Database migrations with Entity Framework Core sample app

Docs / Reference / Samples / Database migrations with Entity Framework Core sample app

Database migrations with Entity Framework Core sample app

Docs Reference Samples Database migrations with Entity Framework Core sample app

Aspire sample

C# AppHost

Clone, run, and explore this sample

This sample demonstrates how to use Entity Framework Core's migrations feature with Aspire.

C#DatabasesEF CoreMigrationsPostgreSQLSQL Server

View on GitHub Browse all samples

AppHost

The entry point that composes every resource and dependency in this sample's distributed application.

View on GitHub

AppHost.cs

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var sqlserver = builder.AddSqlServer("sqlserver")
    .WithDataVolume()
    .WithLifetime(ContainerLifetime.Persistent);

var db1 = sqlserver.AddDatabase("db1");

var migrationService = builder.AddProject<Projects.DatabaseMigrations_MigrationService>("migration")
    .WithReference(db1)
    .WaitFor(db1);

builder.AddProject<Projects.DatabaseMigrations_ApiService>("api")
    .WithReference(db1)
    .WaitForCompletion(migrationService);

builder.Build().Run();

The sample has three important projects:

• DatabaseMigrations.ApiService - A web app that uses the database.
• DatabaseMigrations.MigrationService - A background worker app that applies migrations when it starts up.
• DatabaseMigrations.ApiModel - The EF Core context and entity types. This project is used by both the API and migration service.

DatabaseMigrations.ApiService and DatabaseMigrations.MigrationService reference a SQL Server resource. During local development the SQL Server resource is launched in a container.

Demonstrates

• How to create migrations in an Aspire solution
• How to apply migrations in an Aspire solution

Sample prerequisites

• Aspire development environment

• This sample is written in C# and targets .NET 10. It requires the .NET 10.0 SDK or later.

• The dotnet ef .NET tool is required. It can be installed by running the following in a terminal:

  dotnet tool install --global dotnet-ef

Create migration

The DatabaseMigrations.MigrationService project contains the EF Core migrations. The `dotnet ef` command-line tool can be used to create new migrations:

1. Update the Entry entity in database context in MyDb1Context.cs. Add a Name property:

   public class Entry
   {
       public Guid Id { get; set; } = Guid.NewGuid();
       public string? Name { get; set; }
   }

2. Open a command prompt in the DatabaseMigrations.MigrationService directory and run the EF Core migration tool to create a migration named MyNewMigration.

   dotnet ef migrations add MyNewMigration

   The preceding command:

   • Runs EF Core migration command-line tool in the DatabaseMigrations.MigrationService directory.
     • dotnet ef is run in this location because it will be used as the default target project for the new migration and the tool will run the startup code in Program.cs to find and configure the context to be used.
   • Creates the migration named MyNewMigration in the DatabaseMigrations.MigrationService project.

   Note

   Other EF Core providers can impose different requirements for creating migrations. For example, the Npgsql provider requires a well-formed connection string to be present in the application's configuration, e.g. the appsettings.Development.json file, for the DbContext the migrations are being created for. The connection string need not be to an actual database, but it must be able to be successfully parsed. The SQL Server provider does not have this requirement.

3. View the new migration files in the DatabaseMigrations.ApiModel project.

Note

To remove the unapplied migration you need to run dotnet ef migrations remove --force. The --force switch tells the tool to avoid connecting to the database

Run the app

If using the Aspire CLI, run aspire run from this directory.

If using VS Code, open this directory as a workspace and launch the DatabaseMigrations.AppHost project using either the Aspire or C# debuggers.

If using Visual Studio, open the solution file DatabaseMigrations.slnx and launch/debug the DatabaseMigrations.AppHost project.

If using the .NET CLI, run dotnet run from the DatabaseMigrations.AppHost directory.

When the app starts up, the DatabaseMigrations.MigrationService background worker runs migrations on the SQL Server container. The migration service:

• Creates a database in the SQL Server container.
• Creates the database schema.
• Stops itself once the migration is complete.