Upgrading Cloud Service

Question

Hi,

We currently have an Azure Cloud Service with multiple roles/instances running and we are planning to upgrade the software.  Assuming I have uploaded and deployed the new package.  What is the process for getting the current active (running) instance updated?  Is this automatic or do I need to manually perform a "reimage" on each running instance?

Thanks

Answer 1

Updating a role is a big topic to discuss here in details. Check here for details: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/cloud-services-how-to-manage/

Updating a role or an app is generally done via the Azure portal, Visual Studio or through PowerShell. It requires creating *.cspkg and working knowledge of settings/elements in the *.csdef and *.cscfg files.

Nazik

Answer 2

Hey Nazik,

I am already passed the .cspkg and .csdef parts.  What I need to figure out is the portion about updating the active running instance portion.  

Answer 3

Hi Ultragc88,

Once you redeploy the *.cspkg by any of the 3 options the Fabric Controller will automatically deploy this new code to the instance and you don't have to re-image the roles. The deployment will happen Upgrade (interchangeably called Update ) Domain by Upgrade Domain. So if there are 4 Instances spread across 4 Upgrade Domains the new deployment will be done first on the Instances (in this case just Instance_0 ) in the first Upgrade Domain i.e UD 0. Once it is up and send a signal back that it is alive, it will be added back to the Load Balancer and the next set of Instances (in this case Instance_1) in the subsequent UD i.s UD 1 will be taken up for code upgrade. This will continue till all the UDs have been updated with the new *.cspkg. 

One thing I would like to point out is that if you have any configurable values then put them in the *.cscfg and they can be updated right from the portal without requiring a re-deployment. But if it's a code change or any modification to the *.csdef then it needs to be redeployed. 

Let us know if you have any additional questions. 

Regards,

Angshuman Nayak 

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Cloud Integration Engineering