Azure Cookbook

Chapter 9. Containers

Many dependencies must be in place so that an application properly works. Configuration files, environment variables, code binaries, libraries, markup, media files, Windows registry settings, databases, and web servers are just a few examples. You must properly configure these dependencies when deploying an application to a new environment. Companies used to (and still do) maintain lengthy deployment documents to make sure that solution dependencies are configured as expected. Containers are here to streamline the application deployment process.

Containers enable you to bundle (contain) your application code and dependencies into a single package called a container image. You will push this image into a container registry service, such as Docker Hub, so that it can later be pulled and run. Containers make application deployment to different environments more consistent. You can create a container image and deploy it to as many environments as you need and be certain that a tested container will continue to work in the next environment.

Microsoft Azure offers services to both host container images and run them. Azure Container Registry (ACR) is a container registry service (similar to Docker Hub) that hosts your container images. You can then pull these container images from ACR and run them in one of the following services:

Azure Container Instances

This easy-to-configure solution runs isolated containers for simple applications.

Azure Kubernetes Service ...