Is editing configuration cause iis recycle? - iis

I saw that in asp.net older version, editing configuration cause recycle.
(so we implemented our own library for dynamic config to avoid recycling).
Now I'm writing new asp.net core app and I have not seen anywhere that there is recycle, if using built-in configuration (like:
.AddJsonFile("appsettings.json", optional: true, **reloadOnChange: true**)
So, can I use it without expecting any down time?

AFAIK, editing configuration does not cause IIS recycle. One of the reason maybe is that IIS is acting now merely as a reverse proxy and the application itself runs as a separate process using the Kestrel HTTP server (if you use Kestrel).
If you need to catch moment, when configuration has been changed, you can use Configuration Reload Token (Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.ConfigurationReloadToken):
var config = builder.Build();
var token = config.GetReloadToken();
token.RegisterChangeCallback(_ =>
{
Console.WriteLine("Changed");
}, null);
But note, the token only fires once, so need have code in the callback to a change token, if needed.

Related

App Settings not being observed by Core WebJob

I have a Core WebJob deployed into an Azure Web App. I'm using WebJobs version 3.0.6.
I've noticed that changes to Connection Strings and App Settings (added via the Azure web UI) are not being picked up immediately by the WebJob code.
This seems to correlate with the same Connection Strings and App Settings not being displayed on the app's KUDU env page straight away (although I acknowledge this may be a red herring and could be some KUDU caching thing which I'm unaware of).
I've deployed a few non-Core WebJobs in the past and have not come across this issue so wonder if it's Core related? Although I can't see how that might affect configs showing up KUDU though.
I was having this issue the other day (where the configs were not getting picked up by the WebJob or shown in KUDU) and was getting nowhere, so left it. When I checked back the following day, the configs were now correctly showing in KUDU and being picked up by the WebJob. So I'd like to know what has happened in the meantime which means the configs are now being picked up as expected.
I've tried re-starting the WebJob and re-starting the app after making config changes but neither seem to have an effect.
It's worth also noting that I'm not loading appSettings.json during the program setup. That being said, the connection string being loaded was consistenly the connection string from that file i.e. my local machine SQL Server/DB. My understanding was always that the anything in the Azure web UI would override any equivalent settings from config files. This post from David Ebbo indicates that by calling AddEnvironmentVariables() during the setup will cause the Azure configs to be observed, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. Has this changed or is it loading the configs from this file by convention because it can't see the stuff from Azure?
Here's my WebJob Program code:
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
var host = new HostBuilder()
.ConfigureHostConfiguration(config =>
{
config.AddEnvironmentVariables();
})
.ConfigureWebJobs(webJobConfiguration =>
{
webJobConfiguration.AddTimers();
webJobConfiguration.AddAzureStorageCoreServices();
}
)
.ConfigureServices((context, services) =>
{
var connectionString = context.Configuration.GetConnectionString("MyConnectionStringKey");
services.AddDbContext<DatabaseContext>(options =>
options
.UseLazyLoadingProxies()
.UseSqlServer(connectionString)
);
// Add other services
})
.Build();
using(host)
{
host.Run();
}
}
So my questions are:
How quickly should configs added/updated via the Azure web UI be displayed in KUDU?
Is the fact they're not showing in KUDU related to my Core WebJob also not seeing the updated configs?
Is appSettings.json getting loaded even though I'm not calling .AddJsonFile("appSettings.json")?
What can I do to force the new configs added via Azure to be available to my WebJob immediately?
The order in which configuration sources are specified is important, as this establishes the precedence with which settings will be applied if they exist in multiple locations. In the example below, if the same setting exists in both appsettings.json and in an environment variable, the setting from the environment variable will be the one that is used. The last configuration source specified “wins” if a setting exists in more than one location. The ASP.NET team recommends specifying environment variables last, so that the environment where your app is running can override anything set in deployed configuration files.
You can refer here for more details on Azure App Services Application Settings and Connection Strings in ASP.NET Core

IIS web.config inheritance with .Net Core

I need to redesign one of the system's module using Asp.Net Core and host it inside IIS server. So, I just need to replace already existing ASP.NET Web Forms app with the .Net Core based API. But the tricky part here that I still have to use upper level web.config file(s) and fetch configuration parameters from it.
I did brief research and found out that it may be a problem cause the configuration mechanism was changed and it's not recommended to use XML based we.config or app.config any more and I should use app.settings instead: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/configuration/?view=aspnetcore-2.2
I found this very nice article https://wildermuth.com/2018/04/15/Building-a-NET-Core-Configuration-Source about how to build custom configuration source and provider and now I can even extract app setting from the local web.config file but still experiencing the problem with getting access to the upper level web.config file.
When I do this
.ConfigureAppConfiguration((hostingContext, config) =>
{
config
.AddWebConfig("web.config", optional: true)
.AddJsonFile("appsettings.json", optional: true);
})
I can successfully find and parse web.config file, but when I try to find web.config in an upper level like this
.ConfigureAppConfiguration((hostingContext, config) =>
{
config
.AddWebConfig("..\\web.config", optional: false)
.AddJsonFile("appsettings.json", optional: true);
})
I get en error message
System.IO.FileNotFoundException: 'The configuration file
'..\web.config' was not found and is not optional.'
Any recommendations about how to get access to upper level web.config file would be very much appreciated!
Unfortunately I can't skip this part and this is one of the client's business requirements.

