Entity Framework Core: Cannot update identity column 'Id' - entity-framework-core

Question

I found related question but my issue seems to be different.
Running the following code:
var dbitem = context.MyDatabaseItems.Single(p => p.Id == someId);
context.Update(dbitem);
context.SaveChanges();
Results in "Cannot update identity column 'Id'". Table behind is a bit special. "Id" is NOT the primary key for different reasons. Primary key consists of combination of other fields. No matter what I do: detaching, reattaching etc etc the existing item I am unable to save the entity even if I do not change it (see the code).
However this Id is unique and auto generated.
The builder is the following:
builder.Property(p => p.Id)
.ValueGeneratedOnAdd();
builder.HasKey(p => new { p.BusinessDay, p.ClientId, p.Version });
BusinessDay is dateTime, CLientId and Version are integers.
What is going on here?

Answer 1

There are two metadata properties which control the update behavior called BeforeSaveBehavior and AfterSaveBehavior.
For auto generated keys the later is assumed to be Ignore, i.e. never update. For non key auto generated properties it must be configured explicitly (note that there is no fluent API for that so far, so you have to use the metadata API directly), e.g.
// First define the new key
builder.HasKey(p => new { p.BusinessDay, p.ClientId, p.Version });
// Then configure the auto generated column
// This (especially the `SetAfterUpdateBehavior` call) must be after
// unassociating the property as a PK, otherwise you'll get an exception
builder.Property(p => p.Id)
.ValueGeneratedOnAdd()
.Metadata.SetAfterSaveBehavior(PropertySaveBehavior.Ignore); // <--
This does not change the database schema (model), hence no migration is needed. Just the EF Core update entity behavior.