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prerenderazure-app-service-plansapplicationhost

applicationHost.xdt in App Service Plan instances


The Issue

I am currently in the process of integrating a pre-rendering service for SEO optimization, however we use an Azure App Service Plan to scale up or down when necessary.

One of the steps for setting up the proper configuration requires placing an applicationHost.xdt file in the /site/ directory, which is one level above the /site/wwwroot directory where the application itself gets deployed to.

What steps should I take in order to have the applicationHost.xdt file persist to new instances spawned by the scaling process?

Steps I have taken to solve the issue

So far I have been Googling a lot, but haven't succeeded in finding a lot of documentation on using an applicationHost.xdt file in combination with an Azure App Service Plan.

I am able to upload the file to an instance manually, however I have assumed that when we then scale up to more instances the manually uploaded file will not be present on the new instance(s).

Etcetera

  • We are using Prerender.io as pre-rendering service.
  • Should there be an easier to set-up & similarly priced service available, we would be open to suggestions as we are in an exploratory phase regarding pre-rendering.

Solution

  • Suppose this won't be a problem, cause all files under azure app are shared between all your instances. You could check it in this Kudu wiki:Persisted files. And in my test all instances will keep the file.

    About upload the applicationHost.xdt, you don't have to do it manually, there is a IIS Manager Site Extension to lets you very easily create XDT files. And it will provide some sample XDT's for you.