Azure WebRole pre-compilation on Visual Studio 2012 publishes (not via WebDeploy)

Question

I am trying to precompile the WebForms (WebRole) application before publishing it to Azure from Visual Studio 2012. There are several instances, so WebDeploy is not an option.

I have not found any "best practices." Any ideas on how to do this?

EDIT: Is there a way to preload all pages at startup so that domain users need compilation for the first page load / compilation for all pages? In my case, all pages except the login page are behind the form confirmation. Any ideas?

Answer 1

It is quite difficult, but you can do it on stage. First, you create a precompiled website, and then add the specific configuration of Azure ServiceDefiniton.csdef, adding the correct setting. Then use CSPACK.EXE to package the website in cspkg, and you will also get ServiceConfiguration.cscfg. You can now perform an offline deployment to the Windows Azure cloud service.

Check out this publication for step-by-step information: Website designs in Azure web role