Roles are nothing servers in layman terms. These servers are managed, load balanced, Platform as a Service virtual machines that work together to achieve a common goal.
There are 3 types of roles in Microsoft Azure:
- Web Role
- Worker Role
- VM Role
Web Role – A web role is basically used to deploy a website, using languages supported by the IIS platform like, PHP, .NET etc. It is configured and customized to run web applications.
Worker Role – A worker role is more like an help to the Web role, it used to execute background processes unlike the Web Role which is used to deploy the website.
VM Role – The VM role is used by a user to schedule tasks and other windows services. This role can be used to customize the machines on which the web and worker role is running.
