Create a new or select an existing project

RECOMMENDATION: To increase performance, we recommend that you locate your hosted service, storage account, and database server in the same data center.

1. Log into the Management Portal.
2. Create a hosted service.
3. In the Deployment options, select Do not deploy.
4. If you do not want to use an existing database server, you must create one.
   For more information, see Windows Azure SQL Database : How to create Windows Azure SQL Database.
5. If you do not have an existing storage account, we recommend that you create one.
   For more information, see How to Create a Storage Account.

   The storage account is optional and is used for the following purposes:

   • Logging 
     Sitefinity CMS redirects its logs (which on-premises are written as files under ~/App_Data/Sitefinity/Logs folder) to the Azure Diagnostics (WAD) trace listener that writes them as table entries in the specified account’s table storage - in a table named WADLogsTable. To view the content of the table, you can use Visual Studio’s Server Explorer or a third-party tool, such as Azure Storage Explorer.
   • Sitefinity CMS library storage
     For more information, see Storage providers for libraries.

PREREQUISITES: Before you deploy your project, you must create an Azure cloud services account. For more information, see How to create and deploy a cloud service.

You can deploy an already existing project or create a new project locally and then deploy it.

1. Open Sitefinity CMS Project Manager.
2. Create a new project or select one of your existing projects.
   For more information about creating a new project, see Create a project and Configure and start a project.

   NOTE: When you configure the new project, on the database configuration screen, select Microsoft SQL Server to work locally. Later, you will migrate the local database to Azure SQL.

   If your existing project is not in the Project Manager, you must add it. For more information, see Work with Sitefinity CMS Project Manager.

3. Select your project in the Project Manager and click Edit in Visual Studio button in the toolbar.
   Microsoft Visual Studio opens.

   RECOMMENDATION: Before proceeding further, we recommend you to remove the project from the Project Manager or the IIS, because after the DataConfig.config is changed (as described below) using the website locally will actually modify your production Azure SQL database.