Introduction:

In this article we are going to see how to Stop and Start an Azure Application using the Windows Azure Management Portal.

Overview:

In our earlier articles, we have seen how to create a service, host the application and access it online. In this article we will see how to maintain the application by stopping the application for some downtime and starting it back to online after downtime. Basically using Azure Management Portal is straightforward and easy for a Novice developer or an administrator. Azure Management Portal has the facility to stop and start the service of the application as and when required using some simple button clicks.

Let us see the step by step on how to Start and Stop the application process using the Windows Azure Management Portal.

Steps:

Login to the management portal using the below link

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/

We can see a screen like below. Select the Sign into Management portal at the top right corner

After selecting that sign in to management portal you will be asked for the Username and Password to authenticate the process as shown in the below screen

Once we gave the correct credentials and click on submit button will navigate to the main screen of the portal as shown in the below screen

Now click on the Hosted Services, Storage Account and CDN option in the bottom menu and then select the Hosted Services as shown in the screen below.

Now select the deployed application (f5Debug) as shown in the screen below. Here we can see the options like the environment on which its deployed and the DNS name to access the application etc.

In the top Ribbon Menu we can see the Stop button as highlighted in the screen below. Using this button we can stop the application service. Select the application name which we want to stop and click on the Stop button.

Clicking on the Stop button will stop the application and we can see the progress as highlighted in the screen below.

First it stops the Host service of the instance and we can see the status as shown in the screen below.

Once the complete process is done we can see the status of the application as stopped as shown in the screen below.

Now the application is stopped and available for downtime, any changes and upgradation can be done and to start the application again we can see an option in the top menu Start Button as shown in the screen below.

Clicking on the Start Menu button will start the process and we can see the status of the application as highlighted in the screen below.

First it prepares the instance of the application and initialize the role as shown in the screen below.

Once it prepares the necessary instance it will start the instance and we can see the status as shown in the screen below.

We can see the final status once the complete process is done as shown in the screen below. Now the application is available online again after the downtime. we can see the DNS name at the right corner menu as shown in the screen below. Clicking on the link will open the application online.

Conclusion:

So in this article we have seen on how to stop and start the application for the downtime using the Windows Azure Management Portal.