Microsoft announced the general availability of Linux on App Service Environment (ASE), which enables customers to combine the features of App Service on Linux and App Service Environment. This release is a follow up on May's public preview, which allowed customers to deploy Linux and containerized apps in an App Service Environment.
With Linux on ASE, customers can deploy their Linux web applications into an Azure virtual network (VNet) using their containers or code individually on the pre-built image from Microsoft. Customers can bring their containers from DockerHub, Azure Container Registry, or their private registry. Furthermore, Microsoft's pre-built images support programming stacks like Node, PHP, Java, and .NET Core, with more to come.
A Linux web application can reside in an ASE with other Linux, Windows, or containerized web applications. Furthermore, all share the same VNet. However, Windows and Linux web apps have to be in separate App Service Plans. According to the blog post of the GA release with Linux on ASE, customers can use the Isolated SKU with Dv2 VMs and additional scaling capabilities (up to 100 total App Service plan instances, between Windows and Linux, in one ASE).
Starting with Linux Apps on ASE is simple, according to Jennifer Lee, PM on Azure App Service, Microsoft, in the same post on the GA release:
You can create a Linux web app into a new ASE by simply creating a new web app and selecting Linux as the OS (built-in image), selecting Docker (custom container), or creating a new Web App for Containers (custom container). When creating a new App Service Plan, remember to select one of the Isolated SKUs.
When creating an ASE, a customer can be depending on the IP (public or private) for exposing their apps, and can opt for either building:
- An external ASE with an accessible internet endpoint or,
- An internal ASE with a private IP address in the VNet with an internal load balancer (ILB)
Image Source: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/appserviceteam/2018/07/30/linuxasega/
With the support of Linux on ASE, Microsoft continues their adoption of Linux onto their Azure Platform. Customers already can choose Linux-based VMs, have App Services run on Linux, and install Azure IoT Edge on Linux. Furthermore, the support stems from a statement of Satya Nadella back in 2015 when stating "Microsoft loves Linux".
The availability of Linux on ASE since the preview has increased to 20 plus regions around the globe, and the pricing details are available on the pricing page.