Dynamically update .net core config from Azure App Configuration

Question

What I am trying to do: I am attempting to setup Azure App Configuration with a .net core 2.1 mvc web application with a sentinel key in Azure App Configuration, with the goal of being able to change keys in azure, and none of the keys will update in my apps until the sentinel value has changed. In theory, this should allow me to safely hot swap configs.

What my issue is: When I do this there is no WatchAndReloadAll() method available to watch the sentinel on the IWebHostBuilder, and the alternative Refresh() methods do not seem to refresh the configuration as they state.

Background Information, and what I have tried: I attended VS Live - San Diego, this past week and watched a demo on Azure App Configuration. I had some problems trying to get the application to refresh config values when implimenting it, so I also referenced this demo describing how to do this as well. The relevant section is at about 10 minutes in. However, that method does not appear to be available on the IWebHostBuilder.

Documentation I am referencing: In the official documentation there is no reference to this method see doc quickstart .net core and doc dynamic configuration .net core

My Environment: Using dot net core 2.1 being run from Visual Studio Enterprise 2019, with the latest preview nuget package for Microsoft.Azure.AppConfiguration.AspNetCore 2.0.0-preview-010060003-1250

My Code: In the demo, they created a IWebHostBuilder via the CreateWebHostBuilder(string[] args) method like so:

public static IWebHostBuilder CreateWebHostBuilder(string[] args)
{
    return WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
    .ConfigureAppConfiguration((hostingContext, config) =>
    {
        var settings = config.Build();
        config.AddAzureAppConfiguration(options =>
        {
            options.Connect(settings["ConnectionStrings:AzureConfiguration"])
            .Use(keyFilter: "TestApp:*")
            .WatchAndReloadAll(key: "TestApp:Sentinel", pollInterval: TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5));
        }); 
    })
    .UseStartup<Startup>();
}

I also tried it this way, using the current documentation:

public static IWebHostBuilder CreateWebHostBuilder(string[] args) =>
    WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
    .ConfigureAppConfiguration((hostingContext, config) =>
    {
        var settings = config.Build();

        config.AddAzureAppConfiguration(options =>
        {
            // fetch connection string from local config. Could use KeyVault, or Secrets as well.
            options.Connect(settings["ConnectionStrings:AzureConfiguration"])
            // filter configs so we are only searching against configs that meet this pattern
            .Use(keyFilter: "WebApp:*")
            .ConfigureRefresh(refreshOptions =>
            { 
                // In theory, when this value changes, on the next refresh operation, the config will update all modified configs since it was last refreshed.
                refreshOptions.Register("WebApp:Sentinel", true);
                refreshOptions.Register("WebApp:Settings:BackgroundColor", false);
                refreshOptions.Register("WebApp:Settings:FontColor", false);
                refreshOptions.Register("WebApp:Settings:FontSize", false);
                refreshOptions.Register("WebApp:Settings:Message", false);
            });
        });
    })
    .UseStartup<Startup>();

Then, in my startup class:

public Startup(IConfiguration configuration)
{
    Configuration = configuration;
}

public IConfiguration Configuration { get; }

// This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to add services to the container.
public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    services.Configure<Settings>(Configuration.GetSection("WebApp:Settings"));
    services.Configure<CookiePolicyOptions>(options =>
    {
        // This lambda determines whether user consent for non-essential cookies is needed for a given request.
        options.CheckConsentNeeded = context => true;
        options.MinimumSameSitePolicy = SameSiteMode.None;
    });

    services.AddMvc().SetCompatibilityVersion(CompatibilityVersion.Version_2_1);
}

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env)
{
    if (env.IsDevelopment())
    {
        app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
    }
    else
    {
        app.UseExceptionHandler("/Home/Error");
        app.UseHsts();
    }

    app.UseAzureAppConfiguration();
    app.UseHttpsRedirection();
    app.UseStaticFiles();
    app.UseCookiePolicy();

    app.UseMvc(routes =>
    {
        routes.MapRoute(
            name: "default",
            template: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
    });
}

and finally my settings config model:

public class Settings
{
    public string BackgroundColor { get; set; }
    public long FontSize { get; set; }
    public string FontColor { get; set; }
    public string Message { get; set; }
}

Now, in my controller, I pull those settings and throw them into a view bag to be displayed on the view.

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    private readonly Settings _Settings;

    public HomeController(IOptionsSnapshot<Settings> settings)
    {
        _Settings = settings.Value;
    }

    public IActionResult Index()
    {
        ViewData["BackgroundColor"] = _Settings.BackgroundColor;
        ViewData["FontSize"] = _Settings.FontSize;
        ViewData["FontColor"] = _Settings.FontColor;
        ViewData["Message"] = _Settings.Message;

        return View();
    }
}

A simple view to display the changes:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<style>
    body {
        background-color: @ViewData["BackgroundColor"]
    }
    h1 {
        color: @ViewData["FontColor"];
        font-size: @ViewData["FontSize"];
    }
</style>
<head>
    <title>Index View</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>@ViewData["Message"]</h1>
</body>
</html>

I can get it to pull the config down the first time, however, the refresh functionality does not appear to work in any way.

