Learn about .NET on Power

• Read the .NET 7 announcement from Microsoft.

• Read this article from Red Hat that describes what developers need to know about .NET 7 for RHEL and OpenShift.

• Learn how .NET 7 on Linux on Power is different from the Mono project that has been around for many years.

• .NET 7 on ppc64le Fedora – Now available!

• Cross build .NET 7 on x86 for IBM Power. This blog shows you how to take the upstream .NET code and build an SDK for ppc64le on the distro of your choice, which is a longer, more complex task.

Get started with .NET on Power

When you're ready to try .NET on Power, check these resources to get you started.

Get access to a Power machine

Read this blog, Accelerate your open source development with access to IBM Power resources, that lists several IBM Power cloud, emulation, and on-prem options to help you get access to development tools and resources.

• Enterprise users might consider Power Virtual Server

• Independent software developers (ISVs) and Business Partners might consider IBM TechZone

• ISVs may also consider a RADAR-ISV system in Montpellier France

• Open source developers might consider the Open Source Lab at Oregon State University.

Install .NET and run your first Hello World program

After you have access to a Power machine, you're ready to install .NET and run a sample Hello World application on IBM Power.

Lift & shift your existing .NET 7 applications to Linux on Power

• Demystifying .NET NuGet package compatibility on IBM Power. In this blog, you'll get a crash course on NuGet, the official package manager for .NET that empowers developers to seamlessly package and distribute their software crafted using .NET framework.

• This blog, IdentityServer (SQLite DB) on .NET 7, shows you how to migrate a .NET 3.1 application (IdentityServer) with a SQLite backend to .NET 7 on a Power system running Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.7 or 9.1.

.NET on Power use cases

Now that you have .NET installed on your Power machine, give these example use cases a try.

Connect your .NET application to a database

A .NET application can connect to backend database servers using Entity Framework (EF) Core, ADO.NET, ODBC, or native drivers. The following blogs cover several of these scenarios based on whether the database is on the same server as the .NET app or not:

Connect to a backend database on the SAME system

• C# program that connects to MariaDB using an ODBC connector

• C# program that connects to a NoSQL database (MongoDB using native drivers)

• C# program that connects to Postgres using EF Core

• C# program that connects to SQLite database using EF Core

• C# program that connects to MySQL server using ADO.Net

• C# application that connects to Microsoft SQL database

• C# application that connects to EDB PostgreSQL

• C# application that connects to Apache Cassandra

Connect to a backend database on a DIFFERENT system

• C# program on Linux partition connects to remote database server on IBM i using ODBC.

• C# program on Linux partition that connects to Oracle on an AIX partition. 

Advanced use cases

• Develop .NET applications on IBM Power using Virtual Studio Code with OpenShift Dev Spaces. In this blog, you'll learn to install and use Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces to code, build, test, run, and debug your .NET applications on Power.

• Grpc.Tools package for C# on Power. In this blog, you'll learn how to build the Grpc.Tools package for C# on IBM Linux on Power. We'll walk you through the process of verifying the port of the Grpc.Tools package on Power, using a sample gRPC application written in C# giving you a better understanding of how to leverage this package to create efficient APIs.

Debugging tips and tricks

• Basic debugging techniques for .NET applications

• Debugging .NET C# apps with ilasm and ildasm

• Debugging .NET: Unraveling managed method names

Demos

• Watch this demo to learn about deploying a .NET 7 application using ASP.NET Core with SignalR library on IBM Power with Red Hat OpenShift using both the command line and s2i via the OpenShift GUI. 

• Bringing .NET to life on IBM Power shows you how you can benefit from cloud with greater sustainability, scale, security, performance, and economics when consolidating existing .NET applications from x86 to Power. This collection includes access to an OpenShift cluster, a demo video plus instructions and resources to help you complete the demo.

• Build a dotnet image and deploy a full microservice application on a Power cluster walks you through the process of porting an open source solution from x86 to Power. The solution is built using various microservices, has been updated to include a single .NET microservice, and includes access to an OpenShift cluster to try the demo yourself.

• For even more demos and articles about .NET on Power, go to @Paul Chapman's blog: https://nas01.tallpaul.net/wordpress/

Note that you must be an IBM Partner to access TechZone demos and resources.

Start a conversation

I'd like to thank @Paul Chapman, @Janani Janakiraman @Sapana Khemkar @Alhad Deshpande @Ashwini and the entire IBM Power Open Source Ecosystem team for the thoughtful, informative contributions included here.

Please drop a note in the comments section below (you'll need to join the community to comment) and tell us what other topics you'd like us to cover and/or provide your valuable feedback.

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