Microsoft has released a major update to Visual Studio 2017 in the form of version 15.5.6. Visual Studio 2017 version 15.5.6 focuses on new features, productivity improvements, and other enhancements that address our customers’ feedback.
You can update to Visual Studio 2017 version 15.5.6 by opening the Visual Studio Installer and clicking ‘Update’.
What’s New in this Release: Service Fabric Tooling for the 6.1 Service Fabric release.
General availability of .NET Standard 2.0 on Service Fabric for Windows
Version 3.0 of the Service Fabric .NET NuGet packages are now available with .NET Standard 2.0 support. In this release the Service Fabric NuGet packages also continue to support earlier versions of .NET Framework, down to 4.5.2. Support for full cross-platform .NET Core 2.0 services is coming out incrementally. In this release, .NET Core 2.0 services are only supported on Service Fabric for Windows. Full cross-platform support for .NET Core 2.0 services on Windows and Linux is coming soon.
Docker Health Check Integration and Logs
Service Fabric now automatically integrates Docker Health Check events into its system health report. This means that you can configure the integration behavior by specifying it as HealthConfigs options in the ApplicationManifest. Check out the release notes for more information. We’ve also introduced APIs to get logs from running containers. Logs are also being exposed in Service Fabric Explorer.
Service Fabric Explorer Standalone
We have released a version of Service Fabric Explorer (SFX) as a standalone application for Windows and Linux. You can use the SFX Standalone without having to install the Service Fabric SDK. This is a step to enabling us to release more frequent updates to the GUI management tool for Service Fabric. At the same time we have also open sourced the code, enabling all of you to contribute. Check out this doc to read more about SFX standalone https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-visualizing-your-cluster.The GitHub repository for Service Fabric Explorer can be found here https://github.com/Azure/service-fabric-explorer.
Service Fabric Clusters in DevTest Labs
Azure DevTest Labs is a service that helps developers and testers quickly create environments in Azure while minimizing waste and controlling cost. Using the new environment feature in Azure DevTest Labs, we have published guidance on how to use this for Service Fabric clusters. This gives you a great way of optimizing and control your cloud spending working with Service Fabric clusters. See this blog post for more information: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/devtestlab/2018/01/08/service-fabric-in-devtest-lab-environments/
Service Fabric Linux Clusters in a Container
We have provided a pre-configured Docker container image to run Service Fabric Linux clusters in a container. The main scenario is to provide a light-weight development experience for MacOS, but the container will also run on Linux and Windows, using Docker CE.
To get started, follow the directions here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-get-started-mac and https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-local-linux-cluster-windows
New Visual Studio Service Fabric Tooling 2.0
We have an updated version of our Visual Studio Service Fabric Tools! It contains the following new functionality:
- .NET Core 2.0 project templates
- Publish dialog now allows you to create a new test cluster from within Visual Studio
- Refresh mode and one-node cluster are now the defaults
If you are using Visual Studio 2017 the updated tooling is part of the 15.5.6 update, you will receive a notification within Visual Studio. If you are using Visual Studio 2015 you can get the updated tooling using Web Platform Installer, check the release notes for direct download links.
Release Notes
The release notes for this release, including download links and repository references can be found here: Microsoft-Azure-Service-Fabric-Release-Notes-SDK-3.0-Runtime-6.1
Cluster Upgrade
Versions 6.1.183 (Linux) and 6.1.456 (Windows) of the runtime are now available for new and existing clusters in Azure. Existing Windows clusters are being upgraded with these releases, if configured for automatic upgrades.
Service Fabric Standalone Package for Windows
The standalone package for Windows version 6.1 is available here: Download link
Service Fabric .NET SDK
The 3.0 version of the Service Fabric .NET SDK, will be available for download through Web Platform installer (WebPI), early next week. Check the release notes for direct download links.
