In this tutorial, you'll deploy a data-driven Python web app (Flask) to Azure App Service with the Azure Database for PostgreSQL relational database service. Azure App Service supports Python in a Linux server environment. If you want, see the Django tutorial or the FastAPI tutorial instead.
In this tutorial, you learn how to:
If you just want to see the sample app in this tutorial running in Azure, just run the following commands in the Azure Cloud Shell, and follow the prompt:
mkdir msdocs-flask-postgresql-sample-app
cd msdocs-flask-postgresql-sample-app
azd init --template msdocs-flask-postgresql-sample-app
azd up
1. Run the sample
First, you set up a sample data-driven app as a starting point. For your convenience, the sample repository, includes a dev container configuration. The dev container has everything you need to develop an application, including the database, cache, and all environment variables needed by the sample application. The dev container can run in a GitHub codespace, which means you can run the sample on any computer with a web browser.
Note
If you are following along with this tutorial with your own app, look at the requirements.txt file description in README.md to see what packages you'll need.
Step 2: In the GitHub fork:
pip install -r requirements.txt
for your repository at the end.Step 3: In the codespace terminal:
flask db upgrade
.flask run
.Your application running on port 5000 is available.
, select Open in Browser. You should see the sample application in a new browser tab. To stop the application, type Ctrl
+C
.Tip
You can ask GitHub Copilot about this repository. For example:
Having issues? Check the Troubleshooting section.
2. Create App Service and PostgreSQLIn this step, you create the Azure resources. The steps used in this tutorial create a set of secure-by-default resources that include App Service and Azure Database for PostgreSQL. For the creation process, you specify:
Sign in to the Azure portal and follow these steps to create your Azure App Service resources.
Step 1: In the Azure portal:
Step 2: In the Create Web App + Database page, fill out the form as follows.
Step 3: The deployment takes a few minutes to complete. Once deployment completes, select the Go to resource button. You're taken directly to the App Service app, but the following resources are created:
The creation wizard generated the connectivity variables for you already as app settings. However, the security best practice is to keep secrets out of App Service completely. You'll move your secrets to a key vault and change your app setting to Key Vault references with the help of Service Connectors.
Step 1: Retrieve the existing connection string
Step 2: Create a key vault for secure management of secrets
Step 3: Secure the key vault with a Private Endpoint
Step 4: Configure the PostgreSQL connector
Step 5: Establish the Key Vault connection
Step 6: Finalize the PostgreSQL connector settings
Step 7: Verify the Key Vault integration
@Microsoft.KeyVault(...)
, which means that it's a key vault reference because the secret is now managed in the key vault.To summarize, the process for securing your connection secrets involved:
Having issues? Check the Troubleshooting section.
4. Deploy sample codeIn this step, you configure GitHub deployment using GitHub Actions. It's just one of many ways to deploy to App Service, but also a great way to have continuous integration in your deployment process. By default, every git push
to your GitHub repository kicks off the build and deploy action.
Step 1: In the left menu, select Deployment > Deployment Center.
Step 2: In the Deployment Center page:
.github/workflows
directory. By default, the deployment center creates a user-assigned identity for the workflow to authenticate using Microsoft Entra (OIDC authentication). For alternative authentication options, see Deploy to App Service using GitHub Actions.Step 3: Back in the GitHub codespace of your sample fork, run git pull origin starter-no-infra
. This pulls the newly committed workflow file into your codespace.
Step 4 (Option 1: with GitHub Copilot):
SQLAlchemy
how its connection URI is configured in azureproject/development.py and azureproject/production.py.Step 4 (Option 2: without GitHub Copilot):
AZURE_POSTGRESQL_USER
, AZURE_POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD
, AZURE_POSTGRESQL_HOST
, and AZURE_POSTGRESQL_NAME
.Step 5:
Configure Azure database connection
. Or, select and let GitHub Copilot generate a commit message for you.Step 6: Back in the Deployment Center page in the Azure portal:
Step 7: You're taken to your GitHub repository and see that the GitHub action is running. The workflow file defines two separate stages, build and deploy. Wait for the GitHub run to show a status of Success. It takes about 5 minutes.
Having issues? Check the Troubleshooting guide.
5. Generate database schemaWith the PostgreSQL database protected by the virtual network, the easiest way to run Flask database migrations is in an SSH session with the Linux container in App Service.
Step 1: Back in the App Service page, in the left menu,
Step 2: In the SSH session, run flask db upgrade
. If it succeeds, App Service is connecting successfully to the database.
Tip
In the SSH session, only changes to files in /home
can persist beyond app restarts. Changes outside of /home
aren't persisted.
