Stop running migrations by default

[abhjitsantra]

I am using Elsa v3 and I have created a separate project to deal with the schema migrations. The plan is to run the migrations only when I upgrade the Elsa packages. The problem I am having is that, though I have created fresh migration and applied on the database after package upgrade, the project complains about some table already exists during startup. How can I deal with this? I can't afford deleting the DB each time I do upgrade Elsa packages.

[sfmskywalker]

Hello @abhjitsantra

I completely understand, and maintaining your own migrations is the recommended approach, because this gives you full control over when and how you update your schemas.

So, you are right to want to opt-out of automatically running migrations. To do so, set the RunMigrations flag to false when configuring a feature with EF Core.

For example:

services.AddElsa(elsa => 
{
   elsa.UseIdentity(identity => identity.UseEntityFrameworkCore(ef => ef.RunMigrations = false));
   elsa.UseManagement(management => management.UseEntityFrameworkCore(ef => ef.RunMigrations = false));
   elsa.UseRuntime(runtime => runtime.UseEntityFrameworkCore(ef => ef.RunMigrations = false));
})

I hope this helps!

[jsUnitedLex]

@sfmskywalker I'm coming up short running the migrations manually in our pipelines using an EF bundle. Is this something that is supported?

[sfmskywalker]

@jsUnitedLex Yes that's supported. Although I haven't confirmed the exact steps, here are some pointers you might explore:

• Disable automatically running migrations (see my previous message explaining how to do that)
• Add a pipeline step that uses the dotnet cli EF Core tool to apply the necessary migrations.

That should be it.

[jsUnitedLex]

Thank you

[jsUnitedLex]

@sfmskywalker Is this path still valid as well?
https://v2.elsaworkflows.io/docs/installation/persistence#running-migrations-manually
If so, should we be using the v2 persistence packages or are there others for v3?

[sfmskywalker]

Although that document targets running Elsa 2 migrations, the general principle is the same for Elsa 3 in case you wih to generate and maintain your own migrations:

• Create your own design-time DB context factory classes for the various DB contexts you want to generate migrations for (take a look at the elsa-extensions project in the main branch and look for the Elsa.Persistence.EFCore. In there, you'll find a Modules folder containing DB context classes for which you will want to generate migrations.
• Run the appropriate CLI command to generate the migrations.

In case you only want to update the database with existing migrations, you only need to use the appropriate CLI command for that and specify the existing DB context provided by the Elsa.Persistence.EFCore.* packages (in case of 3.6.0-preview.xxx - we have renamed the packages from Elsa.EntityFrameworkCore,* to Elsa.Persistence.EFCore.*).

In any case, don't use any v2 packages when using Elsa 3 packages.