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.

• 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. 

Try .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.

Examples

Now that you have .NET installed on your Power machine, give these examples 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:

• For .NET applications that access 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 too EDB PostgreSQL

• For .NET applications that access a backend database on a DIFFERENT system:

  • C# program on Linux partition connects to remote database server on IBM i using ODBC. This will blog will give you an idea of what it takes to run .NET applications on Linux on Power without having to move your data from an existing IBM i system.

  • C# program on Linux partition that connects to Oracle on an AIX partition. This blog demonstrates how to connect a .NET 7 application running on a RHEL 8.7 partition to an Oracle Server running on an IBM AIX partition.

Migrate your existing .NET 7 applications to Linux on Power

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.

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.

Advanced examples

• 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.

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

• Debugging tips and tricks. 

  • Basic debugging techniques for .NET applications

  • Debugging .NET C# apps with ilasm and ildasm

• .NET 7 on ppc64le Fedora – Now available!

Hands-on demos on IBM TechZone

• 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.

Note that you must be an IBM Partner to access all 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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