SqlServerWebDemo

ASP.NET Core sample application illustrating how to use Entity Framework Core together with the Steeltoe SQL Server Connector to connect to a bound Microsoft SQL Server service on Cloud Foundry.

Prerequisites

1. Install .NET Core SDK (v2.2+)
2. Install Cloud Foundry CLI (v6.43+)

Create SQL Server Instance on Cloud Foundry

1. cf target -o MY_ORG -s MY_SPACE
2. Create the SQL Server backing service:
   • cf create-service hsdp-rds-sqlserver sqlserver-express mssql-db
3. Wait for the service instance to finish provisioning:
   • Use cf service mssql-db to check operation status.
   • Ensure the status shows as create succeeded before attempting to push the app.

Push App to Cloud Foundry

From the project root:

1. cf target -o MY_ORG -s MY_SPACE
2. Publish the app to a local directory, specifying the .NET framework and runtime:
   • If target stack is cflinuxfs3: dotnet publish -f netcoreapp2.2 -r ubuntu.14.04-x64
   • If target stack is windows2016: dotnet publish -f netcoreapp2.2 -r win10-x64
3. Push the app using the appropriate manifest/artifacts for the target stack:
   • If target stack is cflinuxfs3: cf push -f manifest.yml -p bin/Debug/netcoreapp2.2/ubuntu.14.04-x64/publish
   • If target stack is windows2016: cf push -f manifest-windows.yml -p bin/Debug/netcoreapp2.2/win10-x64/publish

Note: The provided manifests will create an app named mssql-web-demo and attempt to bind the app to a SQL Server service instance named mssql-db.

What to Expect

To see the logs as you startup and use the app: cf logs mssql-web-demo

You should see something like this during startup (with slight differences depending on the Cloud Foundry stack in use):

2019-03-09T09:52:24.92-0800 [CELL/0] OUT Cell 74e3209c-7886-43ca-856e-a9265da30ddd successfully created container for instance 23ffa498-fa7f-4021-7b1f-1e55
2019-03-09T09:52:27.30-0800 [CELL/0] OUT Starting health monitoring of container
2019-03-09T09:52:30.30-0800 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] OUT Hosting environment: Development
2019-03-09T09:52:30.30-0800 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] OUT Content root path: /home/vcap/app
2019-03-09T09:52:30.30-0800 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] OUT Now listening on: http://0.0.0.0:8080
2019-03-09T09:52:30.30-0800 [APP/PROC/WEB/0] OUT Application started. Press Ctrl+C to shut down.
2019-03-09T09:52:32.08-0800 [CELL/0] OUT Container became healthy

Once the application has started, it will be available at https://mssql-web-demo-[random-route].[your-cf-apps-domain]/.

You can use the app to update a simple list of authors and their books. The data will be persisted to the bound SQL Server instance.

Click the Cloud Foundry Config menu option at the top of the app to see the VCAP_APPLICATION and VCAP_SERVICES configuration data.

Local Development

If you want to play around with the code locally, create a file called appsettings.Development.json in the root of the source directory and add the following settings:

{
  "Logging": {
    "LogLevel": {
      "Default": "Debug",
      "System": "Information",
      "Microsoft": "Information"
    }
  },
  "SqlServer": {
    "credentials": {
      "ConnectionString": "Data Source=your-sqlserver-hostname,1433;User Id=your-sqlserver-userid;Password=your-sqlserver-password;Initial Catalog=your-db-name;"
    }
  }
}

You will need to update the ConnectionString to point to a Microsoft SQL Server instance accessible from your local machine, e.g. running in Docker or made available via ssh port forwarding, etc.