dotnet ef not found in .NET Core 3

See the announcement for ASP.NET Core 3 Preview 4, which explains that this tool is no longer built-in and requires an explicit install:

The dotnet ef tool is no longer part of the .NET Core SDK

This change allows us to ship dotnet ef as a regular .NET CLI tool that can be installed as either a global or local tool. For example, to be able to manage migrations or scaffold a DbContext, install dotnet ef as a global tool typing the following command:

dotnet tool install --global dotnet-ef

To install a specific version of the tool, use the following command:

dotnet tool install --global dotnet-ef --version 3.1.4

The reason for the change is explained in the docs:

Why

This change allows us to distribute and update dotnet ef as a regular .NET CLI tool on NuGet, consistent with the fact that the EF Core 3.0 is also always distributed as a NuGet package.

In addition, you might need to add the following NuGet packages to your project:

• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer
• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design
• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools

EDIT: If you are using a Dockerfile for deployments these are the steps you need to take to resolve this issue.

Change your Dockerfile to include the following:

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/sdk:3.1 AS build-env
ENV PATH $PATH:/root/.dotnet/tools
RUN dotnet tool install -g dotnet-ef --version 3.1.1

Also change your dotnet ef commands to be dotnet-ef

Global tools can be installed in the default directory or in a specific location. The default directories are:

• Linux/macOS ---> $HOME/.dotnet/tools

• Windows ---> %USERPROFILE%\.dotnet\tools

If you're trying to run a global tool, check that the PATH environment variable on your machine contains the path where you installed the global tool and that the executable is in that path.

Troubleshoot .NET Core tool usage issues