Critical: .NET install domains and URLs are changing

[richlander]

.NET binaries and installers have moved to a new domain -- builds.dotnet.microsoft.com -- backed by a new Content Delivery Network (CDN). You may need to make changes to adjust.

Tracking issue: #9674

.NET Team Status:

• azureedge.net scream tests are starting
• See: Plan to disable azureedge.net domains #9676

Recommended action:

• Read Critical: .NET Install links are changing for an overview.
• Update azureedge.net references
• Update local copies of install script
• Update pinned references to actions/setup-dotnet
• Validate that firewall rules are resilient to using new domains.

Last update: 2025.01.23
Next update: 2025.02.04

Context

Some .NET binaries and installers have been hosted on Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) domains that end in .azureedge.net. These domains were hosted by edg.io, which has ceased operations due to bankruptcy. We migrated to a new CDN and will be using new domains going forward.

We expectazureedge.net domains to cease by 5/31 (at latest).

.NET Team Remediation

New domains were created:

• builds.dotnet.microsoft.com for signed official builds
• ci.dot.net for unsigned builds

Test links for new CDN:

• https://builds.dotnet.microsoft.com/dotnet/health.txt
• https://builds.dotnet.microsoft.com/dotnet/release-metadata/releases-index.json

Test links for old CDN:

• https://dotnetcli.azureedge.net/dotnet/health.txt
• https://dotnetcli.azureedge.net/dotnet/release-metadata/releases-index.json

The following resources have been updated to use new domains.

• releases-index.json
• .NET install script
• actions/setup-dotnet
• CI short links

Other changes are in progress.

User Remediation

Please make the following replacements:

• dotnetcli.azureedge.net -> builds.dotnet.microsoft.com
• dotnetcli.blob.core.windows.net -> builds.dotnet.microsoft.com
• dotnetbuilds.azureedge.net -> ci.dot.net
• dotnetbuilds.blob.core.windows.net -> ci.dot.net

All the new domains are path-compatible with old domains, as they share the same origin.

Please also make the following changes:

• Update local copies of the install script
• Update setup-dotnet Action references
• Validate that firewall rules work with the new domains

Install script

The .NET install script is used to install .NET from our CDN. We are changing CDNs (documented in a following section), which requires us to change the install script to use the new CDN.

Updated scripts:

• https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh
• https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.ps1

Notes:

• Users who have local copies of these scripts will need to update their copies.
• Users who rely on the remote copy (at the URLs above) do not need to do anything other than validate no observed change in behavior (due to new domains and CDNs being used).

Tracking PRs:

• dotnet/install-scripts #554
• dotnet/install-scripts #555
• dotnet/install-scripts/issues #558
• dotnet/install-scripts #564
• dotnet/docs #44052

Official builds

Official builds and JSON files are hosted via a CDN, available for use by the install script and other installers.

• New: https://builds.dotnet.microsoft.com
• Old: https://dotnetcli.azureedge.net

Notes:

• Official builds are tested and signed by Microsoft. A microsoft.com domain was chosen to reflect that.
• We also plan to stop using dowload.visualstudio.microsoft.com for new content. That CDN will continue to function.
• Microsoft.Deployment.DotNet.Releases has been updated

You can change from old to new domains by changing the domain section of the URL. The other parts of the URL do not need to change.

Example URLs:

• New: https://builds.dotnet.microsoft.com/dotnet/Runtime/8.0.11/dotnet-runtime-8.0.11-linux-x64.tar.gz
• Old: https://dotnetcli.azureedge.net/dotnet/Runtime/8.0.11/dotnet-runtime-8.0.11-linux-x64.tar.gz
• New: https://builds.dotnet.microsoft.com/dotnet/release-metadata/releases-index.json
• Old: https://dotnetcli.azureedge.net/dotnet/release-metadata/releases-index.json

A set of short links are available for official builds.

Link pattern:https://aka.ms/dotnet/[x.y]/[package].

Example URLs:

• https://aka.ms/dotnet/9.0/dotnet-sdk-win-x64.zip
• https://aka.ms/dotnet/8.0/aspnetcore-runtime-linux-x64.tar.gz

These links produce301 HTTP results that forward to our CDN.

• Currently forward to: https://dotnetcli.azureedge.net.
• Will be changed to forward to: https://build.dotnet.microsoft.com.

We expect these links to be changed in mid January.

Tracking PR:

• dotnet/core #9683

CI builds

Continuous integration (CI) builds are hosted via a CDN, available via the install script and GitHub README files.

• New: https://ci.dot.net
• Old: https://dotnetbuilds.azureedge.net

Note: CI builds include a mix of tested and untested builds, signed and unsigned builds.

Example URLs:

• New: https://ci.dot.net/public/Runtime/9.0.1-servicing.24610.11/dotnet-runtime-9.0.1-win-x64.exe
• Old: https://dotnetbuilds.azureedge.net/public/Runtime/9.0.1-servicing.24610.11/dotnet-runtime-9.0.1-win-x64.exe

A set of short links are available for CI builds.

Link pattern:https://aka.ms/dotnet/[x.y]/daily/[package].

Example URLs:

• https://aka.ms/dotnet/9.0/daily/dotnet-runtime-win-x64.exe
• https://aka.ms/dotnet/9.0/daily/aspnetcore-runtime-linux-arm.tar.gz
• https://aka.ms/dotnet/10.0.1xx/daily/dotnet-sdk-osx-arm64.pkg

These links produce301 HTTP results that forward to our CDN.

• New builds now forward to: https://ci.dot.net
• Old builds forward to: https://dotnetbuilds.azureedge.net.

We expect these links to be changed in mid January.

