Setting Up GitHub Actions for CI/CD with Azure

Why Use GitHub Actions for CI/CD?

Using GitHub Actions for Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) allows you to automatically build, test, and deploy your application every time you push code. This means:

• Faster and more reliable deployments
• Fewer manual steps
• Better collaboration and consistency
• Easy rollback and version tracking

Azure makes it easy to connect your app with GitHub and automate this process using GitHub Actions, a powerful automation tool built into GitHub.

Options for CI/CD with Azure

Azure supports several deployment methods, including:

• GitHub Actions
• Azure DevOps Pipelines
• FTP / ZIP Deploy
• Visual Studio Publish

We’ll use GitHub Actions for its seamless integration and flexibility.

Setting Up CI/CD with GitHub Actions

We’ll go through setup for both:

1. Azure App Service – for web apps (Node.js, Python, .NET, etc.)
2. Azure Static Web Apps – for static sites (HTML, JavaScript, etc.)

Step 1: Prepare Your GitHub Repo
Push your application code to a GitHub repository.

Step 2: Go to Azure Portal
Open your App Service in the Azure Portal.

Step 3: Deployment Center
In the Deployment section, click Deployment Center.

Step 4: Connect to GitHub

1. Choose GitHub as the code source.
2. Authorize access if needed.
3. Select your GitHub repository and choose the branch you want to use as the deployment trigger (e.g., main).

Step 5: Configure GitHub Actions
Azure will auto-generate a GitHub Actions workflow file and commit it to your repo.

Step 6: Deploy Your App
Commit and push any changes to your selected branch — this will trigger the GitHub Actions workflow, build your app, and deploy it to Azure App Service.

Azure Static Web App – Setup Steps

Step 1: Prepare Your GitHub Repo
Ensure your static site (React, Angular, HTML, etc.) is in a GitHub repo and production-ready.

Step 2: Create Static Web App in Azure
Go to Static Web Apps in the Azure Portal and click Create.

Step 3: Connect GitHub

1. Choose GitHub as the deployment source
2. Sign in and select your repository.
3. Choose the branch to act as the trigger for deployment.

Step 4: Set Build Details
Pick your framework and specify folders for build and output (e.g., / and build/ for React apps).

Step 5: Review & Create
Azure will configure GitHub Actions for you. Once set up, any code pushed to the selected branch will automatically build and deploy your static site.

Limits

GitHub Actions gives you 500MB of free storage per repository for workflow logs and build artifacts. For most apps, that’s plenty — but keep an eye on usage if you run frequent or large builds.

Conclusion

Using GitHub Actions with Azure means faster, automated, and repeatable deployments. Whether you’re pushing a full web app or a simple static site, setup takes just minutes — and you’ll never need to manually deploy again.

Just push your code, and your app goes live.