In the last example, I expected the configs to update when the sentinel was set to any new value, or at the very least, to update a value 30 seconds after it was changed. No length of waiting updates the values, and only a full shut down and restart of the app loads the new config.

Update: Adding app.UseAzureAppConfiguration(); in the configure method on startup, and setting an explicit timeout on the cache for the config fixed the refresh method to refresh after a fixed amount of time, but the sentinel functionality still does not work, nor does the updateAll flag on the refresh method.

Answer 1

Ok, after much testing and trial and error, I have it working.

My issue was a missing service for azure on the configure method. There is some interesting behaviour here, in that it will still pull down the settings, it just wont update, if this is missing. So once this was put in, and with a proper sentinel configured per documentation, it works with the updateAll flag. However this isn't currently documented.

Here is the solution:

In Program.cs:

using Microsoft.AspNetCore;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.AzureAppConfiguration;

namespace ASPNetCoreApp
{
    public class Program
    {
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            CreateWebHostBuilder(args).Build().Run();
        }   // Main

        public static IWebHostBuilder CreateWebHostBuilder(string[] args) =>
            WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
            .ConfigureAppConfiguration((hostingContext, config) =>
            {
                var settings = config.Build();

                config.AddAzureAppConfiguration(options =>
                {
                    // fetch connection string from local config. Could use KeyVault, or Secrets as well.
                    options.Connect(settings["ConnectionStrings:AzureConfiguration"])
                    // filter configs so we are only searching against configs that meet this pattern
                    .Use(keyFilter: "WebApp:*")
                    .ConfigureRefresh(refreshOptions =>
                    { 
                        // When this value changes, on the next refresh operation, the config will update all modified configs since it was last refreshed.
                        refreshOptions.Register("WebApp:Sentinel", true);
                        // Set a timeout for the cache so that it will poll the azure config every X timespan.
                        refreshOptions.SetCacheExpiration(cacheExpirationTime: new System.TimeSpan(0, 0, 0, 15, 0));
                    });
                });
            })
            .UseStartup<Startup>();
    }
}

Then in Startup.cs:

using ASPNetCoreApp.Models;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;

namespace ASPNetCoreApp
{
    public class Startup
    {
        public Startup(IConfiguration configuration)
        {
            Configuration = configuration;
        }

        public IConfiguration Configuration { get; }

        // This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to add services to the container.
        public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
        {
            // bind the config to our DI container for the settings we are pulling down from azure.
            services.Configure<Settings>(Configuration.GetSection("WebApp:Settings"));
            services.Configure<CookiePolicyOptions>(options =>
            {
                // This lambda determines whether user consent for non-essential cookies is needed for a given request.
                options.CheckConsentNeeded = context => true;
                options.MinimumSameSitePolicy = SameSiteMode.None;
            });

            services.AddMvc().SetCompatibilityVersion(CompatibilityVersion.Version_2_1);
        }

        // This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to configure the HTTP request pipeline.
        public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env)
        {
            if (env.IsDevelopment())
            {
                app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
            }
            else
            {
                app.UseExceptionHandler("/Home/Error");
                app.UseHsts();
            }
            // Set the Azure middleware to handle configuration
            // It will pull the config down without this, but will not refresh.
            app.UseAzureAppConfiguration();
            app.UseHttpsRedirection();
            app.UseStaticFiles();
            app.UseCookiePolicy();

            app.UseMvc(routes =>
            {
                routes.MapRoute(
                    name: "default",
                    template: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
            });
        }
    }
}

The Settings model I am binding my azure retrieved data to:

namespace ASPNetCoreApp.Models
{
    public class Settings
    {
        public string BackgroundColor { get; set; }
        public long FontSize { get; set; }
        public string FontColor { get; set; }
        public string Message { get; set; }
    }
}

A generic home controller with the config being set to the ViewBag to pass in to our view:

using ASPNetCoreApp.Models;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Options;
using System.Diagnostics;

namespace ASPNetCoreApp.Controllers
{
    public class HomeController : Controller
    {
        private readonly Settings _Settings;

        public HomeController(IOptionsSnapshot<Settings> settings)
        {
            _Settings = settings.Value;
        }
        public IActionResult Index()
        {
            ViewData["BackgroundColor"] = _Settings.BackgroundColor;
            ViewData["FontSize"] = _Settings.FontSize;
            ViewData["FontColor"] = _Settings.FontColor;
            ViewData["Message"] = _Settings.Message;

            return View();
        }

        public IActionResult About()
        {
            ViewData["Message"] = "Your application description page.";

            return View();
        }

        public IActionResult Contact()
        {
            ViewData["Message"] = "Your contact page.";

            return View();
        }

        public IActionResult Privacy()
        {
            return View();
        }

        [ResponseCache(Duration = 0, Location = ResponseCacheLocation.None, NoStore = true)]
        public IActionResult Error()
        {
            return View(new ErrorViewModel { RequestId = Activity.Current?.Id ?? HttpContext.TraceIdentifier });
        }
    }
}

Our View:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<style>
    body {
        background-color: @ViewData["BackgroundColor"]
    }
    h1 {
        color: @ViewData["FontColor"];
        font-size: @ViewData["FontSize"];
    }
</style>
<head>
    <title>Index View</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>@ViewData["Message"]</h1>
</body>
</html>

Hope this helps someone else!