Skip to main content

Extend NuGet Server to store packages on Azure Blob Storage

By
Continuing the last post about Azure Web Apps and Data Disk size limit let's assume that you want to host inside a Web App a NuGet Server. The server would require more storage than you have available on the current tier that you use and upgrading the tier would be too expensive.

The good part with NuGet is that we are talking about an open-source project that can be modified and extended depending on our needs and requirements. The current NuGet implementation allows us to store packages on disk or to fetch them from external data sources as long as they are available over HTTP. Basically, they are allowing us to have a remote repository 

An interesting idea would be to extend NuGet to allow us to store package content inside Azure Blob Storage and not on the disk. This would involve the capability to fetch the payload of packages from Blob storage directly, without having to store them on a local disk.
Taking into account the current implementation and how NuGet libraries are structured internally, I think that it can be achieved easily with a minimal effort. After a short review (15 minutes) of NuGet libraries, I identified a few interfaces and classes that are relevant to do such a thing. 

The most important classes/interfaces that we need to be aware of are:
  1. IServerPackageRepository: Provides access to the file system, in this case, we need to rewrite it to support Blob storage
  2. IPackageService & PackageService: Package download capabilities 
  3. IPackage: Defines a package with all the supported functionality
Beside this, you might be interested to take a look on:
1. Core interfaces used to download and access package payload
  • IPackageDownloader
  • IPackageContentReader
  • IAsyncPackageContentReader
2. Core implementation to read and extract packages
  • PackageReaderBase
  • PackageFolderReader
  • PackageExtractor
3. Mechanisms used to access package content
  • NuGet.Protocol.LocalRepository
  • NuGet.Protocol.RemoteRepositories
  • NuGet.Protocol.PackagesFolder
  • NuGet.Protocol.HttpSource
4. Core factory to create and register specific repository providers
  • FactoryExtensionsV3
Once we implemented the NuGet extension for Azure Storage, we would need to rebind the NuGet 'kernel' to use our own implementations of Package Repository and custom Package implementation. 

The idea is not new, there were already other people that tried it, but because of lack of time they were not able to finish it. If you want to get some inspiration or to give a hand, please visit the following GitHub repository - https://github.com/Assassyn/Nuget.Server.AzureStorage. Even if it was not updated in the last few years, it is still a good starting point. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Windows Docker Containers can make WIN32 API calls, use COM and ASP.NET WebForms

By
After the last post , I received two interesting questions related to Docker and Windows. People were interested if we do Win32 API calls from a Docker container and if there is support for COM. WIN32 Support To test calls to WIN32 API, let’s try to populate SYSTEM_INFO class. [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)] public struct SYSTEM_INFO { public uint dwOemId; public uint dwPageSize; public uint lpMinimumApplicationAddress; public uint lpMaximumApplicationAddress; public uint dwActiveProcessorMask; public uint dwNumberOfProcessors; public uint dwProcessorType; public uint dwAllocationGranularity; public uint dwProcessorLevel; public uint dwProcessorRevision; } ... [DllImport("kernel32")] static extern void GetSystemInfo(ref SYSTEM_INFO pSI); ... SYSTEM_INFO pSI = new SYSTEM_INFO(...
Post a Comment
Read more

How to audit an Azure Cosmos DB

By
In this post, we will talk about how we can audit an Azure Cosmos DB database. Before jumping into the problem let us define the business requirement: As an Administrator I want to be able to audit all changes that were done to specific collection inside my Azure Cosmos DB. The requirement is simple, but can be a little tricky to implement fully. First of all when you are using Azure Cosmos DB or any other storage solution there are 99% odds that you’ll have more than one system that writes data to it. This means that you have or not have control on the systems that are doing any create/update/delete operations. Solution 1: Diagnostic Logs Cosmos DB allows us activate diagnostics logs and stream the output a storage account for achieving to other systems like Event Hub or Log Analytics. This would allow us to have information related to who, when, what, response code and how the access operation to our Cosmos DB was done. Beside this there is a field that specifies what was th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cloud Myths: Cloud is Cheaper (Pill 1 of 5 / Cloud Pills)

By
Cloud Myths: Cloud is Cheaper (Pill 1 of 5 / Cloud Pills) The idea that moving to the cloud reduces the costs is a common misconception. The cloud infrastructure provides flexibility, scalability, and better CAPEX, but it does not guarantee lower costs without proper optimisation and management of the cloud services and infrastructure. Idle and unused resources, overprovisioning, oversize databases, and unnecessary data transfer can increase running costs. The regional pricing mode, multi-cloud complexity, and cost variety add extra complexity to the cost function. Cloud adoption without a cost governance strategy can result in unexpected expenses. Improper usage, combined with a pay-as-you-go model, can result in a nightmare for business stakeholders who cannot track and manage the monthly costs. Cloud-native services such as AI services, managed databases, and analytics platforms are powerful, provide out-of-the-shelve capabilities, and increase business agility and innovation. H...
Post a Comment
Read more