The Atatus .NET agent supports two installation methods:

  • Profiler Auto-Instrumentation — environment variables configure the CLR profiler, which attaches to the application at runtime. No code changes required. Supports .NET Framework 4.x and .NET 5+ on Windows, Linux, and IIS.
  • NuGet Package — install a NuGet package and register the agent in application code. Available for ASP.NET Core (.NET Core 3.1+) and ASP.NET Full Framework (.NET Framework 4.x).

Supported .NET versions

The table below shows which .NET runtime versions are supported by each installation method.

.NET Runtime Profiler NuGet Package
.NET 9.0 Yes Yes
.NET 8.0 Yes Yes
.NET 7.0 Yes Yes
.NET 6.0 Yes Yes
.NET 5.0 Yes Yes
.NET Core 3.1 No Yes
.NET Framework 4.x Yes Yes

NuGet packages: .NET Core / .NET 5+ applications use Atatus.NetCoreAll. ASP.NET Full Framework applications use Atatus.AspNetFullFramework.

Note:

.NET 5.0 through .NET 9.0 and .NET Framework 4.x support both methods. Choose based on whether source code modification is feasible. When both are available, the Profiler is preferred for zero-code deployments.

Select your environment

Each guide below covers both installation methods — the Profiler and the NuGet package — for that runtime and hosting model.

Runtime / Host Installation guide
.NET 5+ — Linux or Windows (standalone) .NET Core
.NET Core 3.1 — Linux or Windows (NuGet only) .NET Core
.NET Framework 4.x — Windows (standalone) .NET Framework
.NET Framework or .NET 5+ — IIS IIS
.NET 5+ — Docker (Linux containers) Docker installation

Choosing an installation method

Choose the Profiler when a uniform configuration is preferred across multiple applications, or when the application runs on IIS or in containers where environment variables are straightforward to inject. No code changes are required.

Choose the NuGet Package when an in-code installation is preferred, or when targeting ASP.NET Full Framework with Web.config registration. The NuGet package is also the only option for .NET Core 3.1, which the profiler does not support.

Installation paths

  • .NET Core — standalone .NET 5.0+ / ASP.NET Core on Linux or Windows; Profiler or NuGet (also .NET Core 3.1 via NuGet)
  • .NET Framework — .NET Framework 4.x on Windows; Profiler or NuGet (Web.config)
  • IIS — .NET Framework or .NET Core applications hosted on IIS; Profiler or NuGet
  • Docker — containerized .NET applications
  • Profiler overview — profiler requirements, environment-variable reference, and supported integrations