Staging Environments for AI Web Applications on Azure

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To set up staging environments for AI web applications on Azure, we would typically use a combination of Azure services like Azure App Service for hosting the web application, Azure Machine Learning Service (AML) for AI services, and possibly Azure Container Instances or Azure Kubernetes Service if we need to containerize our application.

We'll create a staging environment which includes an instance of an App Service for hosting our AI web application and an instance of Azure Machine Learning workspace for our AI models. We'll also configure these resources with standard settings suitable for a staging environment.

Below is a Pulumi program written in Python to define such an environment on Azure. I'll guide you through the creation of each required resource and explain how they all fit together to form a complete staging environment.

Here's how to set it up:

```python
import pulumi
import pulumi_azure_native as azure_native

# Replace these variables with your own desired names and settings
resource_group_name = 'ai_staging_resource_group'
app_service_plan_name = 'ai_staging_app_service_plan'
app_service_name = 'ai-staging-web-app'
ml_workspace_name = 'ai_staging_ml_workspace'

# Create an Azure Resource Group, which is a logical container into which Azure resources are deployed and managed
resource_group = azure_native.resources.ResourceGroup(resource_group_name)

# Create an Azure App Service Plan, which defines a set of compute resources for a web app to run
app_service_plan = azure_native.web.AppServicePlan(app_service_plan_name,
    resource_group_name=resource_group.name,
    kind="Linux",
    reserved=True, # This is required for Linux plans
    sku=azure_native.web.SkuDescriptionArgs(
        name="B1",
        tier="Basic"
    )
)

# Create an Azure App Service, which allows for hosting of web applications and RESTful APIs
app_service = azure_native.web.WebApp(app_service_name,
    resource_group_name=resource_group.name,
    server_farm_id=app_service_plan.id,
    kind="app",
    site_config=azure_native.web.SiteConfigArgs(
        linux_fx_version="PYTHON|3.7" # Define runtime stack
    )
)

# Create an Azure Machine Learning workspace to host and manage AI models
ml_workspace = azure_native.machinelearningservices.Workspace(ml_workspace_name,
    resource_group_name=resource_group.name,
    sku=azure_native.machinelearningservices.SkuArgs(name="Basic"), # Choose the appropriate SKU for your use case
    location=resource_group.location,
    description="Staging environment for AI web application"
)

# Now output the relevant information for your resources
pulumi.export("resource_group", resource_group.name)
pulumi.export("app_service_url", app_service.default_site_hostname)
pulumi.export("ml_workspace_name", ml_workspace.name)

```

This program will set up a staging environment where you can deploy your AI web application. Here's what each part does:

1. **Resource Group**: This acts as a container for all your Azure resources for easy management. It's a way to group resources for a particular project or stage (e.g., staging).

2. **App Service Plan**: This defines the computing resources your web app will use. Here, I've specified a basic Linux plan, which is suitable for lightweight applications.

3. **App Service**: This is where your application will live. It's a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering that automatically handles the underlying infrastructure and allows you to focus on your web application's development. We've configured it with a Python runtime stack.

4. **ML Workspace**: Azure Machine Learning workspace is a collaborative environment where you can manage, develop, and deploy your machine learning models.

After running this Pulumi program, you will receive outputs of the resource group's name, the web app's URL, and the machine learning workspace name. You can then use these outputs to configure CI/CD pipelines, monitoring, or other integrations you need for your staging environment.

Remember to first authenticate with Azure and set up the Pulumi CLI with the desired configuration and credentials before running this program. Once ready, you can run the pulumi up command to provision the resources outlined in the program.