Configuring Continuous Build and Continuous Delivery with VSTS for Azure Web Apps

Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) is Microsoft’s cloud‑based software team project management service that supports agile, Kanban, and DevOps practices, offering features such as agile management, Git/TFVC version control, package management, CI, CD, and test management.

When using VSTS for version control, you can configure Continuous Build and Continuous Release inside VSTS so that a web project can be automatically built and deployed to an Azure Web App, with many tasks available once the relevant properties are set.

For users unfamiliar with VSTS, some time is required to learn how to configure these tasks, especially the Release part where a Service Endpoint must be linked to Azure; the accounts used for Azure and VSTS need to match for the feature to work.

If the Azure Web App and VSTS accounts are the same, you can enable Continuous Delivery directly from the Azure Web App properties, which will handle the CI/CD setup automatically.

Start setting Continuous Delivery

In the Azure Web App Deployment blade you will see the Continuous Delivery option. Because it is still in preview, some features may be limited, but the basic .NET web setup works fine. Click the Config button to begin configuring Build & Release.

The overall setup follows the Source → Build → Test → Release cycle, which mirrors the VSTS workflow. If you have previously configured this flow in VSTS, the steps will be familiar; otherwise the guide walks you through each step.

Set Source

Project: the VSTS project

Repository: the code location in VSTS

Branch: the branch to deploy

Set Build

Select the project framework; currently only ASP.NET and ASP.NET Core are supported. After configuration VSTS will generate a build pipeline that includes all necessary tasks.

Typical MSBuild arguments used in the build task are:

/p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:PackageLocation="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)\"

You can modify or add tasks to suit your project’s needs. For non‑.NET projects such as PHP, the generated tasks may not be appropriate and could cause build failures, requiring manual adjustments.

Set Test & Deploy

Enable Loading Test if needed, and turn on the Deploy section to automatically configure the Deploy Task in VSTS Release.

The Azure App Service Deploy Service Endpoint is pre‑configured and linked to the build, enabling full CI & CD. For finer‑grained control you can still adjust the pipeline directly in VSTS.

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