---
title: Deploying Azure projects to Cloud Services
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

After you have [prepared the cloud environment](https://docs.kentico.com/k10/running-kentico-on-microsoft-azure/running-kentico-in-azure-cloud-services/preparing-the-azure-cloud-environment.md), [installed an Azure project](https://docs.kentico.com/k10/running-kentico-on-microsoft-azure/running-kentico-in-azure-cloud-services/installing-kentico-azure-projects.md) and [configured the project](https://docs.kentico.com/k10/running-kentico-on-microsoft-azure/running-kentico-in-azure-cloud-services/configuring-kentico-azure-projects-for-cloud-services.md), you can proceed to deploying your project to the Azure Cloud Services.

To deploy an Azure project to the cloud, publish the project directly from Visual Studio to Microsoft Azure Cloud Services.

## Deploying the Azure project from Visual Studio to Microsoft Azure

Deploying an Azure project from Visual Studio is a recommended practice. This procedure consists of two parts.

### Importing a credentials file

1. Open your Azure project in Visual Studio.
2. Right-click the **CMSAzure** project in the Solution Explorer and select **Publish**.
3. Click the **Sign in** button.
4. Sign in to the Azure Management Portal and download the credentials file.
   - The download should start automatically. If not, switch to the **Certificates** tab, click **Import...** and click **Download subscription file**.
5. Click **Import...** and select the downloaded file.
6. Click **Next**.

### Configuring the deployment

1. Select the **cloud service** you have created (according to the instructions in [Preparing the cloud environment](https://docs.kentico.com/k10/running-kentico-on-microsoft-azure/running-kentico-in-azure-cloud-services/preparing-the-azure-cloud-environment.md#creating-a-microsoft-azure-cloud-service)).
2. Choose the **Environment**:
   - Production - live environment.
   - Staging - environment designed for testing the deployed project before promoting it to the production environment. You can swap the production and staging environments easily.
3. Select the **Build configuration**:
   - Debug - includes debugging information.
   - Release - includes code optimizations and is better suited for live environment.
4. Select **Cloud** in the Service configuration drop-down list.
5. Check **Enable Remote Desktop for all roles**.
6. Specify the credentials for connecting to the remote desktop.
7. \[optional] Check **Enable Web Deploy for all web roles (requires Remote Desktop)**.
   - After you publish your project, this option will allow you to publish changes for the web role directly without having to package or publish the whole project again. See [Web Deploy](https://docs.kentico.com/k10/running-kentico-on-microsoft-azure/running-kentico-in-azure-cloud-services/developing-kentico-azure-projects-locally.md#web-deploy) for instructions.

     > **Warning:** Use Web Deploy only for **development and testing purposes** and only if you use **one web role**.

     ![Configuring the settings for publishing an Azure project](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k10/deploying-azure-projects-to-cloud-services/Azure_publish_settings.png "Configuring the settings for publishing an Azure project")
8. Click **Next** and check the summary.
9. Click **Publish**.

Visual Studio packages your project and uploads the package to the selected Cloud Service. This may take some time (about half an hour).

Continue to [Installing the database for Azure projects](https://docs.kentico.com/k10/running-kentico-on-microsoft-azure/running-kentico-in-azure-cloud-services/installing-the-database-for-azure-projects.md).