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Task 5 - Deployment

Intro​

Currently, .NET Aspire only supports deployment to Azure Container Apps. This is what we will use in this section.

Deploy to Azure Container Apps​

To deploy our application to Azure Container Apps we shall use the Azure Developer CLI which is an open-source tool that makes it easy to get an application from a local development environment to Azure. If AZD is not installed, use WinGet as follows:

winget install Microsoft.Azd

Logon to Azure​

Enter the following. This will fire up a browser instance to authenticate with Azure credentials.

azd auth login

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Intialize the application​

Enter the following. AZD will scan the application and detect that it is a .NET Aspire application. It will ask for an environment name that will be used for the Resource Group in Azure.

azd init

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Check out the files generated: 'azure.yaml' and 'next-steps.md'. The first is used by AZD and the second is some documentation on how to use AZD.

Provision the infrastructure​

  • Enter the following. This will create various Azure resources including Azure Container Apps environment.
azd provision

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  • Confirm the resources are created by checking in the Azure Management Portal.

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Deploy the application​

  • Enter the following. This will build containers in the Azure Container Registry and deploy the containers to the Azure Container Apps environment.
azd deploy

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We can confirm the additional resources were created by checking in the Azure Management Portal.

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Run the application​

Access the Web application endpoint using the information returned from AZD. In the above screenshot - it is at https://colorsweb.graymoss-1a2bc377.westeurope.azurecontainerapps.io/

  • Confirm that the application still works and the API is being called successfully.

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  • Confirm the Developer Dashboard is available - it will need authentication to access.

  • A link to the Developer Dashboard is on the Overview screen of the Azure Container Apps Environment.

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The Developer Dashboard is not intended for production use; let's now switch to something more suitable, namely Azure Monitor / Application Insights.

Use Azure Monitor / Application Insights​

Create Application Insights Instance​

  • Create an Application Insights instance.

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Use the existing Log Analytics Workspace that was created.

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  • Get the Application Insights 'connection string' from the overview page

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Update Orchestration​

We need to inject the Application Insights 'connection string' into the configuration.

  • Amend the 'program.cs' in ColorsAppHost to the following and make sure the 'connection string' is assigned to variable appinsights:
using Projects;

var appinsights = "***insert connection string here***";

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var outputcache = builder.AddRedis("outputcache");

var colorsapi = builder.AddProject<ColorsAPI>("colorsapi")
    .WithEnvironment("APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING", appinsights)
    .WithReference(outputcache);

var colorsweb = builder.AddProject<ColorsWeb>("colorsweb")
    .WithEnvironment("APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING", appinsights)
    .WithReference(colorsapi)
    .WithExternalHttpEndpoints();

builder.Build().Run();

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Update Service Defaults telemetry​

  • In the ServiceDefaults project - find the AddOpenTelemetryExporters function.

  • Uncomment the lines that enable the Azure Monitor exporter

    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(builder.Configuration["APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING"]))
    {
        builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()
            .UseAzureMonitor();
    }

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Need to add the Nuget package 'Azure.Monitor.OpenTelemetry.AspNetCore'.

  • Right click on the ColorsServiceDefaults project and select [Manage Nuget Packages]

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  • Select 'Azure.Monitor.OpenTelemetry.AspNetCore', select [Install] and accept the subsequent dialog boxes.

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Our application has now been updated to use Application Insights

Ensure Orange is listed as a color in the API's list of colors - we want to be able to see Exceptions logged to Application Insights.

    new ColorsItem { Name = "Orange", Hexcode = "#FFAF00" }

Redeploy the application​

  • Redeploy the application, enter the following
azd deploy

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Rerun the application​

  • Run the application, browse to the Web Application endpoint.

  • Click the button a few times to generate data being sent to Application Insights.

  • Keep clicking until an Exception occurs - we can see that in the log.

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Examine Application Insights​

  • Browse around the Application Insight to see the telemetry generated:

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Application Map:

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Look at failures - the Exception that occurs when Orange is generated:

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Transaction search:

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End to End transaction details:

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Deployment Manifest​

What about targeting production environments other than Azure Container Apps?

.NET Aspire can generate a manifest that empowers tool builders to create deployment tooling. Support for other deployment environments will expand progressively over time.

Manifest generation is achieved by running dotnet build with a special target:

  • Run the following:
 dotnet run --project ColorsAppHost\ColorsAppHost.csproj `
    --publisher manifest `
    --output-path ../aspire-manifest.json

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Summary​

In this section we deployed our Application to Azure and set up the telemetry to be sent to Application Insights.

That concludes the lab.