Deploying an ASP.NET 5 container in a Linux Virtual Machine on Azure
This articles introduces the concept of Docker containers and demonstrates how an ASP.NET 5 application can be deployed to an ASP.NET 5 container in a Linux Virtual Machine on Azure.
Prerequisite
.NET Core
.NET Core 5 is an open source stack and can run on multiple operating systems.
It is a modular implementation that can be used in several devices, is available as an open source, and is supported by Microsoft on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX.
.NET Core is not specific to either .NET Native nor ASP.NET 5. Therefore, it forms the foundation for all future .NET verticals, even additional to ASP.NET or Windows Store.
ASP.NET 5
ASP.NET 5 is now a single framework that runs on top of either .NET Core 5 runtime (Core-CLR) or the .NET Framework runtime (CLR).
ASP.NET 5 is the first workload that has adopted .NET Core. ASP.NET 5 runs on both the .NET Framework and .NET Core.
A key value of ASP.NET 5 is that it can run on multiple versions of .NET Core 5 on the same machine. Website A and website B can run on two different versions of .NET Core on the same machine, or they can use the same version.
Introduction
What is Docker?
Docker allows you to package an application with all of its dependencies into a standardized unit for software development.
What are containers?
Docker containers wrap up a piece of software in a complete filesystem that contains everything it needs to run: code, runtime, system tools, and system libraries – anything you can install on a server. This guarantees that it will always run the same, regardless of the environment it is running in.
How is this different from virtual machines?
Containers have similar resource isolation and allocation benefits as virtual machines but a different architectural approach allows them to be much more portable and efficient.
Docker Hub
The Docker Hub is a repository for building and shipping application or service containers. It provides a centralized resource for container image discovery, distribution and change management, and user and team collaboration.
Docker Files
A Docker file is a text file where you tell Docker what you want in your image. It contains all the commands a user could call on the command line to assemble an image. More details about Docker File will come in the next article of this series.
Docker and DevOps
ASP.NET Container Deployment Process
Deploying the ASP.NET App to Docker
Visual Studio 2015
In this article, Visual Studio 2015 shall be used. Click here to download it.
Visual Studio Tools for Docker
The Visual Studio 2015 Tools for Docker Preview enables developers to build and publish an ASP.NET 5 Web or console application to a Docker container running on a Linux or Windows virtual machine.
Click here to download Visual Studio Tools for Docker.
Create an ASP.NET 5 Web Site
To create a new ASP.NET Website, click on File, New Project, then ASP.NET Web Application.
Then under ASP.NET 5 tab, select Web Site.
Deploy the Web Site
Right-Click on the project and click Publish.
If Docker tools have been installed correctly, a new option will appear in the publish window calledDocker Containers.
Form here, you may either use an existing container or create a new one.
In this example, a new container shall be created.
Next, fill in the DNS Name, User Name, and password and click OK.
Since no VM was available, a new Ubuntu VM will be provisioned after which we’ll need to publish the Web Site.
The log of the VM creation can also be viewed in Visual Studio.
Once the VM is created, the Web Site can be deployed. Right-Click on the project and click publish again.
This will automatically select a newly created Docker Profile with all the settings filled.
Click Publish to deploy the Web Site.
This will perform all the steps discussed in the previous section and same can be viewed in the log.
- Building the project.
- Doing a Docker Build.
- Sending the build details to the Docker Daemon.
- Downloading the ASP.NET image from the Docker Hub.
Once the deployment completes, the website will open.
In this article, the basics of Docker was covered, and also demonstrated how easy it is to deploy an ASP.Net Web Site to a Docker image on a Linux VM.
In the next article, more technical details about Docker files, build and deployment via Power Shell shall be discussed.
References
