Azure SQL Entity Framework Core integration

Azure SQL is a family of relational database management systems that run in the Azure cloud. The database systems are Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products that enable database administrators to implement highly scalable and available databases without maintaining complex infrastructures themselves. The Aspire Azure SQL Server Hosting integration provides methods to create a new Azure Database server and databases from code in your Aspire AppHost project. In a consuming project, you can use the Aspire SQL Server client integration as you would for any other SQL Server instance.

Hosting integration

The Aspire Azure SQL Database hosting integration models the SQL Server as the AzureSqlServerResource type and SQL databases as the AzureSqlDatabaseResource type. To access these types and APIs for expressing them within your AppHost project, install the 📦 Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Sql NuGet package:

Aspire CLI

Aspire CLI — Tilføj Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Sql-pakke

aspire add azure-sql

Aspire CLI er interaktiv; vælg det passende søgeresultat når du bliver spurgt:

Aspire CLI — Eksempel output

Select an integration to add:

> azure-sql (Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Sql)
> Other results listed as selectable options...

Note

Hvis der kun er ét resultat, vælges det automatisk. Du skal stadig bekræfte versionen.

apphost.cs (C# file-based app)

C# — AppHost.cs

#:package Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Sql@*

PackageReference (*.csproj)

XML — Tilføj Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Sql pakkereference

<PackageReference Include="Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Sql" Version="*" />

Add Azure SQL server resource and database resource

In your AppHost project, call AddAzureSqlServer to add and return an Azure SQL server resource builder. Chain a call to the returned resource builder to AddDatabase, to add an Azure SQL database resource:

C# — AppHost.cs

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var azureSql = builder.AddAzureSqlServer("azuresql")
    .AddDatabase("database");

var myService = builder.AddProject<Projects.MyService>()
    .WithReference(azureSql);

The preceding call to AddAzureSqlServer configures the Azure SQL server resource to be deployed as an Azure SQL Database server.

Bemærk

When you call AddAzureSqlServer, it implicitly calls AddAzureProvisioning—which adds support for generating Azure resources dynamically during app startup. The app must configure the appropriate subscription and location. For more information, see Local provisioning: Configuration.

Connect to an existing Azure SQL server

You might have an existing Azure SQL Database service that you want to connect to. You can chain a call to annotate that your AzureSqlServerResource is an existing resource:

C# — AppHost.cs

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var existingSqlServerName = builder.AddParameter("existingSqlServerName");
var existingSqlServerResourceGroup = builder.AddParameter("existingSqlServerResourceGroup");

var sqlserver = builder.AddAzureSqlServer("sqlserver")
    .AsExisting(existingSqlServerName, existingSqlServerResourceGroup)
    .AddDatabase("database");

builder.AddProject<Projects.ExampleProject>()
    .WithReference(sqlserver);

// After adding all resources, run the app...

For more information on treating Azure SQL resources as existing resources, see Use existing Azure resources.

Run Azure SQL server resource as a container

The Azure SQL Server hosting integration supports running the Azure SQL server as a local container. This is beneficial for situations where you want to run the Azure SQL server locally for development and testing purposes, avoiding the need to provision an Azure resource or connect to an existing Azure SQL server.

To run the Azure SQL server as a container, call the RunAsContainer method:

C# — AppHost.cs

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var azureSql = builder.AddAzureSqlServer("azuresql")
    .RunAsContainer();

var azureSqlData = azureSql.AddDatabase("database");

var exampleProject = builder.AddProject<Projects.ExampleProject>()
    .WithReference(azureSqlData);

The preceding code configures an Azure SQL Database resource to run locally in a container.

Tip

The RunAsContainer method is useful for local development and testing. The API exposes an optional delegate that enables you to customize the underlying SqlServerServerResource configuration. For example, you can add a data volume or data bind mount. For more information, see the Aspire SQL Server hosting integration section.

