Azure SQL EF Core Client integration reference

To get started with the Aspire Azure SQL EF Core integrations, follow the Get started with Azure SQL integrations guide.

This article includes full details about the Aspire Azure SQL EF Core Client integration, which allows you to connect to and interact with Azure SQL databases from your Aspire consuming projects using Entity Framework Core.

Installation

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

Nota

To use this code, you must create a DbContext class called ExampleDbContext in your project. This class defines your database schema using EF Core. For more information on creating and configuring a DbContext, see DbContext Lifetime, Configuration, and Initialization in the EF Core documentation.

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.

Properties of the Azure SQL resources

When you use the WithReference method to pass an Azure SQL server or database resource from the AppHost project to a consuming client project, several properties are available to use in the consuming project.

Aspire exposes each property as an environment variable named [RESOURCE]_[PROPERTY]. For instance, the Uri property of a resource called sqldb becomes SQLDB_URI.

Azure SQL server resource

The Azure SQL server resource exposes the following connection properties:

Property Name	Description
Host	The hostname or IP address of the Azure SQL Server
Port	The port number the SQL Server is listening on
Username	The username for authentication
Password	The password for authentication
Uri	The connection URI in mssql:// format, with the format mssql://{Username}:{Password}@{Host}:{Port}
JdbcConnectionString	JDBC-format connection string, with the format jdbc:sqlserver://{Host}:{Port};trustServerCertificate=true. User and password credentials are provided as separate Username and Password properties.

Example connection strings:

Uri: mssql://sa:p%40ssw0rd1@myserver.database.windows.net:1433
JdbcConnectionString: jdbc:sqlserver://myserver.database.windows.net:1433;trustServerCertificate=true

Azure SQL database resource

The Azure SQL database resource inherits all properties from its parent AzureSqlServerResource and adds:

Property Name	Description
Uri	The connection URI in mssql:// format, with the format mssql://{Username}:{Password}@{Host}:{Port}/{DatabaseName}
JdbcConnectionString	JDBC connection string with database name, with the format jdbc:sqlserver://{Host}:{Port};trustServerCertificate=true;databaseName={DatabaseName}. User and password credentials are provided as separate Username and Password properties.
DatabaseName	The name of the database

Example connection strings:

Uri: mssql://sa:p%40ssw0rd1@myserver.database.windows.net:1433/catalog
JdbcConnectionString: jdbc:sqlserver://myserver.database.windows.net:1433;trustServerCertificate=true;databaseName=catalog

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