To continue my extensive collection of Google Tag Manager\u2019s<\/a> server-side tagging articles<\/a>, in this guide I\u2019ll walk you through how to set up a Server container in Microsoft Azure\u2019s App Service<\/a> platform.<\/p>\n For my previous guides on manually provisioning a Server container, follow these links:<\/p>\n Azure\u2019s App Service is similar to AWS Elastic Beanstalk and GCP App Engine, in that it lets you create a web application from scratch with minimal effort.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Out of these three competitors, I found Azure\u2019s setup to be the smoothest and the fastest. It\u2019s probably not the cheapest<\/strong>, and there are some roadblocks related to securing your tagging domains behind HTTPS<\/strong> (more on this later), but other than that it\u2019s a very pleasant ride.<\/p>\n \n \n Subscribe to the Simmer newsletter<\/a> to get the latest news and content from Simo Ahava into your email inbox!\n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The prerequisites are similar to the other cloud stacks:<\/p>\n If you recall from previous guides, a Google Tag Manager server-side tagging setup comprises two<\/strong> servers:<\/p>\n I will not<\/em> be instructing you on how to integrate the BigQuery API<\/a> \u2013\u00a0you can follow the official documentation<\/a> for details on how to add service account credentials to your Azure service.<\/p>\n In this guide, I\u2019ll walk you through the setup as a completely new user, so that you can follow the flow if you\u2019ve never tried Azure before. If you already are<\/em> an established Azure user, you can skip to the beginning of the actual setup.<\/p>\n Browse to https:\/\/portal.azure.com\/<\/strong><\/a>. You need to log in with a Microsoft<\/strong> account.<\/p>\n If necessary, follow the prompts to create a new Microsoft account with the email address of your choice.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you\u2019re a new Azure user, you can start with the free trial, which gives you $200<\/strong> credit to your billing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you click through to the free trial, you need to input some information to create your new Azure account.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n After the credit runs out or you use the services paste the first 30 days<\/strong>, Azure will prompt you if you want to continue with pay-as-you-go<\/strong>, so that you\u2019ll only pay for the actual services you use (beyond the free tiers).<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to also provide your credit card information<\/strong> for identity verification. Azure will also use this card for billing you for services when necessary.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019re done inputting the credit card information, click Sign up<\/strong> to finally create the account.<\/p>\n In Azure, the hierarchy of management is this:<\/p>\n Management groups<\/strong> let you group together subscriptions<\/strong> to manage access, policy, and compliance across subscriptions. In this guide, we\u2019ll use the default Root<\/strong> management group.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Subscriptions<\/strong> associate users with the resources<\/strong> they create. With subscriptions, you can set budgets and policies that cover the resources you create in the subscription. A subscription should have been automatically created for you when you set up your Azure account.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Resource groups<\/strong> group resources<\/strong> (d\u2019oh) that have a similar purpose. In this guide, we\u2019ll create a single resource group to contain all the resources we create for the server-side tagging setup.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Resources<\/strong> are the individual cloud components you work with while in Azure. We\u2019re going to create a bunch of resources as we walk through the steps of this guide.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n When you created the Azure account, a new subscription was automatically created for you, typically named To find it, type <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n You might need to uncheck the \u201cShow only subscriptions selected in the global subscriptions filter\u201d option to see your subscription listed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you don\u2019t have any subscriptions listed, you can click + Add<\/strong> to create a new one. Just follow the prompts and you\u2019ll be fine.<\/p>\n If you click to open the subscription in the list, you can rename it, check its billing, and\/or set cost alerts and budgets!<\/p>\n Note! You could<\/em> simply go ahead and directly create a new App Service<\/strong> resource and a resource group would be automatically generated for you. But I like a more methodological approach, which is why I want to create all the assets manually.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Type Here, click the + Create<\/strong> button to start creating a new resource group.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the creation process, the three selections you need to make are:<\/p>\n For more details about region selection, see this page<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what I selected:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Once finished configuring, click Review + create<\/strong> in the bottom bar.<\/p>\n Once validation passes, click Create<\/strong> in the bottom bar.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n You should see your new resource group listed in the dashboard:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The first thing we\u2019ll create is the Preview<\/strong> server.<\/p>\n This is an HTTP endpoint to which the tagging<\/em> server forwards all requests that need to be exposed in preview mode. The main requirement is that it\u2019s behind HTTPS<\/strong>. It does not<\/em> need to reside on a custom domain, and you can just use the default domain that Azure provides (which is, conveniently, automatically accessible through HTTPS).<\/p>\n To create the server, type In the dashboard, click + Create<\/strong> to create a new App Service.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The first thing to do in the creation flow is to select your subscription<\/strong> and resource group<\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Next, give the Preview server a name<\/strong>. This will become the subdomain under Select Docker Container<\/strong> as the publish option. Keep Linux<\/strong> checked for the operating system.<\/p>\n Select the App Service region<\/strong> you want to use \u2013\u00a0might make sense to select the same one you configured for the resource group earlier.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Finally, click Create new<\/strong> for the Linux Plan<\/strong> option. Give the plan a name \u2013\u00a0you can just use the same name you gave to the instance previously.<\/p>\n For Sku and size<\/strong>, click Change size<\/strong>. Under Dev \/ Test<\/strong>, choose B1<\/strong> (one of the lowest specs).