Setup checklist
Azure deployment setup guide
This is a one-time checklist to set up your Azure account and give me the access I need to deploy your app. Most people finish in well under an hour, and we can do any of it together on a call.
You don't need GitHub, coding tools, or any technical setup of your own, just your project files and an Azure account. Doing every step in one go means I'll have everything from day one, so we can go straight to building without stopping to request more access later.
Before you start: be the person who creates the Azure account, so you're the Owner. That's what lets you grant access in step 4. When you add billing, choose Pay-As-You-Go rather than free credits only. Free credits come with a spending limit that stops your app the moment it is reached.
Stuck on anything? Don't worry about getting it perfect. Message me and we'll walk through it on a quick call.
The checklist
- Create your Azure account
- Send me your account details
- Invite me as a user
- Grant me access (three role assignments)
- Share your app's source code
1. Create your Azure account
- Go to azure.com and choose Start free (or Sign up).
- Sign up with a work or personal email. This creates your account and a new Azure environment that you own, so you'll be the administrator of everything.
- When prompted, add a payment method and choose Pay-As-You-Go. You only pay for what your app uses, and I'll size everything to keep costs low and predictable.
2. Send me your account details
Your subscription is the account everything your app uses gets created in, and the one Microsoft bills. I need a couple of IDs from it to get started.
- In the Azure Portal, search for Subscriptions and open yours.
- Copy the Subscription ID and the Tenant ID (also shown as Directory ID) from that page.
- Reply to me with both, plus a preferred region if you have one (e.g. East US 2). No preference? I'll pick the best one for you.
3. Invite me as a user
This adds me to your Azure account so you can assign me access in the next step.
- In the Portal, search for Microsoft Entra ID and open it.
- Go to Users → New user → Invite external user.
- Enter my email, willpickeral@williambelle.co, and send the invite.
I'll accept it, and from then on I appear as a user you can grant roles to.
4. Grant me access
There are three role assignments to make, in two places in your account. Assign each one to me (willpickeral@williambelle.co).
You don't need to grant Owner or full admin. The three roles below are the least access needed to do the work, nothing more.
a. On your subscription. Go to Subscriptions → your subscription → Access control (IAM) → Add → Add role assignment. Add both of these (type the exact name into the search box to find each one):
| Role | Why it's needed |
|---|---|
Contributor |
Create and manage all the Azure resources your app needs. |
User Access Administrator |
Lets me give your app its own identity, so it can fetch its passwords from a locked store rather than having them written into the code. Contributor alone cannot do this, so both are needed. |
b. In Microsoft Entra ID. Go to Microsoft Entra ID → Roles and administrators, find the role below, and assign it to me:
| Role | Why it's needed |
|---|---|
Application Administrator |
Lets me create the sign-in identities your app and its automatic releases use. This one lives in Entra ID, separate from the two above. |
That's everything you grant, and it stays in your control. I set up the rest myself (the record of what has been set up so far, and the automation that puts updates live). Every role above is granted to my account and remains yours to manage: remove any of it at any time, and at the end of the project revoke all of it in a couple of clicks from the same screens you used to grant it. Your running app and infrastructure are unaffected, and I only hold access while actively working on your project.
5. Share your app's source code
Send me your project files however you have them today: a zipped folder, an export from the tool you built it in, or a shared-drive link all work. You don't need to put it in GitHub or any version control first; I'll set up your code repository as part of the deployment, so from then on it is stored safely, keeps a history of every change, and updates go live automatically.
What happens next
Once these steps are done, send me a message. I'll confirm I can reach everything, then start your deployment: I build your infrastructure, set up your code repository and automated deployment pipeline, and deploy your app to production. At go-live you'll receive a complete written handover covering how everything works and how to manage it.