Running a .NET core application in an Azure Container Instance

Even though containers have been a popular way to ship applications for a couple of years it was only until recently I found the perfect problem to solve with a container.

A while ago I created the little web app ourmixtape.net that allows you to create a shared playlist based on the favorite Spotify tracks of you and your friends / colleagues / family members. A feature of ourmixtape.net is you can let it regenerate the playlist every night or every week, so when your favorite songs change, so will your shared playlist.

Traditionally I would execute this background task inside a Windows Service, but I didn’t want to buy and maintain a VM or VPS because of the costs and the overhead it would generate. I really don’t need a fullblown server that’s always running.

After investigating some options (Azure Webjobs, Azure Functions) I decided that using Azure Container Instances (ACI) was the easiest and cheapest way to run this background task in the cloud. Why?

• Per second billing
• No need to maintain a server (or cluster)

So I created a simple .NET Core console application called OMT.TaskRunner which executes all background tasks of ourmixtape.net and closes down when done.

In 3 steps I will show you what I did to run this application inside a Docker container that runs as an Azure Container Instance.

Before I started I had the following stuff:

• Docker for Windows (I used the Docker Toolbox since I could not install Hyper-V on my machine)
• A .NET Core console application
• An Azure subscription
• A Docker account

Step 1: Turn your .NET core console application into a Docker image

The first thing to do is to turn your .NET core console application into a docker image. This is done by creating a docker file. The docker file contains the build instruction of your application.

This is the docker file I used.

FROM microsoft/dotnet:2.0-sdk AS build-env 
WORKDIR /app # copy everything else and build 
COPY /OMT.Core/. ./OMT.Core/ 
COPY /OMT.TaskRunner/. ./OMT.TaskRunner/ 
RUN dotnet restore ./OMT.TaskRunner/OMT.TaskRunner.csproj 
RUN dotnet publish ./OMT.TaskRunner/OMT.TaskRunner.csproj -c Release -o out # build runtime image 
FROM microsoft/dotnet:2.0-runtime 
WORKDIR /app 
COPY --from=build-env /app/OMT.TaskRunner/out ./ 
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "OMT.TaskRunner.dll"]

It copies the source files of the application (OMT.TaskRunner) and the source files of a referenced project it depends on (OMT.Core) to a directory of the .NET 2.0 SDK docker image. When you run this image it will build your application and create a Docker Image with your application on top the the .NET 2.0 runtime image.

I put this Docker file in the root of my solution folder and build the image with the following command

docker build -t omt.taskrunner .

After the build succeeds I have a Docker image called omt.taskrunner locally. I can run my image on my local machine using the following command

docker run omt.taskrunner:latest

Step 2: Push your Docker Image to a private repository

Since I want my application to run in the cloud I have to publish this image to a repository. I decided to use the private Docker repository that allows you to have one free private container.

To publish to a private registry you first have to authenticate docker with your private registry (done through docker login ). Once you’ve authenticated you can tag your image using the following command:

docker tag omt.taskrunner:latest marcmathijssen/omt

With this command I tag my local image (omt.taskrunner) with the name of my docker private repo (marcmathijssen/omt). Afterwards I can push the container to the private repository.

docker push marcmathijssen/omt:latest

This will ‘upload’ the image to the private repository.

Step 3: Schedule Azure Container Instances using Azure Logic Apps

When you look into the documentation of the Azure Container Instances you’ll read about starting container instances by using the command line. Since I want to run my container periodically I need something else. I turned to Azure Logic Apps.

You can schedule your container easily with Azure Logic Apps. Azure Logic Apps allow you to visually create workflows with all kinds of predefined tasks. I created an Azure Logic App that runs my container at a predefined time (recurrence trigger) and send me an email afterwards.

Every task I needed was already defined in Azure Logic Apps and all I had to do was editing the properties (container name, credentials etc.) and link the tasks together. This is my Azure Logic App.

I’ve been running the ourmixtape.net background tasks inside a docker container for 6 months now. The things I like the most are:

• Easy deployment: Just build & push the container. The Azure Logic App will download the new image the next time it runs
• Pay what you use: Currently I pay average € 0,18 per month for my container that runs for a few minutes per day. These costs will increase as my app gets more users (or the other way around :-))

Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. Tweet me or send me an email if you have any questions or remarks.