Environment Variable and Path for Self Contained Deployment for Asp.net Core 2.x Application

[Abhinav.Galodha]

I need a clarification regarding the Resolution of relative path to the profiler Dll while setting up the AppD Agent for the Asp.net core application in the environment variables. 

Our application uses SCD (Self contained Deployment) and is deployed in on Premise IIS Servers. My Question is regarding the Path location for the AppDynamics Profile dll (AppDynamics.Profiler_x86.dll, AppDynamics.Profiler_x64.dll) for Environment Variable CORECLR_PROFILER_PATH_32 and CORECLR_PROFILER_PATH_64.

Is AppDynamics able to resolve the relative path correctly if the value of the environment variable CORECLR_PROFILER_PATH_32  is ".\AppDynamics.Profiler_x86.dll"? 

The web.config looks like

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<handlers>
<add name="aspNetCore" path="*" verb="*" modules="AspNetCoreModule" resourceType="Unspecified" />
</handlers>
<aspNetCore processPath=".\Service.exe" stdoutLogEnabled="true" stdoutLogFile=".\logs\stdout" >
<environmentVariables>
<environmentVariable name="ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT" value="Staging" />
<environmentVariable name="CORECLR_ENABLE_PROFILING" value="1" />
<environmentVariable name="CORECLR_PROFILER" value="{39AEABC1-56A5-405F-B8E7-C3668490DB4A}"/>
<environmentVariable name="CORECLR_PROFILER_PATH_32" value=".\AppDynamics.Profiler_x86.dll"/>
<environmentVariable name="CORECLR_PROFILER_PATH_64" value=".\AppDynamics.Profiler_x64.dll"/>
</environmentVariables>
</aspNetCore>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>

I am following the instructions at the link 

https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRO44/Install+the+.NET+Core+Microservices+Agent+for+Windows

As per the second instruction, we need to set the following environment variables and the path should be the Complete path. 

Set up your Environment Variables for your system application:

CORECLR_ENABLE_PROFILING=1
CORECLR_PROFILER={39AEABC1-56A5-405F-B8E7-C3668490DB4A}
CORECLR_PROFILER_PATH_32=<actual_path>\AppDynamics.Profiler_x86.dll
CORECLR_PROFILER_PATH_64=<actual_path>\AppDynamics.Profiler_x64.dll

Where <actual_path> is the complete path to the AppDynamics.Profiler dll.

[Ashish.Singh · Accepted solution]

Hi Abhinav,

Yes, The relative path will also work and resolve correctly.

For example, if we use the below configuration in the Web.config file. It works and agent is able to instrument the application.

<environmentVariables>
<environmentVariable name="CORECLR_ENABLE_PROFILING" value="1" />
<environmentVariable name="CORECLR_PROFILER" value="{39AEABC1-56A5-405F-B8E7-C3668490DB4A}" />
<environmentVariable name="CORECLR_PROFILER_PATH_64" value=".\AppDynamics.Profiler_x64.dll" />
</environmentVariables>

Let us know if it helps or you have any question on this.

Thanks,

Ashish.

[Abhinav.Galodha]

Thanks Ashish for the prompt Response.

It might be helpful, if you could add this information in the docs. Another developer understood that only Absolute path is supported.

https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRO44/Install+the+.NET+Core+Microservices+Agent+for+Windows "Where <actual_path> is the complete path to the AppDynamics.Profiler dll."

Thanks,

Abhinav Galodha

[Jeanie.Kedia]

Thanks for the feedback @Abhinav.Galodha

[Ashish.Singh]

Thanks Abhinav for the update.

In the document ( https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRO44/Install+the+.NET+Core+Microservices+Agent+for+Windows), the suggested Environment variables are for the System level. So there we need to provide the complete path. 

But when we configure these Environment variables at the specific application level and configure through web.config file. We can also give the relative path as suggested. it will also work.

We will share the suggestion with the document team to update this information.

Thanks,

Ashish.