<\/p>\n We can choose a flimsy spec like this because the Preview server is only used occasionally and does not need to be that responsive. F1<\/strong> might be tempting, but the lack of compute minutes will really make it difficult to use Preview mode for longer stretches.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n This is what App Service Plan<\/strong> should look like now:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n When happy, click the Next : Docker ><\/strong> button in the bottom bar to open the Docker tab.<\/p>\n Docker is a technology that uses containers<\/em> to provide all-inclusive application setups. For example, the entire Google Tag Manager server-side tagging infrastructure is handily available in a public Docker container, which you can configure with just a few environment variables (more on these in a bit).<\/p>\n In the Docker tab, keep Options<\/strong> as it is (\u201cSingle Container\u201d), but choose Docker Hub<\/strong> as the Image source.<\/p>\n Keep Access Type<\/strong> as Public, and past the following container URI into the Image and tag<\/strong> field:<\/p>\n This is the public URL to the server-side GTM Docker container.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what your settings should look like:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Now, you can click the Review + create<\/strong> button in the bottom bar. Review your configuration, and then click Create<\/strong> in the bottom bar to create the Preview server!<\/p>\n It will take a while for the service to deploy. Once it\u2019s done, the dashboard should have a button Go to resource<\/strong>, so click that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n If, for some reason, you can\u2019t see this button or you close the tab, you can always find your server by typing The next thing we need to do is configure some environment variables<\/em>, known as Application settings<\/strong> in Azure. These establish certain conditions for the Docker container.<\/p>\n Click Configuration<\/strong> in the navigation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n You\u2019re going to be adding two<\/strong> new Application settings here. The first instructs the service that this particular server is the Preview server<\/strong>. The second instructs the service to which Google Tag Manager server container<\/strong> this server should be linked.<\/p>\n Click + New application setting<\/strong>.<\/p>\n For Name<\/strong>, type <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Click OK<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Click + New application setting<\/strong> to add another environment variable.<\/p>\n For Name<\/strong>, type For Value<\/strong>, open the Server container<\/strong> you\u2019ve created in the Google Tag Manager<\/strong> user interface<\/a>.<\/p>\n Click the Container ID in the top bar to open the container information overlay.<\/p>\n![\"Server-side](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/server-side-gtm-azure.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n
\n X<\/span><\/p>\n
\n The Simmer Newsletter<\/strong>\n <\/p>\nWhat you\u2019ll need<\/h2>\n
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Step 1: Create a new Azure account<\/h2>\n
![\"Sign](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/sign-in-azure.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"Azure](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/azure-free-trial.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"Sign](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/free-trial.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nAzure hierarchy<\/h2>\n
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Azure subscription 1<\/code>.<\/p>\nsubscriptions<\/code> into the search bar in the top, and click the link to Subscriptions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n![\"Subscriptions\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/subscriptions.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"Azure](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/azure-subscription-1.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nStep 2: Create a new Resource Group<\/h2>\n
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resource groups<\/code> in the search bar and click the corresponding icon to open the Resource groups<\/strong> dashboard.<\/p>\n![\"Create](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/create-resource-group.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n\n
Azure subscription 1<\/code> or whatever subscription you want to use.<\/li>\ngtm-server-side-tagging<\/code>).<\/li>\n![\"Resource](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/resource-group-options.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"Create](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/create-group.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"Resource](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/resource-group-done.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nStep 3: Create the Preview server<\/h2>\n
Create the App Service<\/h3>\n
app services<\/code> into the search bar and click the App Services<\/strong> link.<\/p>\n![\"Create](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/create-app-service.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nConfigure the instance<\/h3>\n
![\"Select](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/select-subscription-and-resource-group.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nazurewebsites.net<\/code> you\u2019ll use to access the server.<\/p>\n![\"Instance](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/instance-details.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n\n
![\"Select](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/select-b1.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"App](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/app-service-plan.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nConfigure the Docker container<\/h3>\n
gcr.io\/cloud-tagging-10302018\/gtm-cloud-image:stable<\/code><\/p>\n![\"Docker](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/docker-tab.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nConfigure Application Settings<\/h3>\n
![\"Go](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/go-to-resource.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n\n
app services<\/code> in the Azure search bar, clicking over to App Services, and then selecting the Preview server service from the list.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n![\"Preview](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/preview-configuration.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nRUN_AS_PREVIEW_SERVER<\/code>. For Value<\/strong>, type true<\/code>.<\/p>\n![\"Run](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/run-as-preview-server.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\nCONTAINER_CONFIG<\/code>.<\/p>\n
![\"Container](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/container-id.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n![\"Copy](\"https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/images\/2021\/11\/copy-container-config.jpg#ZgotmplZ\")
<\/p>\n