The Microsoft team announced a new tool named Azure Migrate application and code assessment tool for .NET, abbreviated as AppCAT. This tool is intended to help developers migrate on-premises .NET applications to Azure. AppCAT tool enables the assessment of .NET source code, configurations, and binaries, identifying potential issues and opportunities during the migration process to Azure.
As reported, its primary purpose is to uncover any challenges that could be faced while porting an application to Azure and enhance performance, scalability, and security by recommending modern, cloud-native solutions.
AppCAT is available in two versions, a Visual Studio extension and a .NET CLI tool, providing flexibility in usage. Once the analysis is initiated, the tool generates a comprehensive report highlighting necessary checks or modifications to ensure the proper functioning of the application post-migration.
Using static code analysis, as reported AppCAT determines application technology usage, pinpointing areas that may require attention. It facilitates efficient collaboration by allowing users to navigate to specific lines of code, address issues, mark them as resolved, and save progress for future reference.
The tool provides estimates of the effort required to address each issue, components of applications, and entire projects. It offers detailed guidance on issue resolution and links users to relevant Microsoft documentation.
Both the CLI tool and Visual Studio version enable users to save analysis results in HTML, CSV, and JSON formats. The HTML report closely resembles the Visual Studio dashboard, presenting information on the number of projects analyzed, incidents, and issues.
(Generated report after migration, Source: Announcing the Azure Migrate application and code assessment tool for .NET)
The report evaluates the effort required to resolve each incident, issue, and project, categorizing incidents by severity. Various views provide insights into incidents, guidance on resolution, and direct access to the corresponding code.
The official announcement post mentions detailed step-by-step documentation articles for both Visual Studio and .NET CLI approaches.
Currently, AppCAT supports projects written in C# and Visual Basic, analyzing code in project types such as ASP.NET, ASP.NET Core, and class libraries. It is compatible with all .NET frameworks, including .NET Framework, .NET Core, and .NET 5+.
Regarding Azure targets, this tool identifies potential migration issues for Azure App Service, AKS, and Azure Container Apps. As reported, future updates may include the ability to set explicit targets and filter recommendations accordingly.
Lastly, looking into the roadmap ahead, the development teams state that the focus is on enhancing the tool with AI capabilities and integrating it with Copilot for comprehensive migration assistance.
Correspondingly, Olia Gavrysh, senior product manager, .NET, wrote the following:
Another big feature that we are currently working on is to get you a more curated assessment based on the Azure target you choose. We plan to add the ability to set the target before the report and build the report based on that target.