Overview

For the MDS 7.0.0 release, we are proposing the following package architecture changes that will decouple several large dependencies from MDS and move them into a new Azure extension package:

• Create a new Abstractions package that all other MDS packages depend on.
  • This will contain types and definitions common to the other MDS packages, such as base classes, enums, delegates, etc.
• Create a new Azure package that will own the following implementations:
  • Azure Authentication
  • Azure Attestation
  • Azure Key Vault interactions
• Move the above implementations out of MDS and into the new Azure package.
• Move the existing AzureKeyVaultProvider (AKV) implementation into the new Azure extension package.

This will reduce the main MDS package dependency tree along with a moderate package size reduction.

Progress

Here are the issues/PRs tracking this work:

• Create Abstractions package #3567

Motivation

Issue: #1108

Customers and the developer community have voiced concerns with MDS being tightly coupled to Azure dependencies. Many customers do not use Azure and do not want to deploy unnecessary DLLs with their applications.

Moving the Azure dependent implementations into a separate Azure extension package achieves two goals:

• Remove Azure packages as direct dependencies of MDS and reduce the MDS dependency tree.
• Clearly expose existing MDS extension points, prove their functionality, and demonstrate how to use them.

The following dependencies will be removed from the main MDS package:

• Azure.Identity
  • Azure.Core (transitive)
  • Microsoft.Identity.Client (transitive)
• Microsoft.IdentityModel.JsonWebTokens
  • Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens (transitive)
  • Microsoft.IdentityModel.Logging (transitive)
• Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols.OpenIdConnect
  • Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols (transitive)

The following dependencies will be removed from the AKV Provider package:

• Azure.Core
• Azure.Security.KeyVault.Keys

Package Architecture

classDiagram
class MDS
class MDS.Extensions.Abstractions
class MDS.Extensions.Azure
class AKV Provider
MDS --> MDS.Extensions.Abstractions
MDS ..> MDS.Extensions.Azure
MDS ..> AKV Provider
MDS.Extensions.Azure --> MDS.Extensions.Abstractions
AKV Provider --> MDS.Extensions.Azure
MDS: Depend on MDS.Extensions.Abstractions
MDS: Load Azure or AKV assembly
MDS.Extensions.Abstractions: Azure Authentication Types
MDS.Extensions.Abstractions: Azure Attestation Types
MDS.Extensions.Abstractions: Azure Key Vault Types
MDS.Extensions.Azure: Depend on MDS.Extensions.Abstractions
MDS.Extensions.Azure: Authentication Implementation
MDS.Extensions.Azure: Attestation Implementation
MDS.Extensions.Azure: Key Vault Implementation
AKV Provider: Depend on MDS.Extensions.Azure

In previous MDS versions, the AKV package depended directly on the main MDS package through a ranged version (for example [6.0.0, 7.0.0) - all 6.x package versions). With the new package architecture this is no longer the case. Extension packages will not depend on the main MDS package, nor will the main MDS package depend on any extension packages. All dependencies between MDS and its extensions will occur through the Abstractions package.

This new looser coupling gives applications the flexibility to depend on only the main MDS package, or on MDS and a subset of it extension packages if desired.

Consuming

There are several ways that applications may consume MDS and its extensions:

• MDS with without Azure features
• MDS with MDS-supplied Azure features
• MDS with externally supplied Azure features

Applications never need to directly depend on the Abstractions base package. This will be transitively depended on by other MDS packages.

Without Azure Features

Applications that do not use any Azure features will no longer bring in those unwanted dependencies transitively. Simply include the main MDS package by itself:

<ItemGroup>
 <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient" Version="7.0.0" />
</ItemGroup>

Calls to MDS APIs that require Azure features will throw an exception, since no Azure feature implementation is present.

With MDS Azure Features

Applications that wish to use MDS-supplied Azure features will need to include the new Azure extension package as a direct dependency alongside the main MDS package:

<ItemGroup>
 <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient" Version="7.0.0" />
 <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.Extensions.Azure" Version="1.0.0" />
</ItemGroup>

MDS will automatically detect the Azure extension assemblies and load them.

