Posts in 2026

03

MAR

Hot Reloading a File in Azure Container Apps with Zero Down Time

Recently, I developed an ASP.NET Core application that can query a local data file for IP address information. The application is deployed to Azure Container Apps, and the data file is mounted in Azure File Share as a volume for the container. There is another job that will update the data file every day on schedule. The application would not read the entire data file on each request for performance concerns, it would load the data into memory on start up. The blog post will explain how to reload the data on the fly without downtime.

23

FEB

Update Files in Azure File Share on Schedule with Azure Container App Jobs

I have a containerized app that relies on a data file mounted at runtime, an IP lookup API that reads qqwry.dat file. I deploy the App on Azure Container Apps, and use Azure File Share to mount the data directory for the app to use. One problem remains: How to keep the file updated automatically? e.g., to check for updates daily without manual replacing the file on Azure Storage Account. In this post, I will introduce how to use Azure Container Apps Jobs to run a small "updater container" on a schedule. The updater downloads the latest file and writes it into the mounted file share, while the main API container reads the file from the same mount path.

Azure Linux Container

08

FEB

Modernizing My Azure Deployment Script with PowerShell and Bicep

I refactored Moonglade's Azure deployment from a single, all‑in‑one PowerShell script to a PowerShell + Bicep setup. PowerShell now handles orchestration and user input, while Bicep declaratively defines the App Service Plan, Web App, SQL Server, database, firewall rule, and storage account. This keeps the same one-click experience, but makes the infrastructure easier to maintain, review, and reuse.

Azure PowerShell Bicep

05

FEB

Migrating this Blog to Docker on Linux with Azure App Service

This blog runs on my open-source project Moonglade, a blogging platform built with ASP.NET Core and hosted on Azure. Recently, I migrated it from a Windows Server environment to Docker on Linux, still running on Azure App Service. It’s been running smoothly in production for about two months now. In this post, I’ll walk through that migration journey: what I changed, a few tips and tricks along the way, and some lessons learned that might help you if you’re considering a similar move.

.NET Azure App Service Docker Container

05

JAN

Deploying a Remote Chrome Browser with Azure Container Instance

Running a full desktop browser in the cloud and accessing it remotely can be surprisingly useful. You might want a disposable browser for testing and automation, a sandboxed environment isolated from your local machine or a remote browser you can get to from any device with a decent network connection. In this post, I'll walk through how I deployed a remote Chrome browser running in a Docker container on Azure Container Instances, and how I access it from a regular web browser.