How do I setup Azure Pipelines to release to Azure App Service with multiple docker containers?

Question

I am in the early stages of a development project -- and trying to nail down the CI/CD pipeline. I am running into some confusion while trying to deploy multiple docker containers into a single Azure App Service. Here is the outline of what I am trying to achieve, with as much detail along the way. Any guidance on where I am going wrong would be very appreciated. I've put checkmarks next to the items I believe I already have configured correctly.

Merge code to the master branch of a Github repository ✔

Have an Azure DevOps Pipeline automatically trigger✔

Build all of my services by running the docker-compose.yml file (this file was autogenerated by Visual Studio), tagging them with the current build id
Push all of the images into my azure container registry
Copy my docker-compose.yml to the artifact staging folder
Publish the artifact staging folder
YML that achieves:

trigger:
- main

pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'

steps:
- task: DockerCompose@0
  inputs:
    containerregistrytype: 'Azure Container Registry'
    azureSubscription: 'MYSUB'
    azureContainerRegistry: 'MYACR'
    dockerComposeFile: '**/docker-compose.yml'
    action: 'Build services'
    additionalImageTags: $(Build.BuildId)
- task: DockerCompose@0
  inputs:
    containerregistrytype: 'Azure Container Registry'
    azureSubscription: 'MYSUB'
    azureContainerRegistry: 'MYACR'
    dockerComposeFile: '**/docker-compose.yml'
    action: 'Push services'
    includeSourceTags: true
    includeLatestTag: true
    additionalImageTags: $(Build.BuildId)
- task: CopyFiles@2
  inputs:
    Contents: '**/docker-compose.yml'
    TargetFolder: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
    OverWrite: true

- task: PublishBuildArtifacts@1
  inputs:
    PathtoPublish: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
    ArtifactName: 'drop'
    publishLocation: 'Container'

docker-compose.yml (names generalized)

version: '3.4'

services:
  service1:
    image: ${DOCKER_REGISTRY-}service1
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: src/PROJECTNAMEHERE/Dockerfile

  api1:
    image: ${DOCKER_REGISTRY-}api1
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: src/PROJECTNAMEHERE/Dockerfile


  service2:
    image: ${DOCKER_REGISTRY-}service2
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: src/PROJECTNAMEHERE/Dockerfile

Have an Azure DevOps Release Pipeline with multiple stages for release to QA/Prod environments ❌

Add a variable to be set at Release Creation for which BuildId (from the pipeline laid out above) I'm looking to target
Add the artifact from above
Have 2 stages, QA and Prod

Each stage simply runs a "Azure Web App on Container Deploy" task

I set "Image name" equal to my 3 services from the ACR

myacrrepo.azurecr.io/service1:$(BuildId)
myacrrepo.azurecr.io/api1:$(BuildId)
myacrrepo.azurecr.io/service2:$(BuildId)

I set "Configuration File" to the docker-compose.yml in the artifact

$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/_david#####.#####/drop/docker-compose.yml

YML for this step

steps:
- task: AzureWebAppContainer@1
  displayName: 'Azure Web App on Container Deploy'
  inputs:
    azureSubscription: 'MYSUB'
    appName: myapname
    containers: |
      myacrrepo.azurecr.io/service1:$(BuildId)
      myacrrepo.azurecr.io/api1:$(BuildId)
      myacrrepo.azurecr.io/service2:$(BuildId)
    multicontainerConfigFile: '$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/_david#####.#####/drop/docker-compose.yml'

When all is said and done, and this release pipeline runs -- my App Service ends up being configured to grab its images from Docker Hub -- and the container images fail to pull because there are no docker hub credentials filled and the image names on my docker-compose.yml file aren't valid (e.g., "${DOCKER_REGISTRY-}api1")

I've never used docker before, so I'm struggling to get through this properly. I've tried to include as much info as possible, if there is something else you'd need please let me know -- again any help is much appreciated.

Is the image in your docker-compose.yml string ${DOCKER_REGISTRY-}service2 or myacrrepo.azurecr.io/service2? Could you check if the images are pushed to your ACR successfully? Could you check if the service principal you used in the azure devops azureSubscription service connection has the ACR pull/push permission? — Levi Lu-MSFT
It is ${DOCKER_REGISTRY-}service2 (this is essentially what was auto generated by visual studio). Yes the images are successfully in my ACR — David G

Charles Xu Charles Xu · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-07T09:17:28

As I know, Azure Web App does not support to use the custom variables in the docker-compose file and only the support options can be used in the docker-compose file. You can see the support options. So you need to use the image option without build and set the image with the real image name such as myacrrepo.azurecr.io/service1:tag. When you use the Azure Container Registry, it's a private registry, so you need to set the credential of the ACR in the appSettings. See the environment variables for ACR.

So the web app for containers task should be like this in the YAML file:

steps:
- task: AzureWebAppContainer@1
  displayName: Azure Web App on Container Deploy
  inputs:
    appName: myapname
    azureSubscription: $(azureSubscription)
    appSettings:
      -DOCKER_REGISTRY_SERVER_USERNAME myacrrepo
      -DOCKER_REGISTRY_SERVER_URL myacrrepo.azurecr.io
      -DOCKER_REGISTRY_SERVER_PASSWORD xxxxxxxx
    multicontainerConfigFile: $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/docker-compose.yaml

How do I setup Azure Pipelines to release to Azure App Service with multiple docker containers?

1 Answers