Getting started - Get your Azure account ready

Azure deployment setup guide

This is a one-time checklist to set up your Azure account and give me the access I need to deploy your app. Most people finish in well under an hour, and I can walk you through any of it on a call.

You don't need GitHub, coding tools, or any technical setup of your own, only your project files and an Azure account. Do every step now and I'll have everything from day one, rather than stopping to request more access later.

Before you start: be the person who creates the Azure account, so you're the Owner. That's what lets you grant access in step 4. When you add billing, choose Pay-As-You-Go rather than free credits only. Free credits come with a spending limit that stops your app the moment it is reached.

Stuck on anything? Don't worry about getting it perfect. Message me and I'll walk you through it on a call.

The checklist

1. Create your Azure account
2. Send me your account details
3. Invite me as a user
4. Grant me access (three role assignments)
5. Share your app's source code
6. Take the access back when the project ends

1. Create your Azure account

1. Go to azure.com and choose Start free (or Sign up).
2. Sign up with a work or personal email. This creates your account and a new Azure environment that you own, so you'll be the administrator of everything.
3. When prompted, add a payment method and choose Pay-As-You-Go. You only pay for what your app uses, and I'll size everything to keep costs low and predictable.

2. Send me your account details

Your subscription is the account everything your app uses gets created in, and the one Microsoft bills. I need a couple of IDs from it to get started.

1. In the Azure Portal, search for Subscriptions and open yours.
2. Copy the Subscription ID and the Tenant ID (also shown as Directory ID) from that page.
3. Reply to me with both, plus a preferred region if you have one (e.g. East US 2). No preference? I'll pick the best one for you.

3. Invite me as a user

This adds me to your Azure account so you can assign me access in the next step.

1. In the Portal, search for Microsoft Entra ID and open it.
2. Go to Users → New user → Invite external user.
3. Enter my email, willpickeral@williambelle.co, and send the invite.

I'll accept it, and from then on I appear as a user you can grant roles to.

4. Grant me access

There are three role assignments to make, in two places in your account. Assign each one to me (willpickeral@williambelle.co).

This is broad access, and it should be. Together these roles let me build and change anything in your subscription and create sign-in identities in your directory. That is what deploying an application takes: I am creating your database, your servers and the identities they use to reach each other. Each role below says what it is for, you can remove any of them at any time, and step 6 is how you take them all back at the end.

a. On your subscription. Go to Subscriptions → your subscription → Access control (IAM) → Add → Add role assignment. Add both of these (type the exact name into the search box to find each one):

Already using Azure for something else? Then don't grant these on the whole subscription. Create an empty resource group for this app first (Resource groups → Create), and make both assignments on that group instead, from its own Access control (IAM) screen. My access stops at its edge, and everything else you run stays out of reach. Tell me the name you gave it. One thing to expect: the first deployment into a subscription has to switch on the services it uses, which is a subscription-level action, so I may come back once asking you to click through that.

b. In Microsoft Entra ID. Go to Microsoft Entra ID → Roles and administrators, find the role below, and assign it to me:

This one is temporary. Those identities are created once, near the start. After that I don't need this role day to day, so remove it whenever you like and I'll ask if a later change needs it back. If a step turns out to need more than this role allows, I'll tell you what and why rather than asking for a bigger one up front.

5. Share your app's source code

Send me your project files however you have them today: a zipped folder, an export from the tool you built it in, or a shared-drive link. You don't need to put it in GitHub or any version control first. I'll set up your code repository as part of the deployment, so from then on it is stored safely, keeps a history of every change, and updates go live automatically.

6. Take the access back when the project ends

Do this at handover, or any time you want to. Your running app and infrastructure are unaffected: they hold their own identities and keep working without me.

1. Subscriptions → your subscription → Access control (IAM) → Role assignments. Find my two assignments and remove both.
2. Microsoft Entra ID → Roles and administrators → Application Developer. Remove me, if it is still assigned.
3. Microsoft Entra ID → Users. Delete my guest account.

I'll remind you at handover, and I'd rather you did it than took my word for it. If you need me again later, granting the roles a second time takes a few minutes.

Keeping me on for ongoing work? Then leave the roles in place, and check them once a year against this list. Access nobody revisits is the kind an auditor asks about.

What happens next

Once these steps are done, send me a message. I'll confirm I can reach everything, then start your deployment: I build your infrastructure, set up your code repository and automated releases, and deploy your app to production. At go-live you'll receive a complete written handover covering how everything works and how to manage it.