[Question]: What is the Easiest Way to Deploy LibraChat to Microsoft Azure (Using a Containerized Approach and Parameter Configuration)

[jeannotdamoiseaux]

What is your question?

What is the easiest way to deploy LibraChat to Microsoft Azure using a containerized approach (e.g., Docker) or a similar method, with configuration managed through a single parameter file? How can this be achieved with minimal setup and integration with Azure services like App Service, Kubernetes Service, or Azure Container Instances (ACI)? The deployment should also support scalability, secure connections, and compatibility with Azure's monitoring and resource management tools.

More Details

I am looking for a simple, straightforward solution to deploy LibraChat to Azure, ideally through a containerized approach. The solution should allow me to define all necessary configuration settings (such as database credentials, storage configurations, and app-specific settings) in a single configuration file. It should also integrate easily with Azure services, ensuring scalability, security (using Azure Key Vault for sensitive data), and compatibility with Azure's monitoring features like Application Insights.

There are some existing resources I have looked at:

• The LibreChat Bicep repo, which provides a basic setup, but it is outdated and lacks sufficient documentation.

• Another repository found at this link also contains an implementation, but it hasn't worked for me so far and needs further adjustments.

These resources might be helpful starting points, but they require updates and improvements to be fully functional.

What is the main subject of your question?

Hosting LibraChat on Microsoft Azure

Screenshots

No response

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[jmaddington]

Getting it running on a VPS with a .env file with docker is painless. I've been running it this way for months.

The difficulty in the other Azure services are the other images that LC depends on. Last I checked, only Kubernetes supported multiple docker images, and that takes a lot of set up. The other options don't support docker-compose, at least not outside of beta, and you'll run into persistent storage issues without a customized deployment.

LC is very lightweight, I run it on a VPS with 2 vCPUs and 8gb RAM behind Cloudflare.

[jeannotdamoiseaux]

Thanks for your response, @jmaddington! I’m curious, how exactly does your setup work? Are you using an Azure App Container to run LibraChat, or are you strictly working outside of Azure?

I’ve already implemented deployment via Azure App Container, but my main challenge lies in setting up the infrastructure-as-code to establish a direct connection with Microsoft Entra (formerly Azure AD). Do you have any insights or advice on how to handle this integration?

[jeannotdamoiseaux]

There is a version available through the Azure Marketplace. However, that this version currently lacks support for Microsoft Entra integration

[jmaddington]

We have an Azure Virtual Machine setup with Docker running on it. Setting up Oauth2 login is done through the env file, I'd be glad to share with you what we have over email or DM, it was easier than I anticipated.

We are not likely to go the App Container route because of my experience with a different LOB app. Short version: Azure IAAS doesn't play nicely with multiple services unless you set up Kubernetes, which is overkill. LC requires its main service, mongo and pgvector, as well as local storage unless you use Firebase. App containers local storage is purely ephemeral, so every time you restart you lose an upload files (by design).

Anyway, setting up docker on an Ubuntu VM was painless.

If you figured out the multiples services and ephemeral storage on app containers I'd love to see what you did.

[jeannotdamoiseaux]

I would be very interested and have reached out to you on LinkedIn.

[larryb821]

I looked at azure and decided it wasn’t worth it for me (not an it pro). We host on https://elest.io/open-source/librechat and restricted login via SSO / openid connected to MS entra. Working well so far. Monthly hosting cost is small.