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How can I read the Environment Properties from my AWS Elastic Beanstalk Application found here:

Configuration > Software Configuration > Environment Properties

enter image description here

None of the following approaches work:

ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["MyServiceUrl"]
ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["aws:elasticbeanstalk:application:environment.MyServiceUrl"]
Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("MyServiceUrl")
Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("aws:elasticbeanstalk:application:environment.MyServiceUrl")

The 'fully qualified' name attempt comes from the AWS EB documentation.

Any ideas?

Nick
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3 Answers3

23

In your .ebextensions/myoptions.config file:

option_settings:
  - option_name: MyServiceUrl
    value: change me

This will add the "MyServiceUrl" option in your EB Environment Properties section (as you're seeing already). When deployed, this will add the following to your Web.Config file:

<appSettings>
  <add key="MyServiceUrl" value="change me" />
</appSettings>

If you RDP into your EC2 instance, you'll see this.

When you change the property using the EB console, the setting will be modified in your Web.Config file.

So you access this property using the standard AppSettings method:

string value = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["MyServiceUrl"];

The Catch:

You need to ensure that your Web.Config file does not contain this setting, otherwise EB does not replace it. If your Visual Studio deployment package includes this setting, then EB will not replace it and you will always receive the deployed value when you access the property via your code.

The Solution:

In you Web.Release.config file, have the setting removed during Visual Studio deployment:

<appSettings>
  <add key="MyServiceUrl" xdt:Transform="Remove" xdt:Locator="Match(key)" />
</appSettings>

This will remove the setting from Web.Config during Visual Studio deployment and will allow EB to add the value into the file during EB deployment.

Matt Houser
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  • As per Matt's answer, Beanstalk calls them 'Environment Variables' but for .Net they are actually inserted in the web.config file instead, as per the bottom of http://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/create_deploy_NET.container.console.html – bitcoder Jun 03 '16 at 19:04
  • in addition to this: there seems to be a bug in AWS which will cause the config file to not be updated even if the key is commented out. Looks like they are not parsing the file but rather doing string-level comparison to identify whether the keys exist in web.config – Marek Aug 25 '17 at 10:54
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    It looks like this behavior has changed in Elastic Beanstalk. The docs now say "Settings applied in the AWS Management Console override the same settings in configuration files, if they exist. This lets you have default settings in configuration files, and override them with environment specific settings in the console." – Kevin Tighe Nov 08 '17 at 14:58
  • How do you read them when running locally? – edank Aug 04 '21 at 05:08
2

It looks like this behavior has changed in Elastic Beanstalk. The docs now say

Settings applied in the AWS Management Console override the same settings in configuration files, if they exist. This lets you have default settings in configuration files, and override them with environment specific settings in the console.

So you can now use the same config names in your web.config and in the Elastic Beanstalk config, and the Elastic Beanstalk values will override any in your web.config. It looks like EB simply adds new entries to the web.config file, so there will be two entries for any values defined in both places. Since the EB-added entries are later in the file they take precedence.

Kevin Tighe
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1

It is true that on AWS Doc (Using the AWS Elastic Beanstalk .NET Platform) it is indicated :

Settings applied in the AWS Management Console override the same settings in configuration files, if they exist. This lets you have default settings in configuration files, and override them with environment-specific settings in the console. For more information about precedence, and other methods of changing settings, see Configuration Options.

... I think it refers to the .ebextensions configuration files, and not the app.config or web.config files. See in link indicated above, there is reference to the 'precedence' rules that apply ; it is indicated that what takes precendence are 'Settings specified during a create environment or update environment', so what I understand is settings values set during the deployement take precedence (and these settings are in the app.config/web.config).

I have just tested this, and Matt Houser answer above is correct and still stands. You have to remove app.config/web.config keys on in the deployed version to see the 'Environment properties' be taken into consideration.

tom
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