.NET Aspire Azure Key Vault integration
In this article, you learn how to use the .NET Aspire Azure Key Vault integration. The Aspire.Azure.Key.Vault
integration library is used to register a SecretClient in the DI container for connecting to Azure Key Vault. It also enables corresponding health checks, logging and telemetry.
Get started
To get started with the .NET Aspire Azure Key Vault integration, install the 📦 Aspire.Azure.Security.KeyVault NuGet package in the client-consuming project, i.e., the project for the application that uses the Azure Key Vault client.
dotnet add package Aspire.Azure.Security.KeyVault
For more information, see dotnet add package or Manage package dependencies in .NET applications.
Example usage
THe following sections describe various example usages.
Add secrets to configuration
In the Program.cs file of your client-consuming project, call the AddAzureKeyVaultSecrets extension to add the secrets in the Azure Key Vault to the application's Configuration. The method takes a connection name parameter.
builder.Configuration.AddAzureKeyVaultSecrets("secrets");
You can then retrieve a secret through normal IConfiguration APIs. For example, to retrieve a secret from a service:
public class ExampleService(IConfiguration configuration)
{
string secretValue = configuration["secretKey"];
// Use secretValue ...
}
Use SecretClient
Alternatively, you can use a SecretClient
to retrieve the secrets on demand. In the Program.cs file of your client-consuming project, call the AddAzureKeyVaultClient extension to register a SecretClient
for use via the dependency injection container.
builder.AddAzureKeyVaultClient("secrets");
You can then retrieve the SecretClient instance using dependency injection. For example, to retrieve the client from a service:
public class ExampleService(SecretClient client)
{
// Use client...
}
App host usage
To add Azure Key Vault hosting support to your IDistributedApplicationBuilder, install the 📦 Aspire.Hosting.Azure.KeyVault NuGet package in the app host project.
dotnet add package Aspire.Hosting.Azure.KeyVault
In your app host project, register the Azure Key Vault integration and consume the service using the following methods:
var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
var secrets = builder.ExecutionContext.IsPublishMode
? builder.AddAzureKeyVault("secrets")
: builder.AddConnectionString("secrets");
builder.AddProject<Projects.ExampleProject>()
.WithReference(secrets)
The preceding code conditionally adds the Azure Key Vault resource to the project based on the execution context. If the app host is executing in publish mode, the resource is added otherwise the connection string to an existing resource is added.
Configuration
The .NET Aspire Azure Key Vault integration provides multiple options to configure the SecretClient
based on the requirements and conventions of your project.
Use configuration providers
The .NET Aspire Azure Key Vault integration supports Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration. It loads the AzureSecurityKeyVaultSettings from appsettings.json or other configuration files using Aspire:Azure:Security:KeyVault
key.
{
"Aspire": {
"Azure": {
"Security": {
"KeyVault": {
"VaultUri": "YOUR_VAULT_URI",
"DisableHealthChecks": false,
"DisableTracing": true,
"ClientOptions": {
"DisableChallengeResourceVerification": true
}
}
}
}
}
}
If you have set up your configurations in the Aspire:Azure:Security:KeyVault
section of your appsettings.json file you can just call the method AddAzureKeyVaultSecrets
without passing any parameters.
Use inline delegates
You can also pass the Action<AzureSecurityKeyVaultSettings>
delegate to set up some or all the options inline, for example to set the VaultUri
:
builder.AddAzureKeyVaultSecrets(
"secrets",
static settings => settings.VaultUri = new Uri("YOUR_VAULTURI"));
Tip
The AddAzureKeyVaultSecrets
API name has caused a bit of confusion. The method is used to configure the SecretClient
and not to add secrets to the configuration.
You can also set up the SecretClientOptions using Action<IAzureClientBuilder<SecretClient, SecretClientOptions>>
delegate, the second parameter of the AddAzureKeyVaultSecrets
method. For example to set the KeyClientOptions.DisableChallengeResourceVerification ID to identify the client:
builder.AddAzureKeyVaultSecrets(
"secrets",
static clientBuilder =>
clientBuilder.ConfigureOptions(
static options => options.DisableChallengeResourceVerification = true))
Configuration options
The following configurable options are exposed through the AzureSecurityKeyVaultSettings class:
Name | Description |
---|---|
VaultUri |
A URI to the vault on which the client operates. Appears as "DNS Name" in the Azure portal. |
Credential |
The credential used to authenticate to the Azure Key Vault. |
DisableHealthChecks |
A boolean value that indicates whether the Key Vault health check is disabled or not. |
DisableTracing |
A boolean value that indicates whether the OpenTelemetry tracing is disabled or not. |
Health checks
By default, .NET Aspire integrations enable health checks for all services. For more information, see .NET Aspire integrations overview.
The .NET Aspire Azure Key Vault integration includes the following health checks:
- Adds the
AzureKeyVaultSecretsHealthCheck
health check, which attempts to connect to and query the Key Vault - Integrates with the
/health
HTTP endpoint, which specifies all registered health checks must pass for app to be considered ready to accept traffic
Observability and telemetry
.NET Aspire integrations automatically set up Logging, Tracing, and Metrics configurations, which are sometimes known as the pillars of observability. For more information about integration observability and telemetry, see .NET Aspire integrations overview. Depending on the backing service, some integrations may only support some of these features. For example, some integrations support logging and tracing, but not metrics. Telemetry features can also be disabled using the techniques presented in the Configuration section.
Logging
The .NET Aspire Azure Key Vault integration uses the following log categories:
Azure.Core
Azure.Identity
Tracing
The .NET Aspire Azure Key Vault integration will emit the following tracing activities using OpenTelemetry:
- "Azure.Security.KeyVault.Secrets.SecretClient"
Metrics
The .NET Aspire Azure Key Vault integration currently does not support metrics by default due to limitations with the Azure SDK.