Having issues? Check the Troubleshooting section.
6. Browse to the appStep 1: In the App Service page:
Step 2: Add a few restaurants to the list. Congratulations, you're running a web app in Azure App Service, with secure connectivity to Azure Database for PostgreSQL.
7. Stream diagnostic logsAzure App Service captures all console logs to help you diagnose issues with your application. The sample app includes print()
statements to demonstrate this capability as shown below.
@app.route('/', methods=['GET'])
def index():
print('Request for index page received')
restaurants = Restaurant.query.all()
return render_template('index.html', restaurants=restaurants)
Step 1: In the App Service page:
Step 2: From the left menu, select Log stream. You see the logs for your app, including platform logs and logs from inside the container.
Learn more about logging in Python apps in the series on setting up Azure Monitor for your Python application.
8. Clean up resourcesWhen you're finished, you can delete all of the resources from your Azure subscription by deleting the resource group.
Step 1: In the search bar at the top of the Azure portal:
Step 2: In the resource group page, select Delete resource group.
Step 3:
In this step, you create the Azure resources and deploy a sample app to App Service on Linux. The steps used in this tutorial create a set of secure-by-default resources that include App Service and Azure Database for PostgreSQL.
The dev container already has the Azure Developer CLI (AZD).
From the repository root, run azd init
.
azd init --template python-app-service-postgresql-infra
When prompted, give the following answers:
Question Answer The current directory is not empty. Would you like to initialize a project here in '<your-directory>'? Y What would you like to do with these files? Keep my existing files unchanged Enter a new environment name Type a unique name. The AZD template uses this name as part of the DNS name of your web app in Azure (<app-name>-<hash>.azurewebsites.net
). Alphanumeric characters and hyphens are allowed.Sign into Azure by running the azd auth login
command and following the prompt:
azd auth login
Create the necessary Azure resources with the azd provision
command. Follow the prompt to select the desired subscription and location for the Azure resources.
azd provision
The azd provision
command takes about 15 minutes to complete (the Redis cache takes the most time). Later, you'll modify your code to work with App Service and deploy the changes with azd deploy
. While it's running, the command provides messages about the provisioning and deployment process, including a link to the deployment in Azure.
This AZD template contains files (azure.yaml and the infra directory) that generate a secure-by-default architecture with the following Azure resources:
Once the command finishes creating resources and deploying the application code the first time, the deployed sample app doesn't work yet because you must make small changes to make it connect to the database in Azure.
Having issues? Check the Troubleshooting section.
3. Use the database connection stringThe AZD template you use generated the connectivity variables for you already as app settings and outputs the them to the terminal for your convenience. App settings are one way to keep connection secrets out of your code repository.
In the AZD output, find the settings AZURE_POSTGRESQL_USER
, AZURE_POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD
, AZURE_POSTGRESQL_HOST
, and AZURE_POSTGRESQL_NAME
. To keep secrets safe, only the setting names are displayed. They look like this in the AZD output:
App Service app has the following connection settings: - AZURE_POSTGRESQL_NAME - AZURE_POSTGRESQL_HOST - AZURE_POSTGRESQL_USER - AZURE_POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD - AZURE_REDIS_CONNECTIONSTRING - AZURE_KEYVAULT_RESOURCEENDPOINT - AZURE_KEYVAULT_SCOPE
For your convenience, the AZD template shows you the direct link to the app's app settings page. Find the link and open it in a new browser tab.
Having issues? Check the Troubleshooting section.
4. Modify sample code and redeployIn the GitHub codespace, start a new chat session by selecting the Chat view, then selecting +.
Ask, "@workspace How does the app connect to the database?" Copilot might give you some explanation about SQLAlchemy
how its connection URI is configured in azureproject/development.py and azureproject/production.py.
Ask, "@workspace In production mode, my app is running in an App Service web app, which uses Azure Service Connector to connect to a PostgreSQL flexible server using the Django client type. What are the environment variable names I need to use?" Copilot might give you a code suggestion similar to the one in the Option 2: without GitHub Copilot steps below and even tell you to make the change in the azureproject/production.py file.
Open azureproject/production.py in the explorer and add the code suggestion.
GitHub Copilot doesn't give you the same response every time, and it's not always correct. You might need to ask more questions to fine-tune its response. For tips, see What can I do with GitHub Copilot in my codespace?.
