Why does change configuration on Azure Cloud Service take so long?

Question

I have an Azure Cloud Service. One of the Web Role contains a configuration which I need to change its value every few days.

Each time when I change the value, Azure takes about 10~15 min to finish the procedure. Which make me quite confusing, since what I've changed is just a configuration value.

So I'm wondering what does Azure do in the background that make it so slow?

Answer 1

See the following documentation: Use the RoleEnvironment.Changing Event

In summary, if your role does not handle the RoleEnvironment.Changing event, the instance is taken offline, the updated configuration value is applied, and then the instance is brought back online

Therefore, you may want to handle this event, and respond to the configuration change so that the instance isn't restarted.