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Tutorial: Create an Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server instance with App Services Web App in virtual network

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APPLIES TO: Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server

This tutorial shows you how to create a Azure App Service Web app with Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server inside a Virtual network.

In this tutorial you'll learn how to:

  • Create an Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server instance in a virtual network
  • Create a web app
  • Add the web app to the virtual network
  • Connect to Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server from the web app

Prerequisites

  • If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

  • Install Azure CLI version 2.0 or later locally (or use Azure Cloud Shell which has CLI preinstalled). To see the version installed, run the az --version command.

  • Log in to your account using the az login command. Note the id property from the command output for the corresponding subscription name.

    az login

  • If you have multiple subscriptions, choose the appropriate subscription in which the resource should be billed. Select the specific subscription ID under your account using az account set command.

    az account set --subscription <subscription ID>

Create an Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server instance in a new virtual network

Create a private Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server instance inside a virtual network (VNET) using the following command:

az postgres flexible-server create --resource-group demoresourcegroup --name demoserverpostgres --vnet demoappvnet --location westus2

This command performs the following actions, which may take a few minutes:

  • Create the resource group if it doesn't already exist.
  • Generates a server name if it's not provided.
  • Creates a virtual network and subnet for the Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server instance.
  • Creates admin username and password for your server if not provided.
  • Creates an empty database called postgres.

Here's the sample output.

Creating Resource Group 'demoresourcegroup'...
Creating new Vnet "demoappvnet" in resource group "demoresourcegroup"
Creating new Subnet "Subnetdemoserverpostgres" in resource group "demoresourcegroup"
Creating a private dns zone demoserverpostgres.private.postgres.database.azure.com in resource group "demoresourcegroup"
Creating PostgreSQL Server 'demoserverpostgres' in group 'demoresourcegroup'...
Your server 'demoserverpostgres' is using sku 'Standard_D2s_v3' (Paid Tier). Please refer to https://aka.ms/postgres-pricing for pricing details
Creating PostgreSQL database 'flexibleserverdb'...
Make a note of your password. If you forget, you would have to reset your password with "az postgres flexible-server update -n demoserverpostgres -g demoresourcegroup -p <new-password>".
Try using 'az postgres flexible-server connect' command to test out connection.
{
  "connectionString": "postgresql://generated-username:generated-password@demoserverpostgres.postgres.database.azure.com/postgres?sslmode=require",
  "host": "demoserverpostgres.postgres.database.azure.com",
  "id": "/subscriptions/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/demoresourcegroup/providers/Microsoft.DBforPostgreSQL/flexibleServers/demoserverpostgres",
  "location": "East US",
  "password": "generated-password",
  "resourceGroup": "demoresourcegroup",
  "skuname": "Standard_D2s_v3",
  "subnetId": "/subscriptions/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/demoresourcegroup/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/demoappvnet/subnets/Subnetdemoserverpostgres",
  "username": "generated-username",
  "version": "12"
}

Create a Web App

In this section, you create app host in App Service app, connect this app to the Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server database, then deploy your code to that host. Make sure you're in the repository root of your application code in the terminal. Note Basic Plan doesn't support VNET integration. Use Standard or Premium.

Create an App Service app (the host process) with the az webapp up command.

az webapp up --resource-group demoresourcegroup --location westus2 --plan testappserviceplan --sku P2V2 --name mywebapp

Note

  • For the --location argument, use the same location as you did for the database in the previous section.
  • Replace <app-name> with a unique name across all Azure. Allowed characters for <app-name> are A-Z, 0-9, and -. A good pattern is to use a combination of your company name and an app identifier.

This command performs the following actions, which may take a few minutes:

  • Create the resource group if it doesn't already exist. (In this command you use the same resource group in which you created the database earlier.)
  • Create the App Service app if it doesn't exist.
  • Enable default logging for the app, if not already enabled.
  • Upload the repository using ZIP deployment with build automation enabled.

Create Subnet for Web App

Before enabling VNET integration, you need to have subnet that is delegated to App Service Web App. Before creating the subnet, view the database subnet address to avoid using the same address-prefix for web app subnet.

az network vnet show --resource-group demoresourcegroup -n demoappvnet

Run the following command to create a new subnet in the same virtual network as the Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server instance was created. Update the address-prefix to avoid conflict with the Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server subnet.

az network vnet subnet create --resource-group demoresourcegroup --vnet-name demoappvnet --name webappsubnet  --address-prefixes 10.0.1.0/24  --delegations Microsoft.Web/serverFarms

Add the Web App to the virtual network

Use az webapp vnet-integration command to add a regional virtual network integration to a webapp.

az webapp vnet-integration add --resource-group demoresourcegroup -n  mywebapp --vnet demoappvnet --subnet webappsubnet

Configure environment variables to connect the database

With the code now deployed to App Service, the next step is to connect the app to the Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server instance in Azure. The app code expects to find database information in many environment variables. To set environment variables in App Service, use az webapp config appsettings set command.

  
az webapp config appsettings set  --name mywebapp --settings DBHOST="<postgres-server-name>.postgres.database.azure.com" DBNAME="postgres" DBUSER="<username>" DBPASS="<password>"
  • Replace postgres-server-name,username,password for the newly created Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible server instance command.
  • Replace <username> and <password> with the credentials that the command also generated for you.
  • The resource group and app name are drawn from the cached values in the .azure/config file.
  • The command creates settings named DBHOST, DBNAME, DBUSER*, and DBPASS. If your application code is using a different name for the database information, then use those names for the app settings as mentioned in the code.

Configure the web app to allow all outbound connections from within the virtual network.

az webapp config set --name mywebapp --resource-group demoresourcegroup --generic-configurations '{"vnetRouteAllEnabled": true}'

Clean up resources

Clean up all resources you created in the tutorial using the following command. This command deletes all the resources in this resource group.

az group delete -n demoresourcegroup

Next steps

Map an existing custom DNS name to Azure App Service