Tutorial: Deploy a .NET Aspire project with a SQL Server Database to Azure

In this tutorial, you learn to configure an ASP.NET Core app with a SQL Server Database for deployment to Azure. .NET Aspire provides multiple SQL Server integration configurations that provision different database services in Azure. You'll learn how to:

Prerequisites

To work with .NET Aspire, you need the following installed locally:

• .NET 8.0 or .NET 9.0
• An OCI compliant container runtime, such as:
  • Docker Desktop or Podman. For more information, see Container runtime.
• An Integrated Developer Environment (IDE) or code editor, such as:
  • Visual Studio 2022 version 17.9 or higher (Optional)
  • Visual Studio Code (Optional)
    • C# Dev Kit: Extension (Optional)
  • JetBrains Rider with .NET Aspire plugin (Optional)

For more information, see .NET Aspire setup and tooling, and .NET Aspire SDK.

Create the sample solution

dotnet new aspire-starter --output AspireSQL

Configure the app for SQL Server deployment

.NET Aspire provides two built-in configuration options to streamline SQL Server deployment on Azure:

• Provision a containerized SQL Server database using Azure Container Apps
• Provision an Azure SQL Database instance

Add the .NET Aspire integration to the app

Add the appropriate .NET Aspire integration to the AspireSQL.AppHost project for your desired hosting service.

dotnet add package Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Sql

dotnet add package Aspire.Hosting.SqlServer

Configure the AppHost project

Configure the AspireSQL.AppHost project for your desired SQL database service.

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var apiService = builder.AddProject<Projects.AspireSql_ApiService>("apiservice");

// Provisions an Azure SQL Database when published
var sqlServer = builder.AddAzureSqlServer("sqlserver")
                       .AddDatabase("sqldb");

builder.AddProject<Projects.AspireSql_Web>("webfrontend")
    .WithExternalHttpEndpoints()
    .WithReference(apiService)
    .WaitFor(apiService);

builder.Build().Run();

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var apiService = builder.AddProject<Projects.AspireSql_ApiService>("apiservice");

// Provisions a containerized SQL Server database when published
var sqlServer2 = builder.AddSqlServer("sqlserver")
                      .AddDatabase("sqldb");

builder.AddProject<Projects.AspireSql_Web>("webfrontend")
    .WithExternalHttpEndpoints()
    .WithReference(apiService)
    .WaitFor(apiService);

builder.Build().Run();

Deploy the app

Tools such as the Azure Developer CLI (azd) support .NET Aspire SQL Server integration configurations to streamline deployments. azd consumes these settings and provisions properly configured resources for you.

Initialize the template

1. Open a new terminal window and cd into the AppHost project directory of your .NET Aspire solution.

2. Execute the azd init command to initialize your project with azd, which will inspect the local directory structure and determine the type of app.

   azd init
   

   For more information on the azd init command, see azd init.

3. Select Use code in the current directory when azd prompts you with two app initialization options.

   ? How do you want to initialize your app?  [Use arrows to move, type to filter]
   > Use code in the current directory
     Select a template
   

4. After scanning the directory, azd prompts you to confirm that it found the correct .NET Aspire AppHost project. Select the Confirm and continue initializing my app option.

   Detected services:
   
     .NET (Aspire)
     Detected in: D:\source\repos\AspireSample\AspireSample.AppHost\AspireSample.AppHost.csproj
   
   azd will generate the files necessary to host your app on Azure using Azure Container Apps.
   
   ? Select an option  [Use arrows to move, type to filter]
   > Confirm and continue initializing my app
     Cancel and exit
   

5. Enter an environment name, which is used to name provisioned resources in Azure and managing different environments such as dev and prod.

   Generating files to run your app on Azure:
   
     (✓) Done: Generating ./azure.yaml
     (✓) Done: Generating ./next-steps.md
   
   SUCCESS: Your app is ready for the cloud!
   You can provision and deploy your app to Azure by running the azd up command in this directory. For more information on configuring your app, see ./next-steps.md
   

azd generates a number of files and places them into the working directory. These files are:

• azure.yaml: Describes the services of the app, such as .NET Aspire AppHost project, and maps them to Azure resources.
• .azure/config.json: Configuration file that informs azd what the current active environment is.
• .azure/aspireazddev/.env: Contains environment specific overrides.

Deploy the template

1. Once an azd template is initialized, the provisioning and deployment process can be executed as a single command from the AppHost project directory using azd up:

   azd up
   

2. Select the subscription you'd like to deploy to from the list of available options:

   Select an Azure Subscription to use:  [Use arrows to move, type to filter]
     1. SampleSubscription01 (xxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxx)
     2. SamepleSubscription02 (xxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxx)
   

3. Select the desired Azure location to use from the list of available options:

   Select an Azure location to use:  [Use arrows to move, type to filter]
     42. (US) Central US (centralus)
     43. (US) East US (eastus)
   > 44. (US) East US 2 (eastus2)
     46. (US) North Central US (northcentralus)
     47. (US) South Central US (southcentralus)
   

After you make your selections, azd executes the provisioning and deployment process.

By default, a service can only be reached from inside the Azure Container Apps environment it is running in. Selecting a service here will also allow it to be reached from the Internet.
? Select which services to expose to the Internet webfrontend
? Select an Azure Subscription to use:  1. <YOUR SUBSCRIPTION>
? Select an Azure location to use: 1. <YOUR LOCATION>

Packaging services (azd package)


Provisioning Azure resources (azd provision)
Provisioning Azure resources can take some time.

Subscription: <YOUR SUBSCRIPTION>
Location: <YOUR LOCATION>

  You can view detailed progress in the Azure Portal:
  <LINK TO DEPLOYMENT>

  (✓) Done: Resource group: <YOUR RESOURCE GROUP>
  (✓) Done: Container Registry: <ID>
  (✓) Done: Log Analytics workspace: <ID>
  (✓) Done: Container Apps Environment: <ID>

SUCCESS: Your application was provisioned in Azure in 1 minute 13 seconds.
You can view the resources created under the resource group <YOUR RESOURCE GROUP> in Azure Portal:
<LINK TO RESOURCE GROUP OVERVIEW>

Deploying services (azd deploy)

  (✓) Done: Deploying service apiservice
  - Endpoint: <YOUR UNIQUE apiservice APP>.azurecontainerapps.io/

  (✓) Done: Deploying service webfrontend
  - Endpoint: <YOUR UNIQUE webfrontend APP>.azurecontainerapps.io/

Aspire Dashboard: <LINK TO DEPLOYED .NET ASPIRE DASHBOARD>

SUCCESS: Your up workflow to provision and deploy to Azure completed in 3 minutes 50 seconds.

The azd up command acts as wrapper for the following individual azd commands to provision and deploy your resources in a single step:

1. azd package: The app projects and their dependencies are packaged into containers.
2. azd provision: The Azure resources the app will need are provisioned.
3. azd deploy: The projects are pushed as containers into an Azure Container Registry instance, and then used to create new revisions of Azure Container Apps in which the code will be hosted.

When the azd up stages complete, your app will be available on Azure, and you can open the Azure portal to explore the resources. azd also outputs URLs to access the deployed apps directly.

Clean up resources

Run the following Azure CLI command to delete the resource group when you no longer need the Azure resources you created. Deleting the resource group also deletes the resources contained inside of it.

az group delete --name <your-resource-group-name>

For more information, see Clean up resources in Azure.

See also

• .NET Aspire deployment via Azure Container Apps
• .NET Aspire Azure Container Apps deployment deep dive
• Deploy a .NET Aspire project using GitHub Actions