Installing as Azure App Service

This article will explain how to deploy ManicTime server as Azure App Service using Azure SQL Server as database:

  1. Create two databases on Azure SQL server:

    • ManicTimeCore
    • ManicTimeReports
  2. Make sure you have set firewall rules to allow access to Azure SQL Server from your local machine.

  3. Download latest USB version of ManicTime Server and unzip files to a local machine folder.

  4. Create file ManicTimeServerSettings.json in created folder with following content (set server name, username and password):

{
    "database": {
        "provider": "MsSql",
        "connectionString": "Server=<server name>.database.windows.net; Database=ManicTimeCore; User Id=<username>; Password=<password>;"
    },
    "reporting": {
        "database": {
            "provider": "MsSql",
            "connectionString": "Server=<server name>.database.windows.net; Database=ManicTimeReports; User Id=<username>; Password=<password>;"
        }
    },
    "web": {
        "authentication": {
            "type": "ManicTime"
        }
    }
}
  1. Create ManicTime Server admin user using PowerShell:

    .\ManicTimeServer.exe addadmin -u <admin email> -p <admin password>  
    
  2. Create ManicTime Server ZIP file using PowerShell:

    Compress-Archive -Path * -DestinationPath manictimeserver.zip
    
  3. Create Azure App Service (.NET 6 Runtime stack).

  4. Deploy ManicTime Server Azure App Service using ZIP file deployment. See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/app-service-deploy-zip#deploy-zip-file

Note that data folder which includes logs and user screenshots will be set to D:\home\site\wwwroot\Data and is subject to Azure App Service storage limitations.