AZ-204 Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure Exam

Deploy and Configure Azure Container Apps

When you create an Azure Container Apps environment, you start by picking a resource group, a unique name, and a region near your users. By default, the environment uses the Consumption + Dedicated workload profile to minimize costs. You can also turn on zone redundancy to improve availability. This environment serves as the foundation for running all your container apps.

To deploy your containerized application, you select an Image type that tells Azure where to pull your container image.

• Public images work with Docker Hub and do not require credentials.
• Private images need you to provide registry authentication for Azure Container Registry or other private registries.
  After choosing the type, you enter the image name along with its registry prefix so Azure can fetch and run it.

Under Container resource allocation, you decide how many CPU cores and how much memory each container gets. You can also pick a Workload profile if your environment offers custom profiles. These settings directly impact costs, so using the Azure pricing calculator helps you estimate charges. With different workload profiles, you tailor resources for things like high-traffic frontends or lightweight background jobs.

Azure Container Apps supports smart scaling through workload profiles and custom scalers.

• Workload profiles let you assign different CPU and memory limits per app role.
• A custom scaler watches metrics such as CPU usage or pending tasks and automatically scales the number of replicas up or down.
  This ensures your apps match demand, keeping them responsive and cost-efficient.

You can update container apps using both the Azure portal and the CLI. The az functionapp config container set command changes registry settings or image tags. In the portal, you adjust Image settings and set environment variables like WEBSITES_PORT to control ports and behavior. Finally, enable continuous deployment with Azure Pipelines or GitHub Actions to automate future updates and maintain consistency.

Conclusion

In this section, you learned how to set up an Azure Container Apps environment by choosing a resource group, name, and region, and by configuring workload profiles and zone redundancy. This environment acts as a shared platform for all your container applications. Understanding these basics helps you build reliable, organized solutions.

You also saw how to deploy and configure container apps by selecting the right image type, whether public or private, and by providing registry credentials when needed. Resource allocation with CPU, memory, and workload profiles lets you balance performance and cost. Using the Azure pricing calculator helps you predict expenses and plan accordingly.

Finally, you discovered how to scale apps automatically with workload profiles and custom scalers, and how to update containers via the Azure portal and CLI. Setting environment variables and ports ensures your apps run correctly, while continuous deployment pipelines streamline updates. Together, these practices enable you to build, manage, and scale containerized solutions on Azure effectively.