLI can replace the web interface. Although the command line is less intuitive at first glance, we can save deployment commands to files, archive, share, and repeat them.

After the basic az command there is another command that has additional subcommands and arguments.

For example

az resource list

lists the currently deployed resources. The output will be in JSON format. This format is easy to parse, e.g. in Python, or using the jq utility.

Using the --help switch, you can display help for each command.

Familiarize yourself with Azure Web App Services

Before using the cloud service, you should familiarize yourself with it.

Azure Web App Services

Azure Web App Services can simplify deploying code to an Azure production environment, and managing/scaling applications without having to build a Docker container image yourself. Depending on the deployment method, App Service builds and runs your app for you.

Create the Flask Application

In this step, you will create a local repository with all necessary files for local development.

Create a project folder:

mkdir flask-az-cli
cd flask-az-cli

Create a virtual environment:

python -m venv venv

Activate it:

source venv/bin/activate

Install Flask and Gunicorn:

pip install flask gunicorn

Create a file named app.py:

from flask import Flask
import os

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route("/")
def home():
    return "Hello from Azure Web App!"

@app.route("/about")
def about():
    return "This is a Flask app deployed using Azure CLI."

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run(host="0.0.0.0")

Create requirements.txt:

pip freeze > requirements.txt

Note: The venv/ folder is automatically excluded from deployment by az webapp up. You can also create a .webappignore file listing any other paths to exclude.

Verify it contains at least (versions may differ):

Flask==3.x.x
gunicorn==xx.x.x

You can check with:

pip freeze | grep -iE "flask|gunicorn"

Test locally:

python app.py

Open http://127.0.0.1:5000 in your browser to verify the app works, then stop the server (CTRL+C) before continuing.

Deploy Using Azure CLI

In simple scenarios, the whole application can be made public with one command. Inside the project folder, run:

az webapp up \
  --name <unique-app-name> \
  --runtime "PYTHON:3.12" \
  --sku B1 \
  --location westeurope \
  --resource-group <resource-group>

Replace <unique-app-name> with something globally unique (e.g. flaskstudent12345) and <resource-group> with a name of your choice (e.g. flask-rg).

This command performs multiple steps automatically:

• Creates a resource group (if needed)
• Creates an App Service plan
• Creates the Web App
• Deploys your code as a ZIP package

Note: The auto-created resource group name will be shown in the command output. Record it — you will need it in later steps. You can also retrieve it with:

az webapp show --name <unique-app-name> --query resourceGroup --output tsv

It will take some time to deploy. If everything went well, your application will appear at the URL assigned to it by Azure.

Test the Application

Open in your browser:

https://<unique-app-name>.azurewebsites.net

You should see:

Hello from Azure Web App!

Improve the Application

Configure Gunicorn

Azure can use the Gunicorn WSGI server in production. Configure the startup command:

az webapp config set \
  --name <unique-app-name> \
  --resource-group <resource-group> \
  --startup-file "gunicorn --bind=0.0.0.0 --timeout 600 app:app"

To find the resource group name:

az webapp list --output table

Update and Redeploy

To update and redeploy, modify app.py, for example:

@app.route("/")
def home():
    return "Updated version deployed without Git!"

Redeploy:

az webapp up

Note: On subsequent runs, az webapp up re-uses the settings saved in .azure/config — no flags needed.

Set Environment Variables

Use Azure CLI to set an environment variable:

az webapp config appsettings set \
  --name <unique-app-name> \
  --resource-group <resource-group> \
  --settings GREETING="Hello from Azure Environment!"

Modify the home() function in app.py:

return os.environ.get("GREETING", "Default message")

Redeploy and test.

Enable Logging

az webapp log config \
  --name <unique-app-name> \
  --resource-group <resource-group> \
  --application-logging filesystem

Refresh the browser, then stream logs:

az webapp log tail \
  --name <unique-app-name> \
  --resource-group <resource-group>

Clean Up Resources

At the end, don't forget to clean up to avoid consuming your credits:

az group delete --name <resource-group> --yes --no-wait

Materials

• Basics of working with Azure CLI
• Original App Service Python quickstart

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