Using Docker Multi Stage Builds to build an ASP.NET Core Echo Server

Today I’ll show you how to create a simple Echo Server with ASP.NET Core and then a Docker Image using multi-stage build:

1. Create the Application

Open a PowerShell promt and run:

mkdir echoserver
cd echoserver
dotnet new console
dotnet add package Microsoft.AspNetCore -v 2.0.2

2. Replace the contents of Program.cs

Replace the contents of the Program.cs file with the following code:

namespace EchoServer
{
    using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
    using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;
    using Microsoft.AspNetCore;

    class Program
    {
        static int Main(string[] args)
        {
            WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder()
                .UseKestrel()
                .Configure(app =>
                    {
                        app.Run(httpContext =>
                        {
                            var request = httpContext.Request;
                            var response = httpContext.Response;

                            // Echo the Headers
                            foreach (var header in request.Headers)
                            {
                                response.Headers.Add(header);
                            }

                            // Echo the body
                            return request.Body.CopyToAsync(response.Body);
                        });
                    })
                .Build()
                .Run();

            return 0;
        }
    }
}

3. Build and Test

Run the folowing commands to build the application:

dotnet build
dotnet run

The Echo Server will be running on: http://localhost:5000 and to test it just send any request and the server should return it back to you.

Let’s try sending a GET request with a custom header:

curl -H "Custom-Header: echo" http://localhost:5000/ -i

the response should read:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2018 10:10:55 GMT
Server: Kestrel
Content-Length: 0
Accept: */*
Host: localhost:5000
User-Agent: curl/7.35.0
Custom-Header: echo

4. Create a Dockerfile

In order to run the Echo Server in a container create a Dockerfile with the following contents:

# This stage builds the application
FROM microsoft/dotnet:2.0.6-sdk-2.1.101-jessie AS builder
COPY . src
WORKDIR src
RUN dotnet restore
RUN dotnet publish -c release

# This stages uses the output from the build
FROM microsoft/dotnet:2.0.6-runtime-jessie
COPY --from=builder src/bin/release/netcoreapp2.0/publish app
WORKDIR app
ENV ASPNETCORE_URLS http://*:80
EXPOSE 80
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "echoserver.dll"]

Note: The previous Dockerfile defines a multi-stage build:

The first stage copies the source code to the image and builds the application.
The second stage uses the output of the first stage (builder) to create the final and optimized image (i.e. No need to remove the sdk or the source code).
Docker 17.05 or higher is needed in order to build and image based on a multi-stage Dockerfile.

5. Build and test the image

Run the folowing commands to build and run the docker image:

docker build -t echoserver .
docker run -p 5000:80 echoserver

To test the image just repeat the tests from step 3.

Hope it helps!

Feel free to get the code here.

Carlos Mendible