How to Deploy ASP.NET web application in Windows Azure Virtual Machine

Are you searching for the steps to deploy ASP.NET web application in windows Azure Virtual Machine? Yes, in this article I am going to give you the step by step procedure to deploy the web application in cloud.
If you are not sure how to create Virtual Machine in Windows Azure you may read my article How to create Virtual Machine in Windows Azure
In this article I am explaining the steps you have to follow after creating the Virtual machine.
As usual first you have to login to the Virtual Machine by login to your Windows Azure account. You may open your Windows Azure account by opening Windows Azure Login Page

Once you login to your account click on Virtual Machine icon at the left menu to display all the Virtual Machine you have created.

To avoid additional billing from Microsoft I normally shut down VM once my usage over. So now we will start the Virtual Machine first.

Now we will connect to the VM by clicking on the connect button.
Just a refresh regarding the end point, since we are deploying web application in VM one important thing you have to remember is to create the HTTP end point otherwise you may not be able to open the website over the internet. If you are not sure how to create end point please read my earlier article How to create Virtual Machine in Windows Azure

Now we will open Visual Studio 2013 and create a demo website to do the deployment in Windows Azure Virtual Machine. We are not changing anything from the default page except some text as it is just a sample one.

Now we will publish this website. Just right click on your project and click on publish.

Once you click on Publish, it will open a window where we have select/create the profile. Since we are doing this first time, I am selecting the option New Profile.

Enter any name, here I entered the name as DemoVMWebApp.

Click Next to select the Publish Method. Here we will do the simple deployment by selecting the option File System from the dropdown list.

Since we have selected the Publish Method as File System we have to provide the Target Location. Here we provide the application name as DemoVMWebApp and provide wwwroot as the publish directory.

Click Next to select the Configuration. Since we are deploying the application we will select as Release.

Click next to open the final Publish screen where you can review the path and also if you require you can navigate back to each option we have selected so far.

Finally Click on Publish to deploy the web application in Windows Azure Virtual machine. Let’s check the wwwroot folder for the deployed file to make sure everything deployed properly.

Now it’s the time to open IIS and convert the directory created by the deployment to an Application. For that expand Default Web Site and then right click on the folder and then select “Convert to Application”


 
Once you convert to an application just browse the page to make sure it works fine at local host.

Now you can see that the webpage opens fine at local host.

Now it is the time to access the same website over the internet. To access it over the internet you just need to replace the localhost with the DNS name of your virtual machine.
 
That’s it your demo web application created for testing the Windows Azure is online now!!!
Let me know if you have any doubt in above steps. You are always welcome to contact me or write comment below.