Client integration

To get started with the Aspire SQL Server Entity Framework Core integration, install the 📦 Aspire.Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer NuGet package in the client-consuming project, that is, the project for the application that uses the SQL Server Entity Framework Core client.

.NET CLI

.NET CLI — Add Aspire.Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer package

dotnet add package Aspire.Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer

Program.cs (C# file-based app)

Program.cs

#:package Aspire.Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer@*

PackageReference (*.csproj)

XML — Add Aspire.Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer package reference

<PackageReference Include="Aspire.Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer" Version="*" />

Add SQL Server database context

In the Program.cs file of your client-consuming project, call the AddSqlServerDbContext extension method on any IHostApplicationBuilder to register a Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.DbContext for use via the dependency injection container. The method takes a connection name parameter.

C# — Program.cs

builder.AddSqlServerDbContext<ExampleDbContext>(
    connectionName: "database");

Tip

The connectionName parameter must match the name used when adding the SQL Server database resource in the AppHost project. In other words, when you call AddDatabase and provide a name of database that same name should be used when calling AddSqlServerDbContext.

To retrieve ExampleDbContext object from a service:

public class ExampleService(ExampleDbContext context)
{
    // Use context...
}

For more information on dependency injection, see .NET dependency injection.

Enrich a SQL Server database context

You may prefer to use the standard Entity Framework method to obtain a database context and add it to the dependency injection container:

C# — Program.cs

builder.Services.AddDbContext<ExampleDbContext>(options =>
    options.UseSqlServer(builder.Configuration.GetConnectionString("database")
        ?? throw new InvalidOperationException("Connection string 'database' not found.")));

Note

The connection string name that you pass to the Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.ConfigurationExtensions.GetConnectionString method must match the name used when adding the SQL server resource in the AppHost project.

You have more flexibility when you create the database context in this way, for example:

• You can reuse existing configuration code for the database context without rewriting it for Aspire.
• You can use Entity Framework Core interceptors to modify database operations.
• You can choose not to use Entity Framework Core context pooling, which may perform better in some circumstances.

If you use this method, you can enhance the database context with Aspire-style retries, health checks, logging, and telemetry features by calling the EnrichSqlServerDbContext method:

C# — Program.cs

builder.EnrichSqlServerDbContext<ExampleDbContext>(
    configureSettings: settings =>
    {
        settings.DisableRetry = false;
        settings.CommandTimeout = 30; // seconds
    });

The settings parameter is an instance of the MicrosoftEntityFrameworkCoreSqlServerSettings class.

Configuration

The Aspire SQL Server Entity Framework Core integration provides multiple configuration approaches and options to meet the requirements and conventions of your project.

Use connection string

When using a connection string from the ConnectionStrings configuration section, you provide the name of the connection string when calling builder.AddSqlServerDbContext<TContext>():

builder.AddSqlServerDbContext<ExampleDbContext>("sql");

The connection string is retrieved from the ConnectionStrings configuration section:

{
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "sql": "Data Source=myserver;Initial Catalog=master"
  }
}

The EnrichSqlServerDbContext won’t make use of the ConnectionStrings configuration section since it expects a DbContext to be registered at the point it’s called.

For more information, see the ConnectionString.

Use configuration providers

The Aspire SQL Server Entity Framework Core integration supports Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration. It loads the MicrosoftEntityFrameworkCoreSqlServerSettings from configuration files such as appsettings.json by using the Aspire:Microsoft:EntityFrameworkCore:SqlServer key. If you have set up your configurations in the Aspire:Microsoft:EntityFrameworkCore:SqlServer section you can just call the method without passing any parameter.

