Introduction of Azure Function, Types and Deployment

Azure Function

Azure Functions is the serverless computing service hosted on the Microsoft Azure public cloud.

Serverless computing is a very popular term. In most of the cloud technical sessions and the conference, you will hear this term.

In Serverless, you will still write your server-side logic but, unlike traditional architectures, it’s run in stateless compute containers that are event-triggered.

You use Azure Functions to host small applications, like background jobs or small tasks that only runs for a short period. Just like the Logic Apps, Azure Functions are serverless as they scale automatically and you only pay for them when they run. Its Pay as you go.

Similar Technologies

AWS Lambda
Google Cloud Functions
Open Whisk (IBM)

How Azure Function Works

Below are the prerequisite before creating Azure Function

Active Azure subscription 

Azure Storage account.

The developer creates a function and the required code will be deployed in the cloud.

Function Types

Azure Functions has predefined templates. There are many function types available. However, we will discuss the most common function types.

HTTPTrigger

It triggers the execution by using an HTTP request. You can call the Azure function through an API client like Postman.

TimeTrigger
We use this trigger when we want to run our function on a specific time interval.

BlobTrigger
We use this trigger when we want the azure function to trigger automatically when any file is being uploaded to storage Blob.

QueueTrigger

We use this trigger when we want the azure function to trigger automatically when an entry is being added to the queue.

ServiceBusTrigger

The Azure function runs automatically by listening to message queues.

Create Azure Function in Visual Studio

For creating the project in the Visual Studio, Go to File -> New ->Project

I'm using Visual Studio 2019. Find the azure function in the Project Type "Cloud"
Make sure you have a cloud component installed in visual studio.

After then It will ask you to select Function type and Storage account. Select the browse in a storage account and connect with your Azure Subscription. Azure function needs storage account as it places its default file in the azure blob.

Here in this example, I've selected Time trigger function. By default its set to 5 minutes. You can change the time interval at any point.

You can implement your logic in the Run method.

Deployment of Azure Function

You can easily deploy your azure function by right click on the project as shown in the snapshot above and click publish button

We have 3 plans available.

Consumption Plan

Azure Functions host is dynamically added and removed based on the number of incoming events. When your function runs, Azure provides all of the necessary computational resources. You don't have to worry about resource management, and you only pay for the time that your code runs.

Premium Plan

When you're using the Premium plan, instances of the Azure Functions host are added and removed based on the number of incoming events just like the Consumption plan.

App Service plan

Run your functions just like your web apps. When you are already using App Service for your other applications, you can run your functions on the same plan at no additional cost.


In my example, I'm selecting a consumption plan. You need to specify your
Function app - Name of your function app.
Subscription - Your azure subscription.
Resource group - Resource groups in Azure is a new approach to group a collection of assets.
Location - Select the global region where you want to create the Azure function.
Azure Storage - Storage to save the files.

Once the published is complete, you can see new App Service and Service plan is being created in the Azure Portal.

When you expand the "demoazurefn", you can see your function there.




Once you run the azure function, you see the log in the screenshot below. It means function ran successfully.

You can also create the azure function in the Azure Portal itself. Please follow below to create the azure function in the portal

Create Azure Function in the Azure portal.

Step 1: Click on the "Create a resource" button and search "function app"

Step 2: Click on the create button on the next page.

Step 3: Select the Function App Name, Resource Group, Storage etc as shown in the snapshot below and click create.

Step 4: Once you press the create, the system will validate all the details and create the function app in the Azure portal.
Step 5: Function app is ready now, and it's empty. You can now add your function in the function app by clicking the + button as shown below.

This is all about the azure function, hope you like it.