Containerize and Deploy a Web Application to Azure Container Apps

Containers package an application together with its runtime, libraries, and configuration into a single portable image that behaves the same on a laptop, a build server, or the cloud. That portability is what finally killed the "works on my machine" problem. A Dockerfile is the recipe for that image: it declares the base runtime, copies in your code, installs dependencies, and defines how the application starts.

Once an image is built it needs somewhere to live and somewhere to run. Azure Container Registry (ACR) is a private, managed registry that stores and secures your images close to where they'll be deployed. Azure Container Apps is a serverless container platform that runs those images without you operating any Kubernetes underneath. It handles scaling, revisions, and public HTTPS ingress for you. Together they form one of the most common paths to production: build an image, push it to ACR, and deploy it to Container Apps behind a public endpoint.

Take a Node.js web app from source to a running, internet-accessible service: write the Dockerfile, build and push the image to ACR, and deploy it to Azure Container Apps with external ingress.

Objectives

By completing this intermediate-level challenge, you will be able to:

• Write a Dockerfile that containerizes a Node.js web application
• Build a container image and push it to Azure Container Registry
• Deploy an image from ACR to Azure Container Apps
• Configure external ingress so the application is reachable over a public URL

Prerequisites

You'll get the most out of this challenge if you're already comfortable with:

• Docker fundamentals and writing Dockerfiles
• Basic Azure CLI usage
• Core container concepts (images, registries, tags)

Recommended Lab: Containerize and Deploy a Multi-Container Application to Azure Container Apps