Tracking PR:

• dotnet/core #9683

CI build pages use the CI short links.

Example build pages:

• dotnet/runtime
• dotnet/aspnetcore
• dotnet/sdk

Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions

• Major versions tags for actions/setup-dotnet have been updated. References to pinned versions will require updating to the most recent version.
• We expect that GitHub Enterprise Server will be addressed in January.
• Azure DevOps UseDotnetTask will be updated in January
• We do not yet have a date for updating Azure DevOps Server.

[KalleOlaviNiemitalo]

Is there a risk that a malicious party later acquires azureedge.net and starts serving malware to systems that still use the old URLs? From WHOIS, it looks like azureedge.net is registered to Microsoft, not to Edgio. (Just wondering how urgent it is to update URLs in old version-control branches that are not actively developed but might get built some day.)

Have there been any NuGet feeds in the domain?

[shanselman]

@KalleOlaviNiemitalo we took it over, so it won’t be taken away.

[zarlo]

@KalleOlaviNiemitalo we took it over, so it won’t be taken away.

so why not keep the current urls for like 1-2 more dont net versions so after .net 11 you have to use the new urls this would give people time to update their whitelists

[klemmchr]

Given this issue I'm wondering when Microsoft will provide their own domain registrar on Azure to prevent such issues in the future. Currently this is the only thing that is really missing on the Azure platform. I can host virtually anything on Azure but when it comes to domains I still need to resort to a third party. I can point all my nameservers to Azure, sure. But the domain itself needs to be hosted somewhere else.

[charles-Graham-Keilman]

Does this affect the installers in the Azure Devops pipelines? We use a mix of classic and Yaml pipelines.

[klemmchr]

Does this affect the installers in the Azure Devops pipelines? We use a mix of classic and Yaml pipelines.

Yes, it does.

Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions installation tools are dependent on some of these resources. We are working directly with those teams to maintain continuity of service. They are moving to the new domains at best speed.

[richlander]

Users should not consider azureedge.net to be a long-term usable domain. Please move to the new domains as soon as possible. It is likely that these domains will be retired, however, no other party will be able to use them. We are not able to control the timing of these events.

I updated the issue with that text.

Does this affect the installers in the Azure Devops pipelines?

We are working closely with the Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions teams. They plan to start deploying changes to use the new domains on the 26th. You can see their PRs backreferenced in this issue, above. Note that this situation is fluid, so that date could change. Both Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions have on-prem scenarios. We'll start addressing that in the new year.

Have there been any NuGet feeds in the domain?

You can actually answer some of these questions with nslookup or dig.

$ nslookup api.nuget.org
Server:		100.100.100.100
Address:	100.100.100.100#53

Non-authoritative answer:
api.nuget.org	canonical name = nugetapiprod.trafficmanager.net.
nugetapiprod.trafficmanager.net	canonical name = apiprod-mscdn.azureedge.net.
apiprod-mscdn.azureedge.net	canonical name = apiprod-mscdn.afd.azureedge.net.
apiprod-mscdn.afd.azureedge.net	canonical name = azureedge-t-prod.trafficmanager.net.
azureedge-t-prod.trafficmanager.net	canonical name = shed.dual-low.s-part-0042.t-0009.t-msedge.net.
shed.dual-low.s-part-0042.t-0009.t-msedge.net	canonical name = azurefd-t-fb-prod.trafficmanager.net.
azurefd-t-fb-prod.trafficmanager.net	canonical name = dual.s-part-0042.t-0009.fb-t-msedge.net.
dual.s-part-0042.t-0009.fb-t-msedge.net	canonical name = s-part-0042.t-0009.fb-t-msedge.net.
Name:	s-part-0042.t-0009.fb-t-msedge.net
Address: 13.107.253.70

You can see that NuGet has a dependency as well, but they are in a much better position since it is an implementation detail that they can control transparently. Everything is behind a custom domain, which is the correct architecture. I suspect that you will soon see edgio disappear and Akamai appear in that list.

You can see that our new domain is all on Azure Front Door.

$ nslookup builds.dotnet.microsoft.com
Server:		100.100.100.100
Address:	100.100.100.100#53

Non-authoritative answer:
builds.dotnet.microsoft.com	canonical name = dotnetcli.trafficmanager.net.
dotnetcli.trafficmanager.net	canonical name = dotnetcli-f0e9dzh5e5eze7cd.b02.azurefd.net.
dotnetcli-f0e9dzh5e5eze7cd.b02.azurefd.net	canonical name = shed.dual-low.s-part-0042.t-0009.t-msedge.net.
shed.dual-low.s-part-0042.t-0009.t-msedge.net	canonical name = azurefd-t-fb-prod.trafficmanager.net.
azurefd-t-fb-prod.trafficmanager.net	canonical name = dual.s-part-0042.t-0009.fb-t-msedge.net.
dual.s-part-0042.t-0009.fb-t-msedge.net	canonical name = s-part-0042.t-0009.fb-t-msedge.net.
Name:	s-part-0042.t-0009.fb-t-msedge.net
Address: 13.107.253.70

Our existing domain is pointed at an Azure Traffic Manager and then to edgio. If edgio goes down, we can point the traffic manager at AFD or Akamai (once we have service there).

$ nslookup dotnetcli.azureedge.net    
Server:		100.100.100.100
Address:	100.100.100.100#53

Non-authoritative answer:
dotnetcli.azureedge.net	canonical name = dotnetcliedge.trafficmanager.net.
dotnetcliedge.trafficmanager.net	canonical name = cs9.wpc.v0cdn.net.
Name:	cs9.wpc.v0cdn.net
Address: 72.21.81.200

I hope the extra details help.