docker

Docker

Core Principles

1. Multi-stage builds always — Separate build and runtime stages. Build in the SDK image, run in the ASP.NET runtime image.
2. Non-root by default — .NET container images support USER app by default since .NET 8. Never run as root in production.
3. Layer caching matters — Copy .csproj files and restore before copying source code. This caches NuGet dependencies across builds.
4. Health probes at the orchestrator level — Expose a /health/live endpoint and let Kubernetes/Compose probe it. Chiseled and default aspnet images have no shell or curl, so in-image HEALTHCHECK commands have nothing to run with.

Patterns

Multi-Stage Dockerfile for Web API

# Stage 1: Build
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:10.0 AS build
WORKDIR /src

Copy project files and restore (cached layer)

COPY ["src/MyApp.Api/MyApp.Api.csproj", "src/MyApp.Api/"] COPY ["src/MyApp.Domain/MyApp.Domain.csproj", "src/MyApp.Domain/"] COPY ["Directory.Build.props", "."] COPY ["Directory.Packages.props", "."] RUN dotnet restore "src/MyApp.Api/MyApp.Api.csproj"

Copy everything and build

COPY . . RUN dotnet publish "src/MyApp.Api/MyApp.Api.csproj"
-c Release
-o /app/publish
--no-restore

Stage 2: Runtime

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:10.0 AS runtime WORKDIR /app

Non-root user (default in .NET 8+ images)

USER app

COPY --from=build /app/publish .

EXPOSE 8080

ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "MyApp.Api.dll"]

### Container Health Probes

Prefer orchestrator-level probes (Kubernetes `livenessProbe`, Compose
`healthcheck`) over a Dockerfile `HEALTHCHECK` — the standard `aspnet` and
chiseled images ship no shell, no curl, and no wget, so there is nothing inside
the container to run the probe with. Point the orchestrator at `/health/live`:

```yaml
# docker-compose — probe from outside the app process
services:
  api:
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "wget -qO- http://localhost:8080/health/live || exit 1"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 3s
      retries: 3
# Note: CMD-SHELL requires a shell + wget in the image. Use a non-chiseled
# variant for this, or better: let Kubernetes httpGet probes do it —
# they run from the kubelet, needing nothing inside the image.

If you must have an in-image HEALTHCHECK, base the runtime stage on a non-chiseled image that includes wget — never re-run the app binary as the probe command; that starts a second instance instead of checking the first.

.dockerignore

**/.git
**/.vs
**/bin
**/obj
**/node_modules
**/Dockerfile*
**/docker-compose*
**/tests

Docker Compose for Local Development

Key .NET-specific concerns — pass connection strings via environment, use depends_on with health checks:

services:
  api:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: src/MyApp.Api/Dockerfile
    ports:
      - "5000:8080"
    environment:
      - ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Development
      - ConnectionStrings__Default=Host=postgres;Database=myapp;Username=postgres;Password=postgres
      - ConnectionStrings__Redis=redis:6379
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
  # Add postgres/redis services with healthcheck — standard boilerplate

Optimized Build with .slnx

For solutions with multiple projects, restore only the necessary projects.

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:10.0 AS build
WORKDIR /src

# Copy solution and all project files
COPY *.slnx .
COPY Directory.Build.props .
COPY Directory.Packages.props .
COPY src/**/*.csproj ./src/

# Restore project structure
RUN for file in src/**/*.csproj; do \
    mkdir -p $(dirname $file) && mv $file $(dirname $file)/; \
    done
RUN dotnet restore

COPY . .
RUN dotnet publish src/MyApp.Api -c Release -o /app/publish --no-restore

Health Check Endpoint

// In Program.cs — lightweight health endpoint for Docker
app.MapGet("/health/live", () => Results.Ok("healthy"))
    .ExcludeFromDescription();

Anti-patterns

Don't Use SDK Image for Runtime

# BAD — SDK image is 900MB+, includes compilers
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:10.0
COPY . .
RUN dotnet run

# GOOD — separate build and runtime, runtime image is ~200MB
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:10.0

Don't Copy Everything Before Restore

# BAD — any source change invalidates the NuGet cache
COPY . .
RUN dotnet restore

# GOOD — copy only project files first, then restore
COPY ["src/MyApp.Api/MyApp.Api.csproj", "src/MyApp.Api/"]
RUN dotnet restore "src/MyApp.Api/MyApp.Api.csproj"
COPY . .

Don't Run as Root

# BAD — running as root (security risk)
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:10.0
COPY --from=build /app .
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "MyApp.Api.dll"]

# GOOD — use the built-in non-root user
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:10.0
USER app
COPY --from=build /app .
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "MyApp.Api.dll"]

Decision Guide

Scenario	Recommendation
Web API container	Multi-stage build with aspnet runtime image
Worker service	Multi-stage build with dotnet/runtime image
Local development	Docker Compose with service dependencies
CI builds	Multi-stage build (self-contained)
Image size optimization	Use Alpine variant + trimming for small images
Health monitoring	/health endpoint + orchestrator probe (K8s httpGet / Compose healthcheck)
Secrets	Environment variables or mounted secrets, never in image