Azure Web Role warm up after Deploy

As described in various other related questions here, I am also expecting long lasting (30 seconds) first call after (re)deploying a web role with pretty large EF6 Model and a plenty of referenced nuget-packages. After trying out different proposed solutions with preloadEnabled and serviceAutoStartProviders I am still consufed and decided to reopen this topic in hope, that somebody has come upon a better solution in the meantime.
The main goal for me is to make a web role answering the first request almost as fast as subsequent calls as soon as the role quits its busy state on a fresh deployment and gets accessible by load balancer and external clients. Unfortunately I experienced following problems with proposed solutions so far:
preloadEnabled:
I do add Application Initialization module via PKGMGR.EXE /iu:IIS-ApplicationInit in a startup task. So far so good.
When I then try to execute %windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd set site "MySiteName" -applicationDefaults.preloadEnabled:true it fails as at the time of execution of a startup script there are still no websites created in IIS on a fresh deployment.
If I try to set the preloadEnabled-setting via ServerManager-class in my Application_Start method instead, I cannot understand, how this code is intended to be executed before a first external call on the web role is made, as the preloadEnabled setting is defaulted to false after a fresh web role deploy and thus the Application_Start method in my understanding does not get a chance to be executed by the Application Initialization module?
serviceAutostartProviders:
here we need to put a name of our AutostartProvider implementing the IProcessHostPreloadClient interface in applicationhost.config i.e by using either appcmd script or the ServerManager class, BUT:
serviceAutostartProvider is like preloadEnabled a site related setting, so we have the same problem here as with %windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd set site "MySiteName" -applicationDefaults.preloadEnabled:true in 1.2 - at execution time of startup script after a fresh deployment the websites are not yet created in IIS and the script fails to execute properly
Another possibility would be to include applicationhost.config into the deployment package, but I did not find any solution to do this for a web role.
So how did you guys managed to ensure, that preloading assemblies and some initialization code (like filling memory caches) is run before the role gets it's first hit from outside?
We start to gain some traffic now and get approx. 1-2 requests per second on our WebApi, and thus a 30 second delay for preloading "visible" to clients after each update deployment is becoming a major issue now.
We are scheduling update deploys at low traffic times, but what if I need to make an urgent hotfix deploy?
Perhaps the best way to accomplish this is to use deployment slots. Deploy updates to your staging slot first. Before a switch from a staging slot to a production slot takes place, Kudu will hit the root of the staging slot with a request in order to warm up the application. After the request to the staging slot's root returns, the IP switch occurs and your slots are swapped.
However, sometimes you need to warm up other pages or services to get the app ready to handle traffic, and hitting the root with a warmup request is insufficient. You can update your web.config so that Kudu will hit additional pages and endpoints before the IP switch occurs and the slots are swapped.
These warmup request URLs should be in the tag. Here's an example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<applicationInitialization>
<add initializationPage="/pagetowarmup1" />
<add initializationPage="/pagetowarmup2" />
<add initializationPage="/pagetowarmup3" />
</applicationInitialization>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>
You can read the Kudu docs on this issue here.
OK. Now I got it.
The point is to set preloadEnabled-property not inside of the Application_Start method in Global.asax (as it will not be hit before a first request to the Role anyway), but inside RoleEntryPoint.OnStart.
The difference is that RoleEntryPoint.OnStart is called directly after deployment package is extracted and everything is set up for starting the role. At this moment the azure instance is still in it's busy state and is not yet available from outside as long as some code inside RoleEntryPoint.OnStart is being executed.
So here is the code I came up so far for warming up the instance before it gets its first call from outside
public class WebRole : RoleEntryPoint
{
public override bool OnStart()
{
// set preloadEnabled of each Site in this deployment to true
using (var serverManager = new ServerManager())
{
foreach (var mainSite in serverManager.Sites)
{
var mainApplication = mainSite.Applications["/"];
mainApplication["preloadEnabled"] = true;
}
serverManager.CommitChanges();
}
// call my warmup-code which will preload caches and do some other time consuming preparation
var localuri = new Uri(string.Format("https://{0}/api/warmup", RoleEnvironment.CurrentRoleInstance.InstanceEndpoints["Endpoint1"].IPEndpoint));
try
{
var request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(localuri);
request.Method = "GET";
var response = request.GetResponse();
}
catch { }
// send this thread to sleep in order to give the warmup-request a chance to complete BEFORE the Role will get started
// and becomes available to the outside world
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(60000);
return base.OnStart();
}
}

