Docker with ASP.NET – A Productive Combination

Author: Ankit Kumar

Microsoft was, is and will always be a technological leader in the IT era. There is so much it has offered to the enterprises worldwide,.NET development being one of them. Dot Net development services have been building multivariate solutions in different industry domains and is one of the preferred choices today, both by developers and enterprises. It has been a favored choice amongst developers today.

ASP.NET development companies have proven to offer a sure shot roadmap to organizational success and dot net development services have proven its worth with successful project implementations across a variety of industry domains. It has been an indispensable ingredient for enterprise web apps and mobile apps. Enterprise app development couldn’t have been superior, it is thanks to asp.net development services that have taken a step further. With evident reasons known to the world, ASP.NET has been a desired technology for many developers and enterprises alike:

  • Simple, flexible, scalable and robust in delivering apps with latest technologies like cloud computing, DevOps etc.
  • Facilitates interoperability while building any enterprise app
  • Minimal software versioning and deployment matters
  • Easy and smooth development understanding to its users
  • Enhanced security to the code, not compromising on any of the security standards
  • Swifter coding with robust and attractive applications getting developed

Revolutionizing ASP.NET Development Services with Docker – An Innovation at Its Best

Going a step further, enhancing the already popular.NET framework comes in yet another popular technology that has already been improving the performances of many organizations – Docker, the immutable deployment mechanism through virtualization technology containers. In the technical era of container virtualization, continuous integration, continuous deployment, the one technology that has been carving a nice for itself is Docker. Bespoke software development services are making the most of Docker, leveraging its potential to the fullest. Mixing Docker for running.NET apps in lightweight containers is sure to breathe in a fresh lease of life without any burden on the cost and time factor.

When we talk about Docker, it is usually Linux in mind and there are rare chances of thinking about.NET or Windows. But, the versatile Docker has now proven its capabilities with ASP.NET, no wonder why it has been increasingly being leveraged amongst organizations now.

Before we understand the significance of Docker on ASP.NET applications, let us understand benefits that Windows containers offer to our applications. The basic focus lies on enhancing agility, portability and controlling the environment. Since a.NET framework executes on Windows, in case you need to containerize it, you need to use Windows containers. This will surely modernize your existing.NET framework and reflect the benefits that are the key features of container virtualization.

Dockerization of.NET Framework – A Technical Overview

Dockers are different from virtual machines and containerization of ASP.NET application using Docker has been yielding multiple benefits. With a basic knowledge of container virtualization and Docker, it is possible to move ahead. Docker, being world’s leading software container platform, is flexible enough to adapt itself easily with the.NET community.

Following are the summary line steps that need to be followed for dockerizing the.NET framework, to offer an idea about the entire process, containerizing an ASP.NET application and running it in Windows container using Docker:

  • Create a virtual machine environment with Windows
  • Download and install Docker engine in VM
  • Create a new ASP.NET application using Visual Studio
  • Create a Dockerfile for the application in your project folder
  • Docker build – containerizing using Docker commands
  • Docker Run – run the image inside Docker container
  • Check the application in relevant browser and view the page running from the container

    • One of the most significant aspects while implementing.NET with Docker is to rely on the.NET base images owing to reasons such as non-repetition of images, regular updates by the team, sharing the common memory and scanning images for security reasons. There are certain fixed paths where Docker images are published such as:

    microsoft/dotnet, microsoft/aspnetcore, microsoft/dotnet-framework, microsoft/aspnet and so on…

    Defining images in Docker is important and done by a file mentioned in the Dockerfile format. These files offer images contents and the source is lying in GitHub. All changes, updates and latest formats are available there.

    Certain important functionalities that are a part of dockerizing are Docker image tagging,.NET core tags and.NET framework tags.

    5 Key Reasons to Prove Docker’s Significance in.NET Development Services

    • Standardized Format

    Since the format of the container in Docker is consistent, it stands out from the rest. This makes things easy for the OS handlers to offer in that format. It becomes simplistic to move containers from a single host to the next and thereby simplify the process of testing and deployment.

    • Microsoft’s Contribution to Docker

    Microsoft has been aiding the Docker community extensively by integrating certain workflows in their Visual Studio systems. While installing Visual Studio Tools for Dockers, there is easy integration available into Docker, which will create files that will be tied into the environment and the entire processing will happen in the executing container.

    • Cloud Approachability

    Both, AWS and Microsoft Azure offer great support for the container virtualization technology. Both - Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services offer support for single containers as well as for a farm using latest technological products.

    • Tad Better Than Virtual Machines

    It is possible to confine admission to containers while hosting resources and programs. Just in case any one of the containers is overloaded, the other containers won’t get affected and will use the resources as it requires. There is much more control over resource allocation and container hosting. In a similar way as the VM does, Docker can secure the containers same as the traditional machine because since they own their runtime environment with an OS user space of them.

    • Constancy at Runtime

    One of the most common complaints here is that the application worked perfectly in the developer environment but not in the production. Docker takes care of this issue and offers a consistent execution of the application, be it the developer setup or the production one. If the developer has used the Docker container as the development server, things are sure to do well in the further phases too.