With External Azure Features

Applications that wish to use Azure features supplied by another (non-MDS) package will need to include that package as a direct dependency alongside the main MDS package:

<ItemGroup>
 <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient" Version="7.0.0" />
 <PackageReference Include="My.Azure.Features.Package" Version="1.2.3" />
</ItemGroup>

Additionally, applications will need to instruct MDS to use the external Azure feature implementations via the appropriate APIs at runtime:

• Authentication: SqlAuthenticationProvider
• Attestation: New API will be exposed.
• Key Valut: SqlColumnEncryptionKeyStoreProvider

Versioning Strategy

The MDS suite of packages will be versioned independently. This provides flexibility to update APIs and implementations for packages as needed, avoiding unnecessary version bumps and releases. The initial release of these packages will have the following versions:

Going forward, each package will be versioned appropriately based on the nature of the changes included with subsequent releases.

Note: The AzureKeyVaultProvider package will remain at 7.0.0. It will be deprecated and eventually removed, as it has been replaced by the Azure extension package.

Intradependence

The main MDS package and the new Azure package will depend on the Abstractions package. When APIs are added, modified, or removed from the Abstractions package, corresponding changes will be made to the dependent packages as well. Those dependent packages will then take a strict dependency on the appropriate Abstractions package version. This ensures that only compatible extensions package versions can co-exist with the main MDS package.

For example, imagine that a new extensible conenction pooling feature is added to MDS. The Abstractions package would be updated to include any new pooling APIs, the main MDS package would be updated to accept extensible pooling, and the new pooling implementation would be included in a new ConnectionPooling extension package. The versions of these packages would look something like this:

Both the main MDS package and the new ConnectionPooling package would depend on Abstractions v1.1.0.

An application wishing to use the new ConnectionPooling v1.0.0 package must also update the main MDS package to v7.1.0. The applictaion would not be able to use ConnectionPooling v1.0.0 and MDS v7.0.0.

Backwards Compatibility

There are several backwards compatibility scenarios to consider for applications that rely on MDS Azure features currently implemented in the main MDS package and the AKV package. The new extensions package architecture aims to reduce the friction for these apps, but not all scenarios will be seamless.

All of the scenarios below assume that the application is upgrading to the latest versions of MDS packages.

Apps using MDS Azure Authentication

Applications currently using the MDS-supplied Azure Authentication features will need to add a dependency on the Azure extension package to their project alongside the main MDS package:

<ItemGroup>
 <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient" Version="7.0.0" />
 <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.Extensions.Azure" Version="1.0.0" />
</ItemGroup>

All Azure Authentication namespaces and types will remain the same, so this should be the only change necessary for applications.

Apps using MDS Azure Attestation

Applications currently using the MDS-supplied Azure Attestation features will need to add a dependency on the Azure extension package to their project alongside the main MDS package:

<ItemGroup>
 <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient" Version="7.0.0" />
 <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.Extensions.Azure" Version="1.0.0" />
</ItemGroup>

All Azure Attestation namespaces and types will remain the same, so this should be the only change necessary for applications.

Apps using AKV Provider

Applications currently using the MDS-supplied AKV provider will have two options when upgrading to MDS v7.0.0. Both options rely on the main MDS package finding and loading an appropriate DLL (assembly) at runtime. The absence of an appropriate DLL will cause Azure Key Vault operations to throw an exception.

Use Azure Extension

This is the preferred approach. The application would be updated to depend on the main MDS package and the Azure extension package:

<ItemGroup>
 <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient" Version="7.0.0" />
 <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.Extensions.Azure" Version="1.0.0" />
</ItemGroup>

The Azure extension package will contain the same namespaces and types as the current AKV provider and will be a drop-in replacement. The main MDS v7.0.0 package will look for the Azure extension assembly and automatically load it.

Use AKV Provider v7.0.0

This is a temporary solution. The AKV provider v7.0.0 will be marked as deprecated and removed entirely at some point in the future. The applictaion would remain dependent on the AKV provider, but must update to the v7.0.0 package. Previous AKV package versions do not support main MDS package versions beyond the v6.x range.

<ItemGroup>
 <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient" Version="7.0.0" />
 <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.AlwaysEncrypted.AzureKeyVaultProvider" Version="7.0.0" />
</ItemGroup>

This AKV Provider v7.0.0 package will be empty and simply depend on the Azure extension package to transitively provide the Azure Key Vault features.