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Leandro Veiga
Leandro Veiga

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5 1

Enhanced Microservices Support in .NET 9: New Features and Best Practices

As the software landscape evolves, microservices architecture has become essential for building scalable, resilient, and maintainable applications. With .NET 9, Microsoft introduces enhancements to simplify microservices development and management. This article explores the new features that strengthen microservices support in .NET 9 and outlines best practices to leverage these improvements effectively.

Table of Contents


Introduction

Microservices architecture breaks applications into smaller, independent services that communicate via well-defined APIs. .NET 9 enhances this approach with features that streamline development, boost performance, and provide observability.


New Features for Microservices in .NET 9

Improved Minimal APIs

  • Route Grouping: Organize endpoints logically for cleaner codebases.
  • Enhanced Parameter Binding: Simplify request parameter binding to method arguments.
  • OpenAPI Integration: Auto-generate OpenAPI/Swagger documentation for easier integration.

Example: Creating a Grouped Minimal API

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
var app = builder.Build();

var ordersGroup = app.MapGroup("/orders");

ordersGroup.MapGet("/", () => Results.Ok(new[] { "Order1", "Order2" }));
ordersGroup.MapPost("/", (Order order) => Results.Created($"/orders/{order.Id}", order));

app.Run();
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Enhanced Performance and Scalability

  • Improved Garbage Collection: Reduce latency with better memory management.
  • Asynchronous Programming Enhancements: Handle high loads efficiently.
  • Optimized Serialization: Boost JSON serialization/deserialization performance.

Integrated Observability Tools

  • Enhanced Logging: Support for structured and flexible logging.
  • Distributed Tracing: Trace requests across multiple services for performance insights.
  • Metrics and Health Checks: Gain real-time visibility into service performance.

Example: Configuring Distributed Tracing

builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetryTracing(tracerProviderBuilder =>
{
    tracerProviderBuilder
        .AddAspNetCoreInstrumentation()
        .AddHttpClientInstrumentation()
        .AddJaegerExporter(options =>
        {
            options.AgentHost = "localhost";
            options.AgentPort = 6831;
        });
});
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Advanced Dependency Injection

  • Scoped Services Enhancements: Avoid service leakage with better lifetime management.
  • Open Generics Support: Register and resolve open generic types flexibly.
  • Decorator Patterns: Simplify modular service extensions.

Example: Registering a Decorator Service

services.AddTransient<IOrderService, OrderService>();
services.Decorate<IOrderService, LoggingOrderService>();
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Best Practices for Building Microservices with .NET 9

Designing for Resilience

  • Circuit Breakers: Prevent continuous calls to failing services (e.g., Polly).
  • Retry Policies: Enhance reliability for transient failures.
  • Graceful Degradation: Handle dependency failures smoothly.

Example: Using Polly for Retry and Circuit Breaker

services.AddHttpClient<IOrderClient, OrderClient>()
    .AddPolicyHandler(Policy.Handle<HttpRequestException>().RetryAsync(3))
    .AddPolicyHandler(Policy.Handle<HttpRequestException>().CircuitBreakerAsync(2, TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1)));
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Efficient Communication Patterns

  • Synchronous vs. Asynchronous: Choose HTTP calls for real-time and messaging for decoupled interactions.
  • API Gateway: Centralize routing, authentication, and rate-limiting.
  • Service Mesh: Use Istio or Linkerd for secure and observable communication.

Implementing Robust Security Measures

  • Authentication & Authorization: Use JWT Tokens and ASP.NET Core Identity.
  • Secure Communications: Enforce HTTPS for all service communications.
  • Secret Management: Use Azure Key Vault or AWS Secrets Manager for sensitive information.

Example: Configuring JWT Authentication

builder.Services.AddAuthentication(JwtBearerDefaults.AuthenticationScheme)
    .AddJwtBearer(options =>
    {
        options.TokenValidationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters
        {
            ValidateIssuer = true,
            ValidateAudience = true,
            ValidateLifetime = true,
            ValidateIssuerSigningKey = true,
            ValidIssuer = "yourdomain.com",
            ValidAudience = "yourdomain.com",
            IssuerSigningKey = new SymmetricSecurityKey(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("YourSuperSecretKey"))
        };
    });
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Automated Testing and Continuous Integration

  • Testing: Implement unit and integration tests for reliability.
  • CI/CD Pipelines: Use tools like GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps.
  • Infrastructure as Code: Manage infrastructure with tools like Terraform.

Example: GitHub Actions Workflow for .NET Microservices

name: CI/CD Pipeline

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  build:
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - name: Set up .NET
        uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v2
        with:
          dotnet-version: 6.0.x
      - run: dotnet build
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Conclusion

.NET 9’s enhanced microservices features simplify development, improve performance, and provide robust observability tools. By adopting best practices, developers can build scalable, secure, and resilient microservices.


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