Can Classic ASP pages run in Azure?

Question

I'm looking into Azure and unsure if Classic ASP (i.e. ASP 3.0 with .ASP extensions) can run in Azure?

I found this blog post from January 2009 indicating Classic ASP can NOT be run in Azure. But on this interoperability page it looks like now, other platforms like PHP can be run on Azure. I still see no mention of Classic ASP though.

Can Classic ASP pages run in Azure?

Answer 1

Not yet, but as soon as the new "virtual machine role" becomes available, you'll be able to configure your own virtual server(s) to support classic ASP. No timeline given AFAIK, but "soon" has been mentioned.

These servers will run on the Azure hardware, but they won't run the Azure Guest OS 1.x, so you cannot easily use Azure features like Storage or AppFabric... then again, you might not want to from a classic ASP environment :-)

EDIT: at the time of asking my answer was correct (there was no full IIS available), but a lot has changed, so the answer in 2012 would definitely be "yes", as detailed below.

Answer 2

Yes, the instructions for enabling it are here:

http://coderead.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/running-classic-asp-on-azure/

Answer 3

Check this out - http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Cloud+Cover/Cloud-Cover-Episode-31-Startup-Tasks-Elevated-Privileges-and-Classic-ASP, at about 15 minutes in they tell you how to run Classic Asp in Azure

The actual startup command is at 23:51 within the video.

I've tried replicating the code that they have on the show but I get an error - "CloudServices64 : Cannot find file named 'approot\bin\startup.cmd'" for startup task startup.cmd when I try to build the project. Hopefully its just me and you'll have better luck.

To solve the error "CloudService...." - have a look at http://207.46.16.248/en-us/library/gg456327.aspx It tells you that you need set the properties on the file to "copy to output directory" to always

Answer 4

Nope. You can attempt to get around recoding your ASP pages with something like the ASP Classic Compiler.