Entity Framework Core One-One Self Referencing Relationship fails

When building the migration I get the following error:

Unable to determine the relationship represented by navigation property 'Location.NorthLocation' of type 'Location'. Either manually configure the relationship, or ignore this property from the model.

The Location entity:

public class Location
{
    public Guid Id { get; set; }

    public DateTime CreatedWhen { get; set; }
    public string CreatedBy { get; set; }
    public DateTime ModifiedWhen { get; set; }
    public string ModifiedBy { get; set; }

    public Guid? NorthLocationId { get; set; }
    public virtual Location NorthLocation { get; set; }

    public Guid? SouthLocationId { get; set; }
    public virtual Location SouthLocation { get; set; }

    public Guid? EastLocationId { get; set; }
    public virtual Location EastLocation { get; set; }

    public Guid? WestLocationId { get; set; }
    public virtual Location WestLocation { get; set; }

}

The type configuration:

public class MyContext : DbContext
{
    public MyContext(DbContextOptions<MyContext> options) : base(options)
    {
    }

    public DbSet<Location> Locations { get; set; }

    protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder builder)
    {
        base.OnModelCreating(builder);

        builder.Entity<T>().HasKey("Id");
        builder.Entity<T>().Property("Id").ValueGeneratedOnAdd();
        builder.Entity<T>().Property("CreatedWhen").HasDefaultValueSql("GETDATE()").ValueGeneratedOnAdd();
        builder.Entity<T>().Property("ModifiedWhen").IsRequired();
        builder.Entity<T>().Property("CreatedBy").HasMaxLength(50).IsRequired();
        builder.Entity<T>().Property("ModifiedBy").HasMaxLength(50).IsRequired();

        // Locations
        builder.Entity<Location>().HasOne(x => x.NorthLocation).WithOne(x => x.SouthLocation).HasForeignKey(typeof(Location), "NorthLocationId").OnDelete(DeleteBehavior.SetNull);
        builder.Entity<Location>().HasOne(x => x.SouthLocation).WithOne(x => x.NorthLocation).HasForeignKey(typeof(Location), "SouthLocationId").OnDelete(DeleteBehavior.SetNull);
        builder.Entity<Location>().HasOne(x => x.EastLocation).WithOne(x => x.WestLocation).HasForeignKey(typeof(Location), "EastLocationId").OnDelete(DeleteBehavior.SetNull);
        builder.Entity<Location>().HasOne(x => x.WestLocation).WithOne(x => x.EastLocation).HasForeignKey(typeof(Location), "WestLocationId").OnDelete(DeleteBehavior.SetNull);
    }

}

My goal is to have a Location entity that self-references it's own neighbours to the north/south/east/west.

Can anyone suggest why I might be getting this error?

Your model configuration is incorrect because it maps each of the navigation properties twice. E.g. SouthLocation is mapped both as the reverse navigation for the NorthLocationId foreign key and as the direct navigation for SouthLocationId.

Each navigation property (i.e. NorthLocation, SouthLocation, EastLocation, WestLocation) can only be mapped to one relationship (i.e. to one foreign key).

If I delete the 2nd and 4th lines of the relationship configuration part, the model seems to be functioning properly.

In general in EF Core we try to deal with conflicting configuration by letting the last configuration to execute win, but this has some limitations and it is hard to anticipate what can happen when you execute this code. Certainly, using EF Core 2.0 preview1 against SQL Server, I got a different exception (an error form SQL Server, complaining about cyclic dependencies in cascade delte), so it is possible that we have improved how we handle this scenario.

Here is the code:

    using System;
    using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
    using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Metadata;

    namespace ConsoleApp4
    {
        class Program
        {
            static void Main(string[] args)
            {
                using (var db = new MyContext())
                {
                    db.Database.EnsureDeleted();
                    db.Database.EnsureCreated();
                }
            }
        }

        public class MyContext : DbContext
        {
            public DbSet<Location> Locations { get; set; }
            protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
            {
                optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer(@"server=(localdb)\mssqllocaldb;database=hey;ConnectRetryCount=0");
            }

            protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
            {
                modelBuilder.Entity<Location>().HasKey("Id");
                modelBuilder.Entity<Location>().Property("Id")
                   .ValueGeneratedOnAdd();
                modelBuilder.Entity<Location>().Property("CreatedWhen")
                   .HasDefaultValueSql("GETDATE()")
                   .ValueGeneratedOnAdd();
                modelBuilder.Entity<Location>().Property("ModifiedWhen")
                   .IsRequired();
                modelBuilder.Entity<Location>().Property("CreatedBy")
                   .HasMaxLength(50)
                   .IsRequired();
                modelBuilder.Entity<Location>().Property("ModifiedBy")
                   .HasMaxLength(50)
                   .IsRequired();
                modelBuilder.Entity<Location>()
                   .HasOne(x => x.NorthLocation)
                   .WithOne(x => x.SouthLocation)
                   .HasForeignKey(typeof(Location), "NorthLocationId")
                   .OnDelete(DeleteBehavior.Restrict);
                modelBuilder.Entity<Location>()
                   .HasOne(x => x.EastLocation)
                   .WithOne(x => x.WestLocation)
                   .HasForeignKey(typeof(Location), "EastLocationId")
                   .OnDelete(DeleteBehavior.Restrict);
            }
        }

        public class Location
        {
            public Guid Id { get; set; }
            public DateTime CreatedWhen { get; set; }
            public string CreatedBy { get; set; }
            public DateTime ModifiedWhen { get; set; }
            public string ModifiedBy { get; set; }
            public Guid? NorthLocationId { get; set; }
            public virtual Location NorthLocation { get; set; }
            public Guid? SouthLocationId { get; set; }
            public virtual Location SouthLocation { get; set; }
            public Guid? EastLocationId { get; set; }
            public virtual Location EastLocation { get; set; }
            public Guid? WestLocationId { get; set; }
            public virtual Location WestLocation { get; set; }
        }
    }