In the terminal, run azd deploy
.
azd deploy
You need to use the four app settings for connectivity in App service. Open azureproject/production.py, uncomment the following lines (lines 3-8), and save the file:
DATABASE_URI = 'postgresql+psycopg2://{dbuser}:{dbpass}@{dbhost}/{dbname}'.format(
dbuser=os.getenv('AZURE_POSTGRESQL_USER'),
dbpass=os.getenv('AZURE_POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD'),
dbhost=os.getenv('AZURE_POSTGRESQL_HOST'),
dbname=os.getenv('AZURE_POSTGRESQL_NAME')
)
Your application code is now configured to connect to the PostgreSQL database in Azure. If you want, open app.py
and see how the DATABASE_URI
environment variable is used.
In the terminal, run azd deploy
.
azd deploy
Note
If you run azd up
, it combines azd package
, azd provision
, and azd deploy
. The reason you didn't do it at the beginning was because you didn't have the PostgreSQL connection settings to modify your code with yet. If you ran azd up
then, the deploy stage would stall because the Gunicorn server wouldn't be able to start the app without valid connection settings.
Having issues? Check the Troubleshooting section.
5. Generate database schemaWith the PostgreSQL database protected by the virtual network, the easiest way to run Flask database migrations is in an SSH session with the Linux container in App Service.
In the AZD output, find the URL for the SSH session and navigate to it in the browser. It looks like this in the output:
Open SSH session to App Service container at: <URL>
In the SSH session, run flask db upgrade
. If it succeeds, App Service is connecting successfully to the database.
Note
Only changes to files in /home
can persist beyond app restarts. Changes outside of /home
aren't persisted.
Having issues? Check the Troubleshooting section.
6. Browse to the appIn the AZD output, find the URL of your app and navigate to it in the browser. The URL looks like this in the AZD output:
Deploying services (azd deploy) (â) Done: Deploying service web - Endpoint: <URL>
Add a few restaurants to the list.
Congratulations, you're running a web app in Azure App Service, with secure connectivity to Azure Database for PostgreSQL.
Having issues? Check the Troubleshooting section.
7. Stream diagnostic logsAzure App Service can capture console logs to help you diagnose issues with your application. For convenience, the AZD template already enables logging to the local file system and is shipping the logs to a Log Analytics workspace.
The sample application includes print()
statements to demonstrate this capability, as shown in the following snippet.
@app.route('/', methods=['GET'])
def index():
print('Request for index page received')
restaurants = Restaurant.query.all()
return render_template('index.html', restaurants=restaurants)
In the AZD output, find the link to stream App Service logs and navigate to it in the browser.
Learn more about logging in Python apps in the series on setting up Azure Monitor for your Python application.
Having issues? Check the Troubleshooting section.
8. Clean up resourcesTo delete all Azure resources in the current deployment environment, run azd down
and follow the prompts.
azd down
Troubleshooting
Listed below are issues you might encounter while trying to work through this tutorial and steps to resolve them.
I can't connect to the SSH sessionIf you can't connect to the SSH session, then the app itself has failed to start. Check the diagnostic logs for details. For example, if you see an error like KeyError: 'AZURE_POSTGRESQL_HOST'
, it might mean that the environment variable is missing (you might have removed the app setting).
If you encounter any errors related to connecting to the database, check if the app settings (AZURE_POSTGRESQL_USER
, AZURE_POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD
, AZURE_POSTGRESQL_HOST
, and AZURE_POSTGRESQL_NAME
) were changed or deleted. Without that connection string, the migrate command can't communicate with the database.
Pricing for the created resources is as follows:
psql
from the app's SSH session.Using the autogenerated workflow file from App Service as an example, each git push
kicks off a new build and deployment run. From a local clone of the GitHub repository, you make the desired updates and push to GitHub. For example:
git add .
git commit -m "<some-message>"
git push origin main
How do I debug errors during the GitHub Actions deployment?
If a step fails in the autogenerated GitHub workflow file, try modifying the failed command to generate more verbose output. For example, you can get more output from the python
command by adding the -d
option. Commit and push your changes to trigger another deployment to App Service.
See Set up GitHub Actions deployment from the Deployment Center.
What can I do with GitHub Copilot in my codespace?You might have noticed that the GitHub Copilot chat view was already there for you when you created the codespace. For your convenience, we include the GitHub Copilot chat extension in the container definition (see .devcontainer/devcontainer.json). However, you need a GitHub Copilot account (30-day free trial available).
A few tips for you when you talk to GitHub Copilot:
@workspace
. For more information, see Use the @workspace agent.@workspace
) even where to make the changes, but it's not allowed to make the changes for you. It's up to you to add the suggested changes and test it.Advance to the next tutorial to learn how to secure your app with a custom domain and certificate.
Secure with custom domain and certificate
Learn how App Service runs a Python app:
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