Deploying ASP.NET Core Apps To Azure Kubernetes Service

Deploying an ASP.NET Core application to Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) involves several steps, including containerizing the application, pushing it to a container registry, creating AKS resources, and deploying the application. Here's a step-by-step guide.

Step 1. Containerize the ASP.NET Core App.

Step 1.1. Add a Dockerfile to Your ASP.NET Core Project.

Create a Dockerfile in the root of your project if you don’t already have one.

# Use the official ASP.NET Core runtime as a base image
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:7.0 AS base

WORKDIR /app
EXPOSE 80

# Use the official .NET SDK image for building the app
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:7.0 AS build

WORKDIR /src
COPY ["MyApp.csproj", "./"]

RUN dotnet restore "MyApp.csproj"

COPY . .
RUN dotnet publish "MyApp.csproj" -c Release -o /app/publish

# Use the runtime image and copy the built app
FROM base AS final

WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /app/publish .

ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "MyApp.dll"]

Step 1.2. Build and Test the Docker Image.

Run the following commands to build and test your Docker image locally.

# Build the Docker image
docker build -t myapp:1.0 .

# Run the Docker container
docker run -p 8080:80 myapp:1.0

Access the app at http://localhost:8080.

Step 2. Push the Docker Image to Azure Container Registry.

Step 2.1. Create an Azure Container Registry (ACR)

Run the following commands to create an Azure Container Registry.

az acr create --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myContainerRegistry --sku Basic

Step 2.2. Log in to ACR

az acr login --name myContainerRegistry

Step 2.3. Tag and Push the Docker Image.

# Tag the image for ACR
docker tag myapp:1.0 mycontainerregistry.azurecr.io/myapp:1.0

# Push the image to ACR
docker push mycontainerregistry.azurecr.io/myapp:1.0

Step 3. Create an AKS Cluster.

Step 3.1. Create the AKS Cluster.

az aks create --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myAKSCluster --node-count 1 --enable-addons monitoring --generate-ssh-keys

Step 3.2. Get AKS Credentials.

az aks get-credentials --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myAKSCluster

This sets the Kubernetes context to your AKS cluster.

Step 4. Deploy the ASP.NET Core App to AKS.

Step 4.1. Create a Kubernetes Deployment YAML File.

Create a file named deployment.yaml.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: myapp-deployment
spec:
  replicas: 2
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: myapp
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: myapp
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: myapp
          image: mycontainerregistry.azurecr.io/myapp:1.0
          ports:
            - containerPort: 80
          env:
            - name: ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT
              value: "Production"

---

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: myapp-service
spec:
  selector:
    app: myapp
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 80
      targetPort: 80
  type: LoadBalancer

Step 4.2. Apply the Deployment to AKS.

kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml

Step 4.3. Verify the Deployment.

kubectl get all

Step 5. Access the Application.

1. Get the external IP address of the service.

   kubectl get service myapp-service
   

2. Access the app in a browser using the external IP.

Step 6. Monitor and Manage.

Monitor Pods and Logs

# List Pods
kubectl get pods

# View Logs
kubectl logs <pod-name>

Scale the Deployment

kubectl scale --replicas=3 deployment/myapp-deployment

Step 7. Clean Up.

To remove the AKS cluster and related resources.

az aks delete --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myAKSCluster --yes --no-wait