Shared Hosting in Azure Cloud Services

Running in development mode

Start Azure Storage Emulator
Run the solution
Inspect Azure Storage Emulator MultiHostedEndpointsOutput table for content similar to:

PartitionKey	RowKey	Timestamp	Message
Sender	2015-05-25 14:58:33	2015-05-25 16:58:33	Pinging Receiver
Receiver	2015-05-25 14:58:34	2015-05-25 16:58:34	Got Ping and will reply with Pong
Sender	2015-05-25 14:58:35	2015-05-25 16:58:35	Got Pong from Receiver

Results sorted by Timestamp

Deploying endpoints

Open PowerShell console at the shared-host\CloudServicesHost_{version} location. This location should contain PackageAndDeploy.ps1.
Execute PackageAndDeploy.ps1 PowerShell script to package and deploy multi-hosted endpoints to local emulator storage

Running multi-host in emulated Cloud Service

Set HostCloudService to be the start-up project by right clicking the project name in Visual Studio Solution Explorer, and selecting Set as StartUp Project option
Run the solution
Inspect Azure Storage Emulator Tables for MultiHostedEndpointsOutput table and its content

To inspect multi-host role emulated file system navigate to C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\dftmp\Resources

Azure Compute Emulator leaves any processes spawned at run time in memory. Kill those once done with emulated Cloud Service execution by locating WaWorkerHost.exe process and killing all child processes named NServiceBus.Hosting.Azure.HostProcess.exe. Number of those processes will equal the number of endpoints (which in this case equals 2) multiplied by the number of times Cloud Service was executed.

Cloud Service emulator can also be stopped from Compute Emulator UI. Compute Emulator UI can be accessed via try icon on the taskbar. Within Compute Emulator UI, under Service Deployments tree select a deployment, right click and select Remove option. This will stop Cloud Service without leaving any processes in memory.

Code walk-through

This sample contains five projects:

Shared - A class library containing shared code including the message definitions.
Sender - An NServiceBus endpoint responsible for sending Ping command to the Receiver endpoint processing.
Receiver - An NServiceBus endpoint that receives Ping command and responds back to originator with Pong message.
HostWorker - Multi-host endpoint deployed as worker role.
HostCloudService - Azure Cloud Service project to define and execute cloud service.

Sender project

Sender project defines message mapping instructing NServiceBus to send Ping commands to the Receiver endpoint.

Copy code|Copy usings|Edit

var transport = endpointConfiguration.UseTransport<AzureStorageQueueTransport>();
var routing = transport.Routing();
routing.RouteToEndpoint(
    messageType: typeof(Ping),
    destination: "Receiver");

When the endpoint is started, a Ping command is sent and a log entry is written to Azure Storage Tables (see the Shared project for details on the log generation).

Copy code|Copy usings|Edit

public class SendPing :
    IWantToRunWhenEndpointStartsAndStops
{
    public Task Start(IMessageSession session)
    {
        VerificationLogger.Write("Sender", "Pinging Receiver");
        return session.Send(new Ping());
    }

    public Task Stop(IMessageSession session)
    {
        return Task.CompletedTask;
    }
}

Sender defines a handler for messages of type Pong and writes to the log when a message of this type arrives.

Copy code|Copy usings|Edit

public class PongHandler :
    IHandleMessages<Pong>
{
    public Task Handle(Pong message, IMessageHandlerContext context)
    {
        VerificationLogger.Write("Sender", "Got Pong from Receiver");
        return Task.CompletedTask;
    }
}

Receiver project

Receiver project has a handler for Ping commands and it writes to the log when such a message arrives. It also replies to the originator with the Pong message.

Copy code|Copy usings|Edit

public class PingHandler :
    IHandleMessages<Ping>
{
    public Task Handle(Ping message, IMessageHandlerContext context)
    {
        VerificationLogger.Write("Receiver", "Got Ping and will reply with Pong");
        return context.Reply(new Pong());
    }
}

Shared project

Shared project defines all the messages used in the sample

Copy code|Copy usings|Edit

public class Ping :
    ICommand
{
}

Copy code|Copy usings|Edit

public class Pong :
    IMessage
{
}

HostWorker project

HostWorker project is the multi-host project. To enable multi-hosting, endpoint is configured as a multi-host

Copy code|Copy usings|Edit

public class EndpointConfig :
    IConfigureThisHost
{
    public void Customize(EndpointConfiguration endpointConfiguration)
    {
    }

    public HostingSettings Configure()
    {
        var connectionString = RoleEnvironment.GetConfigurationSettingValue("HostWorker.ConnectionString");
        var autoUpdate = bool.Parse(RoleEnvironment.GetConfigurationSettingValue("HostWorker.AutoUpdate"));
        var updateInterval = int.Parse(RoleEnvironment.GetConfigurationSettingValue("HostWorker.UpdateInterval"));
        var container = RoleEnvironment.GetConfigurationSettingValue("HostWorker.Container");

        return new HostingSettings(connectionString)
        {
            AutoUpdate = autoUpdate,
            UpdateInterval = updateInterval,
            Container = container
        };
    }
}

Multi-host project is used only as a host for other endpoints and contains no NServiceBus related logic

HostCloudService project

HostCloudService project defines multi-host parameters for all environment (Local and Cloud in this sample)

Copy code|Copy usings|Edit

<WorkerRole name="HostWorker" vmsize="Small">
  <ConfigurationSettings>
    <Setting name="HostWorker.ConnectionString" />
    <Setting name="HostWorker.AutoUpdate" />
    <Setting name="HostWorker.UpdateInterval" />
    <Setting name="HostWorker.Container" />
    <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" />
  </ConfigurationSettings>
  <LocalResources>
    <LocalStorage name="endpoints" cleanOnRoleRecycle="true" sizeInMB="100" />
  </LocalResources>
</WorkerRole>

Values provided to execute sample against local Azure Storage emulator

Copy code|Copy usings|Edit

<Role name="HostWorker">
  <Instances count="1" />
  <ConfigurationSettings>
    <Setting name="HostWorker.ConnectionString"
             value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" />
    <Setting name="HostWorker.AutoUpdate"
             value="true" />
    <Setting name="HostWorker.UpdateInterval"
             value="5000" />
    <Setting name="HostWorker.Container"
             value="endpoints" />
    <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString"
             value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" />
  </ConfigurationSettings>
</Role>

Running in development mode

Deploying endpoints

Running multi-host in emulated Cloud Service

Code walk-through

Sender project

Receiver project

Shared project

HostWorker project

HostCloudService project

Related Articles