How to set up the .NET Aspire Dashboard on Container App Environments

The .NET Aspire dashboard offers a great way to get real-time insights into logs, traces and the configuration of your applications.

You can run this locally, but nowadays you can also deploy it to your Azure Container App (ACA) environment.

In this blog post, we will explain how to set this up using Azure Bicep or Azure CLI.

The Problem with Traditional Configuration

To enable the .NET Aspire Dashboard on an existing Azure Container Apps environment via Azure Bicep, you can use the following module:

param containerAppsEnvironmentName string

@allowed([
  'AspireDashboard'
  'AspireResourceServerApi'
])
param componentType string

resource cae 'Microsoft.App/managedEnvironments@2024-03-01' existing = {
  name: containerAppsEnvironmentName
}

resource dotNetComponent 'Microsoft.App/managedEnvironments/dotNetComponents@2023-11-02-preview' = {
  name: '${containerAppsEnvironmentName}-dashboard'
  parent: cae
  properties: {
    componentType: componentType
  }
}

To deploy the Bicep module, use the following code:

module aspireDashboard 'managedEnvironmentDotNetComponent.bicep' = {
  scope: rg
  name: '${containerAppsEnvironmentName}-dashboard-${deploymentId}'
  params: {
    containerAppsEnvironmentName: cae.outputs.name
    componentType: 'AspireDashboard'
  }
}

Of course, you need to have the correct permissions to view the .NET Aspire Dashboard. To do so, assign one of the following roles to your user or group on the Azure Container Apps environment resource:

• Microsoft.App/managedEnvironments/write

• Contributor

• Owner

With Bicep, you can assign these roles as follows:

resource roleAssignment 'Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments@2022-04-01' = { 
  scope: containerAppEnvironment 
  name: '${containerAppEnvironment.name}-roleAssignment' 
  properties: { 
    roleDefinitionId: 'b24988ac-6180-42a0-ab88-20f7382dd24c' // Contributor 
    principalId: '<object id of your group>' 
    principalType: 'Group' 
  } 
} 

For a full implementation, we’ve created a gist that uses Azure Verified Modules in combination with the custom module above. You can find the gist here.

Azure CLI

To enable the .NET Aspire Dashboard on an existing Azure Container Apps environment using Azure’s own Command Line Interface (CLI), use the following:

az containerapp env dotnet-component create \ 
  --environment <ENVIRONMENT_NAME> \ 
  --name <CONTAINER_APP_NAME> \ 
  --resource-group <RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME> 

To enable access to your .NET Aspire Dashboard, assign the Microsoft.App/managedEnvironments/write role (in this case the ‘Contributor’ role) to your user or group on the Azure Container Apps environment resource.

az role assignment create \ 
  --role "Contributor" \ 
  --assignee <USER_OR_GROUP_ID> \ 
  --scope /subscriptions/<SUBSCRIPTION_ID>/resourceGroups/<RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME>/providers/Microsoft.App/managedEnvironments/<ENVIRONMENT_NAME> 

Troubleshooting

If you run into issues, the following tips might help:

• The portal may take up to two minutes to activate the dashboard. Accessing the dashboard before it’s ready may result in 404 or 421 errors.

• If you get a 421 (misdirected request) error, close the browser, wait a few minutes, and retry.

• If you receive an authentication error, ensure you have granted the Microsoft.App/managedEnvironments/write, Contributor, or Owner roles on your Azure Container Apps environment.

By following these steps, you can easily implement and use the .NET Aspire Dashboard in your Azure Container App environment. This will give you quick and efficient insights into your applications.

Still have questions? Feel free to reach out!