Connect to services in Azure Container Apps (preview)

As you develop applications in Azure Container Apps, you often need to connect to different services. Rather than creating services ahead of time and manually connecting them to your container app, you can quickly create instances of development-grade services that are designed for nonproduction environments known as add-ons.

Add-ons allow you to use OSS services without the burden of manual downloads, creation, and configuration. Since add-ons will be retired on September 30, 2025, we recommend you use our new OSS quickstarts if you want to continue using these OSS services for nonproduction environments.

If you're ready for your app to use a production level service, you can connect your application to an Azure managed service.

Migration Guide

As add-ons are being retired, you need to plan how to transition your applications away from this preview feature. Use the following steps help you for either a production level service if you're using open source technologies in a development or testing capacity.

Make sure you prepare for data continuity between your add-on and your new Container App.

Option 1: Transition to Azure managed services

If you're ready for a production level service, follow these steps to transition your add-on to an Azure managed service.

1. Identify add-ons in use. Run the following command to locate all existing add-ons in your environment.

   Before you run the following command, make sure to replace the placeholders surrounded by <> with you values.

   az containerapp add-on list \
     --environment <ENVIRONMENT_NAME> \
     --resource-group <RESOURCE_GROUP>
   

2. Plan data continuity.

   Create a backup or snapshot of your data in the current add-on if applicable.

3. Deploy the new managed service.

   For example, create an Azure Cache for Redis or Azure Database for PostgreSQL instance using the Azure portal or CLI.

4. Create a new container app.

   Create a new app using the Azure portal or CLI.

5. Configure connection settings.

   In your new container app configuration, set the environment variables and network settings to point to your new managed service’s connection string, credentials, and endpoints.

6. Remove the add-on.

   Once the add-on is no longer needed, delete it with the following command.

   Before you run the following command, make sure to replace the placeholders surrounded by <> with you values.

   az containerapp add-on <SERVICE_TYPE> delete \
     --name <ADDON_NAME> \
     --resource-group <RESOURCE-GROUP>
   

Option 2: Use open source quickstart images

If you only need these services for development or testing environments and don't require production-level guarantees, follow these steps to switch to use the open-source quickstart images.

1. Identify add-ons in use. Run the following command to locate all existing add-ons in your environment.

   Before you run the following command, make sure to replace the placeholders surrounded by <> with you values.

   az containerapp add-on list \
     --environment <ENVIRONMENT_NAME> \
     --resource-group <RESOURCE_GROUP>
   

2. Review the supported quickstart images: Redis, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Qdrant, and Kafka.

3. Plan data continuity.

   Create a backup or snapshot of your data in the current add-on if applicable.

4. Create a new Container App using a quickstart image.

5. Remove the add-on.

   Once the add-on is no longer needed, delete it with the following command.

   Before you run the following command, make sure to replace the placeholders surrounded by <> with you values.

   az containerapp add-on <SERVICE_TYPE> delete \
     --name <ADDON_NAME> \
     --resource-group <RESOURCE-GROUP>
   

Add-ons

Services available as an add-on include:

You can get most recent list of add-on services by running the following command:

az containerapp add-on --help

See the section on how to manage a service for usage instructions.

Features

Add-ons come with the following features:

• Scope: The add-on runs in the same environment as the connected container app.
• Scaling: The add-on can scale in to zero when there's no demand for the service.
• Pricing: Add-on billing falls under consumption-based pricing. Billing only happens when instances of the add-on are running.
• Storage: The add-on uses persistent storage to ensure there's no data loss as the add-on scales in to zero.
• Revisions: Anytime you change an add-on, a new revision of your container app is created.

See the service-specific features for managed services.

Binding

Both add-ons and managed services connect to a container via a binding.

The Container Apps runtime binds a container app to a service by:

• Discovering the service
• Extracting networking and connection configuration values
• Injecting configuration and connection information into container app environment variables

Once a binding is established, the container app can read these configuration and connection values from environment variables.

Development vs production

As you move from development to production, you can move from an add-on to a managed service.

The following table shows you which service to use in development, and which service to use in production.

You're responsible for data continuity between development and production environments.

Manage a service

To connect a service to an application, you first need to create the service.

To create a new service, use the az containerapp add-on <SERVICE_TYPE> create command with the service type and name.

az containerapp add-on redis create \
  --name myredis \
  --environment myenv

This command creates a new Redis service called myredis in a Container Apps environment called myenv.

To bind a service to an application, use the --bind argument for containerapp create.

az containerapp create \
  --name myapp \
  --image myimage \
  --bind myredis \
  --environment myenv

This command features the typical Container App create with the --bind argument. The bind argument tells the Container Apps runtime to connect a service to the application.

The --bind argument is available to the create or update commands.

To disconnect a service from an application, use the --unbind argument on the update command

The following example shows you how to unbind a service.

az containerapp update --name myapp --unbind myredis

For a full tutorial on connecting to services, see Connect services in Azure Container Apps.

For more information on the service commands and arguments, see the az containerapp reference.

Limitations

• Add-ons are in public preview.
• Any container app created before May 23, 2023 isn't eligible to use add-ons.
• Add-ons come with minimal guarantees. For instance, they're automatically restarted if they crash, however there's no formal quality of service or high-availability guarantees associated with them. For production workloads, use Azure-managed services.
• If you use your own virtual network (virtual network), you must use a workload profiles environment. The Add-ons feature isn't supported in consumption only environments that use custom virtual networks.

Next steps