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.NET Aspire Seq integration

  • Article

In this article, you learn how to use the .NET Aspire Seq integration to add OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) exporters that send logs and traces to a Seq Server. The integration supports persistent logs and traces across application restarts via configuration.

Get started

To get started with the .NET Aspire Seq integration, install the Aspire.Seq NuGet package in the client-consuming project, i.e., the project for the application that uses the Seq client.

dotnet add package Aspire.Seq

For more information, see dotnet add package or Manage package dependencies in .NET applications.

Example usage

In the Program.cs file of your projects, call the AddSeqEndpoint extension method to register OpenTelemetry Protocol exporters to send logs and traces to Seq and the .NET Aspire Dashboard. The method takes a connection name parameter.

builder.AddSeqEndpoint("seq");

App host usage

To model the Seq resource in the app host, install the Aspire.Hosting.Seq NuGet package in the app host project.

dotnet add package Aspire.Hosting.Seq

In your app host project, register a Seq database and consume the connection using the following methods:

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var seq = builder.AddSeq("seq")
                 .ExcludeFromManifest();

var myService = builder.AddProject<Projects.MyService>()
                       .WithReference(seq);

The preceding code registers a Seq server and propagates its configuration.

Important

You must accept the Seq End User Licence Agreement for Seq to start):

In the Program.cs file of the MyService project, configure logging and tracing to Seq using the following code:

builder.AddSeqEndpoint("seq");

Seq in the .NET Aspire manifest

Seq shouldn't be part of the .NET Aspire deployment manifest, hence the chained call to ExcludeFromManifest. It's recommended you set up a secure production Seq server outside of .NET Aspire.

Persistent logs and traces

Register Seq with a data directory in your AppHost project to retain Seq's data and configuration across application restarts.

var seq = builder.AddSeq("seq", seqDataDirectory: "./seqdata")
                 .ExcludeFromManifest();

The directory specified must already exist.

Configuration

The .NET Aspire Seq integration provides options to configure the connection to Seq.

Use configuration providers

The .NET Aspire Seq integration supports Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration. It loads the SeqSettings from configuration by using the Aspire:Seq key. Example appsettings.json that configures some of the options:

{
  "Aspire": {
    "Seq": {
      "DisableHealthChecks": true,
      "ServerUrl": "http://localhost:5341"
    }
  }
}

Use inline delegates

You can pass the Action<SeqSettings> configureSettings delegate to set up some or all the options inline, for example to disable health checks from code:

builder.AddSeqEndpoint("seq", static settings => 
{
    settings.DisableHealthChecks  = true;
    settings.ServerUrl = "http://localhost:5341"
});

Health checks

By default, .NET Aspire integrations enable health checks for all services. For more information, see .NET Aspire integrations overview.

The .NET Aspire Seq integration handles the following:

  • 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 Seq integration uses the following log categories:

  • Seq

See also