How to scale Azure App Service instance size up or down on a schedule?

Question

On auto scaling of Azure App Service, I only find the below.

This only allows for scaling to more or less instances. It does not allow for scaling to bigger and smaller instances.

I want to schedule an app service instance size between small, medium, and large on a schedule. Is there an API that will allow me to do this?

Thank you much.

jrap jrap · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-12T12:55:09

Due to the lack of a simple solution, I created a one-click deploy to do what you're asking.

https://github.com/jraps20/jrap-AzureVerticalScaling

Overview

My approach uses Azure Automation Runbooks. Via the one-click deploy method you can get fully up and running in a few minutes. The two complementary runbooks (ScaleAppServicePlansUp and ScaleAppServicePlansDown) work together to store, read and modify whichever App Service Plans you choose. The primary target for these runbooks are non-prod environments.

The code is too long to include in this answer, unfortunately (so yes, this will mostly be a link-only answer).

Pseudo Code

Scale Down

Iterate across all Resource Groups (or pass in specific one)
Iterate across all App Service Plans (or pass in specific one)
Iterate across all App Services (identify Tier-specific settings)

During iteration, the current App Service Plan Service Tier is stored in Azure Automation Variables (3 distinct variables for each App Service Plan)

Within each App Service Plan, each App Service is iterated to identify tier-specific settings. Some of these settings include: AlwaysOn, Use32BitWorkerProcess, and ClientCertEnabled. All current settings are stored in Azure Automation Variables.

All App Service Plans are then scaled down to the FREE tier.

Scale Up

Iterate across all Resource Groups (or pass in specific one)
Iterate across all App Service Plans (or pass in specific one)
Iterate across all App Services (identify Tier-specific settings)

During iteration, the original App Service Plan Service Tier is retrieved from Azure Automation Variables (3 distinct variables for each App Service Plan)

Within each App Service Plan, each App Service is iterated and any previously stored tier-specific settings are retrieved.

All App Service Plans are then scaled up to their original tier.
All App Services with tier-specific settings are reapplied to their original values.

Additional Resources

Disclaimer

I became aware of Sam Spoerles technique after completing my work. The benefits of my approach over his are as follows:

One-click deployment to Azure
Generic or specific based on parameters
Uses updated Az modules instead of AzureRm modules
Relies on storage to retain the previous state, via Automation Variables