EntityFramework Core automatic migrations

You can call context.Database.Migrate()in your Startup.cs

eg:

using (var context = new MyContext(...))
{
    context.Database.Migrate();
}

Automatic migrations is not supported in EF Core. Migration it is necessary to create hands. To automatically apply all existing handmade migrations need to add the following code in the class Program:

public class Program
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var host = CreateWebHostBuilder(args).Build();

        using (var scope = host.Services.CreateScope())
        {
            var services = scope.ServiceProvider;

            try
            {
                var context = services.GetRequiredService<MyDbContext>();
                context.Database.Migrate(); // apply all migrations
                SeedData.Initialize(services); // Insert default data
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                var logger = services.GetRequiredService<ILogger<Program>>();
                logger.LogError(ex, "An error occurred seeding the DB.");
            }
        }

        host.Run();
    }

    public static IWebHostBuilder CreateWebHostBuilder(string[] args) =>
        WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
            .UseStartup<Startup>();
}

This is the way they do it in IdentityServer4 http://identityserver.io

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    var connectionString = Configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection");
    var migrationsAssembly = typeof(Startup).GetTypeInfo().Assembly.GetName().Name;

    // Add framework services.
    services.AddDbContext<ApplicationDbContext>(options =>
            options.UseSqlServer(connectionString));
    ...
}
public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env, ILoggerFactory loggerFactory)
{
    // this will do the initial DB population
    InitializeDatabase(app);
}

private void InitializeDatabase(IApplicationBuilder app)
{
    using (var scope = app.ApplicationServices.GetService<IServiceScopeFactory>().CreateScope())
    {
        scope.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<ApplicationDbContext>().Database.Migrate();
        scope.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<PersistedGrantDbContext>().Database.Migrate();
        ...
    }
}

EF core doesn't support automatic migrations.So you have to do it manually.

From the perspective of automatic migrations as a feature, we are not planning to implement it in EF Core as experience has showed code-base migrations to be a more manageable approach.

You can read full story here : Not to implement Automatic Migrations