You can configure .NET Framework apps to use with the Hosted Web Core (HWC) buildpack and push your .NET Framework apps to VMware Tanzu Application Service for VMs [Windows].
Using the HWC buildpack requires deploying Microsoft Windows cells with TAS for VMs [Windows].
The HWC buildpack supports the following common app types by default:
For information about deploying different types of .NET apps, follow the links in the following table:
Type of .NET App | Buildpack |
---|---|
.NET Console | Binary |
.NET Core pushed to Linux stack | .NET Core |
.NET Core pushed to Windows stack | Binary |
The HWC buildpack provides a runtime server that uses the Hosted Web Core API for running .NET Framework applications in Windows Server containers. For more information, see Hosted Web Core API Reference in the Microsoft documentation.
The HWC buildpack provides access to .NET Framework 4.5.1 and later, made available by the Windows root file system (rootfs).
HWC relies on Web.config
and applicationHost.config
configuration files for configuring the .NET applications.
Most Web.config
files work immediately with TAS for VMs [Windows], but with the following constraints:
In addition, the Shadow Copy Setting, and Dynamic and Static HTTP Compression Web.config
settings can be customized as needed.
The HWC buildpack includes a default configuration for the applicationHost.config
, similar to IIS.
Before you push your app for the first time, add a global error handler to receive log information from your app if it crashes on startup.
Follow these steps to push your application:
Build your HWC app in Visual Studio.
On the command line, go to the directory containing the app files.
To push your HWC app, run the following cf push
command:
cf push APP-NAME -s windows -b hwc_buildpack
Where APP-NAME
is the name you want to give your app.
For example:
$ cf push my-app -s windows -b hwc_buildpack Creating app my-app in org sample-org / space sample-space as [email protected]... OK ... requested state: started instances: 1/1 usage: 1 GB x 1 instances urls: my-app.example.com
Confirm your application is running by going to your app’s URL in the push command output. In the previous example, my-app.example.com
is the URL of your app.
You can use the following features with HWC buildpack:
With context path routing you can implement multiple apps to share the same route hostname. For example, app1.example.com/app2
. The context path routing feature is analogous to IIS virtual directories.
Making an application accessible under another app’s URL requires pushing both apps and applying a map-route correlation between them. To define a context path route, for example, app1.example.com/app2
, run the following commands:
To push the primary app, run the following command:
cf push TOP-LEVEL-APP-NAME -s windows -b hwc_buildpack
Where TOP-LEVEL-APP-NAME
is your top-level app’s name.
To push the secondary app and deactivate the app’s starting and default routing, run the following command:
cf push LOWER-LEVEL-APP-NAME --no-start --no-route -s windows -b hwc_buildpack
Where LOWER-LEVEL-APP-NAME
is the name of the lower-level app.
To map routes between the primary and secondary apps, run the following command:
cf map-route LOWER-LEVEL-APP-NAME APP-DOMAIN --hostname TOP-LEVEL-APP-NAME --path LOWER-LEVEL-APP-NAME
Where:
TOP-LEVEL-APP-NAME
is your top-level app's name.LOWER-LEVEL-APP-NAME
is your lower-level app's name.APP-DOMAIN
is your site's public domain name.To start the secondary app, run the following command:
cf start LOWER-LEVEL-APP-NAME
Where LOWER-LEVEL-APP-NAME
is your lower-level app’s name.
For example, the following commands define context path routing for two HWC apps, app1
and app2
, where app2
is made accessible under app1
as app1.example.com/app2
:
$ cf push app1 -s windows -b hwc_buildpack $ cf push app2 --no-start --no-route -s windows -b hwc_buildpack $ cf map-route app2 example.com --hostname app1 --path app2 $ cf start app2
HWC-hosted apps use the VCAP_APPLICATION
environment variable to read out the bound app URIs. Any context path that exists underneath the root in the app’s bound route corresponds to the applicationHost.config
.
Shadow Copy is a hosting option that copies assemblies for an app in the bin
directory to the app’s temporary files directory. This feature is turned off and is unnecessary for apps running under Cloud Foundry. An app can override this setting in its Web.config
file.
The HWC buildpack implements dynamic and static HTTP compression by default. You can deactivate HTTP compression in your app’s Web.config
file.
Dynamic HTTP compression is hardcoded at level 4. Static HTTP compression is hardcoded at level 9.
The HWC buildpack supports the URL Rewrite module. It’s preinstalled in the Windows file system.
With the HWC buildpack you can provide .profile.bat
scripts with your applications. You can use a .profile.bat
script to perform app-specific initialization tasks. For example, setting custom environment variables.
For information about configuring .profile.bat
scripts, see Configure Pre-Runtime Hooks section of Pushing an App.
A number of channels exist to assist you with using the HWC buildpack, or developing your own HWC buildpack.
HWC Buildpack Repository in GitHub: For more information about using and extending the HWC buildpack in the [HWC buildpack repository] see, (https://github.com/cloudfoundry/hwc-buildpack) in GitHub.
Release Notes: For more information about this buildpack, see HWC buildpack release page in GitHub.
Slack: Join the #buildpacks channel in the Cloud Foundry Slack community.