AZURE: Can I host NuGet.Server in Azure?

Question

I want to host a nuget.server to share private nuget packages with my dev team.

This link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/hosting-packages/nuget-server

shows me how to build a nuget.server, but it says that it needs to run under IIS.

Can I deploy a nuget.server application to azure instead of running it under IIS?

It looks like Azure artifacts requires using a CI/CD pipeline, but my dev team is not up to using pipelines yet. For now, all applications are manually deployed to production from Visual Studio.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

It looks like Azure artifacts requires using a CI/CD pipeline

That's not correct. Anything that can authenticate to Azure Artifacts can push packages to it, including doing it from your own machine. Similarly, if you want to have a private feed, that's a simple configuration, whereas hosting your own NuGet server means you'll need to implement authentication yourself.

I strongly recommend you use Azure Artifacts instead of hosting your own server, if you already have access to Azure DevOps. They handle scalability/performance, whereas I believe that NuGet.Server has performance problems when there are a large number of packages. Azure DevOps also handles authentication, as previously discussed. I wouldn't be surprised if Azure Artifacts is also cheaper than Azure App Service, although this depends on a lot of things so will depend on your specific usage, making it impossible to make a blanket statement.

If you really want to host your own nuget feed, I can't find docs explicitly saying it, but Azure App Service on a Windows host is IIS. ASP.NET (before Core) only run in IIS, and here are Azure App Service's docs for running ASP.NET (not Core) apps: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/configure-language-dotnet-framework

Answer 2

Yes you can setup private NuGet Server outside Azure DevOps, but need more setting for the purpose of access. Of course, you can use private NuGet Server inside Azure DevOps, you can find it in Azure DevOps - Artifacts - Create Feed.

Please review zivkan's comments about how to setup a private NuGet Server.

You must create service connection in Azure DevOps if you want to access(restore/push) your private NuGet Server outside Azure DevOps.

How to setup NuGet service connection: Azure DevOps - Project Setting - Service Connections - New Service Connection - NuGet

Then you can use added NuGet service connection in your pipeline.