Azure webjobs not reading the site appsettings

I've got an azure webjob, that has some appsettings for api keys etc.
I've also got a bunch of PRODUCTION azure app settings (specified in the portal), that should override my webjob config appsettings.. But they don't.
For my website, they work as expected, and all is fine. For the webjobs however, they just get completely ignored, and my app settings from the config are used instead.
Is this a bug in azure? All the docs suggest that this should work.
EDIT
I found this blog all about using CloudConfigurationManager.GetSetting so I've implemented that and it still won't work - still using the settings that are defined in web job's app settings file :(
Thanks
So it looks like I've found a bug!
It's because my AppSettings were referenced from another file, like this (in app.config):
<AppSettings file="appsettings.config"/>
This basically breaks azure's config management.
Use
"D:\home\site\wwwroot\" to create an absolute path to files inside your website.
inside your WebJob to point to any file inside your wwwwroot directory. Using the Absolute path with D:\home\site\wwwroot\appsettings.config should fix you website.
Did you set your settings only in the Web.config file or did you set them in the portal or using the VS "Website Settings" tooling? You need to set the WebJobs-related settings at that level, not just in the Web.config. Once you do that, restart your site, and the settings should be there.
I had a similar problem but for me it was that we set the "is_in_place" settings.job value to true. I guess when it's in place, it doesn't update the config file with the settings. We didn't have a strict requirement that it run in place, so removing that setting fixed the problem for us.
I have a similar problem with several web jobs sharing a common settings file. It would be inconvenient to duplicate the settings in each job.
Someone mentioned using configSource= instead of file= in the app.config to reference the external config settings file. I tried this, and it appears that it now works as expected. The settings are being taken from the Portal App Settings instead of the file now.
Fortunately, the settings for the web jobs all come from the external file. The use of file= allowed me to use additional per-app settings other than just those in the file, but fortunately I don't need to do that.
A workaround to this problem is to place the settings inline in the AppSettings tag of the Web.config like this.
<AppSettings>
<add key="host" value="someHost" />
</AppSettings>
Azure App Service Application Settings are persisted in the Environment Variables. Go to the Azure Portal add your application settings or connection string values. Then, you can check out the environment variables of your app service at https://sitename.scm.azurewebsites.net
If you want your webjobs to share those settings, in your webjob project, create a appsettings.json:
{
"APPSETTING_AzureWebJobsDashboard": "",
"APPSETTING_AzureWebJobsStorage": "",
"SQLAZURECONNSTR_xxx": ""
}
In your Main() method
private static void Main(string[] args)
{
var builder = new ConfigurationBuilder()
.SetBasePath(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
.AddJsonFile("appsettings.json", optional: false, reloadOnChange: true)
.AddEnvironmentVariables();
var configurations = builder.Build();
var services = new ServiceCollection()
.AddDbContext<ApplicationDbContext>(options =>
options.UseSqlServer(configurations["SQLAZURECONNSTR_xxx"]),
ServiceLifetime.Transient)
.BuildServiceProvider();
var host = new JobHost(new JobHostConfiguration
{
DashboardConnectionString = configurations["APPSETTING_AzureWebJobsDashboard"],
StorageConnectionString = configurations["APPSETTING_AzureWebJobsStorage"]
});
host.RunAndBlock();
}
This is simpler than trying to figure out the path to the website config on the app service

Concurrency in the Task-based API in Azure SDK for .NET

I currently have a couple of concurrency issues with the Task-based asynchronous API in the Azure SDK for .Net version 3.0.2-prerelease.
I have a list of web site names
var webSites = new [] { "website1", "website2" };
and from these, I'm using the task based API to create or delete the WebSites. Both occasionally fail:
await Task.WhenAll(webSites.Select(x => webSiteClient.WebSites.CreateAsync(
"westeuropewebspace",
new WebSiteCreateParameters
{
SiteMode = WebSiteMode.Limited,
ComputeMode = WebSiteComputeMode.Shared,
Name = x
WebSpaceName = "something"
}
)));
Seldom, I get an exception complaining that the Server Farm "Default1" already exists. I get that this server farm is implicitly created for Free web sites, but there is currently no way to create this Server Farm through the API before creating the WebSites (only the "DefaultServerFarm" can be).
When deleting, something similar happens:
await Task.WhenAll(webSites.Select(x => webSiteClient.WebSites.DeleteAsync(
"westeuropewebspace",
x,
new WebSiteDeleteParameters
{
DeleteAllSlots = true,
DeleteEmptyServerFarm = true,
DeleteMetrics = true,
}
)));
Often (about every second time), I get an Exception that "website2" could not be found, although it definitely existed. The WebSite is deleted, though.
Update:
I have serialized this second Task.WaitAll into a foreach-loop and I still get the exception. The only difference now is that when deleting "website1" fails, "website2" still exists in the cloud (because the second delete request is not sent) and I have to delete it manually through the portal.
You are right - the create site api also tries to create a server farm implicitly and if called concurrently that may cause conflicts. A safer way is to create a server farm explicitly using API and then use that server farm when creating web sites. That way you explicitly control the placement of sites to server farms and there are no implicit server farm creations.
The Azure SDK API contain a method to create server farm explicitly.
https://github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-net/blob/master/src/WebSiteManagement/Generated/ServerFarmOperations.cs

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