The following is an example of an appsettings.json file that configures some of the available options:

JSON — appsettings.json

{
  "Aspire": {
    "Microsoft": {
      "EntityFrameworkCore": {
        "SqlServer": {
          "ConnectionString": "YOUR_CONNECTIONSTRING",
          "DbContextPooling": true,
          "DisableHealthChecks": true,
          "DisableTracing": true,
          "DisableMetrics": false
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Use inline configurations

You can also pass the Action<MicrosoftEntityFrameworkCoreSqlServerSettings> delegate to set up some or all the options inline, for example to turn off the metrics:

C# — Program.cs

builder.AddSqlServerDbContext<YourDbContext>(
    "sql",
    static settings =>
        settings.DisableMetrics = true);

Configure multiple DbContext connections

If you want to register more than one DbContext with different configuration, you can use $"Aspire.Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer:{typeof(TContext).Name}" configuration section name. The json configuration would look like:

JSON — appsettings.json

{
  "Aspire": {
    "Microsoft": {
      "EntityFrameworkCore": {
          "SqlServer": {
            "ConnectionString": "YOUR_CONNECTIONSTRING",
            "DbContextPooling": true,
            "DisableHealthChecks": true,
            "DisableTracing": true,
            "DisableMetrics": false,
          "AnotherDbContext": {
            "ConnectionString": "AnotherDbContext_CONNECTIONSTRING",
            "DisableTracing": false
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Then calling the AddSqlServerDbContext method with AnotherDbContext type parameter would load the settings from Aspire:Microsoft:EntityFrameworkCore:SqlServer:AnotherDbContext section.

C# — Program.cs

builder.AddSqlServerDbContext<AnotherDbContext>("another-sql");

Configuration options

Here are the configurable options with corresponding default values:

Name	Description
ConnectionString	The connection string of the SQL Server database to connect to.
DbContextPooling	A boolean value that indicates whether the db context will be pooled or explicitly created every time it’s requested
MaxRetryCount	The maximum number of retry attempts. Default value is 6, set it to 0 to disable the retry mechanism.
DisableHealthChecks	A boolean value that indicates whether the database health check is disabled or not.
DisableTracing	A boolean value that indicates whether the OpenTelemetry tracing is disabled or not.
DisableMetrics	A boolean value that indicates whether the OpenTelemetry metrics are disabled or not.
Timeout	The time in seconds to wait for the command to execute.

By default, the Aspire Sql Server Entity Framework Core integration handles the following:

• Adds the DbContextHealthCheck, which calls EF Core’s CanConnectAsync method. The name of the health check is the name of the TContext type.
• Integrates with the /health HTTP endpoint, which specifies all registered health checks must pass for app to be considered ready to accept traffic

Observability and telemetry

Aspire integrations automatically set up Logging, Tracing, and Metrics configurations.

Logging

The Aspire SQL Server Entity Framework Core integration uses the following Log categories:

• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.ChangeTracking
• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database.Command
• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database.Connection
• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Database.Transaction
• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Infrastructure
• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Migrations
• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Model
• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Model.Validation
• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Query
• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Update

Tracing

The Aspire SQL Server Entity Framework Core integration will emit the following Tracing activities using OpenTelemetry:

• OpenTelemetry.Instrumentation.EntityFrameworkCore

Metrics

The Aspire SQL Server Entity Framework Core integration will emit the following metrics using OpenTelemetry:

• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore:
  • ec_Microsoft_EntityFrameworkCore_active_db_contexts
  • ec_Microsoft_EntityFrameworkCore_total_queries
  • ec_Microsoft_EntityFrameworkCore_queries_per_second
  • ec_Microsoft_EntityFrameworkCore_total_save_changes
  • ec_Microsoft_EntityFrameworkCore_save_changes_per_second
  • ec_Microsoft_EntityFrameworkCore_compiled_query_cache_hit_rate
  • ec_Microsoft_Entity_total_execution_strategy_operation_failures
  • ec_Microsoft_E_execution_strategy_operation_failures_per_second
  • ec_Microsoft_EntityFramew_total_optimistic_concurrency_failures
  • ec_Microsoft_EntityF_optimistic_concurrency_failures_per_second