custom asp.net session in web-farm

Hello All,

I realize that there are commercial products like nCache for
this type of
scenario, but 5k is a lot for a product with a lot of
features that I don't
need.

Although I hate reinventing the wheel, I only need to
remember a few session
variables on a server farm.  They are simple variables likes
strings and
ints.  I don't want to use a state server or sql server - at
the moment they
would be single points of failure.

Is there any open-source (.NET) code which allows a cluster
of computers to
synchronize this session information?
If I need to write my own, is it better to run clustering
session software
as a windows service or inside the asp.net app domain?
Hash tables in .NET 2.0 - do they suffer the problems that
apparently
1.1suffered where at ~30k items their performance degraded? 
I'm
thinking it's
probably better to store the information in a _local_ SQL
database on each
server to reduce memory usage - any thoughts on that?

If there's nothing free on the market, I'm going to make an
article and
release the source when I'm done.

Thanks,
Brian

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If you only need to remember a few simple variables why not
use view state?


-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of building .NET applications targeted for
the Web [mailtoOTNET-WE
BDISCUSS.DEVELOP.COM] On Behalf Of brian zinn
Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2006 05:29
To: DOTNET-WEBDISCUSS.DEVELOP.COM
Subject: [DOTNET-WEB] custom asp.net session in web-farm

Hello All,

I realize that there are commercial products like nCache for
this type of
scenario, but 5k is a lot for a product with a lot of
features that I don't
need.

Although I hate reinventing the wheel, I only need to
remember a few session
variables on a server farm.  They are simple variables likes
strings and
ints.  I don't want to use a state server or sql server - at
the moment they
would be single points of failure.

Is there any open-source (.NET) code which allows a cluster
of computers to
synchronize this session information?
If I need to write my own, is it better to run clustering
session software
as a windows service or inside the asp.net app domain?
Hash tables in .NET 2.0 - do they suffer the problems that
apparently
1.1suffered where at ~30k items their performance degraded? 
I'm
thinking it's
probably better to store the information in a _local_ SQL
database on each
server to reduce memory usage - any thoughts on that?

If there's nothing free on the market, I'm going to make an
article and
release the source when I'm done.

Thanks,
Brian

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View archives and manage your subscription(s) at http://discuss.develop.com


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Why not just turn on server affinity so you don't have the
web farm issue?
If a server goes down the user just logs in again..

On 11/18/06, brian zinn <discusswakeskate.com> wrote:
>
> Hello All,
>
> I realize that there are commercial products like
nCache for this type of
> scenario, but 5k is a lot for a product with a lot of
features that I
> don't
> need.
>
> Although I hate reinventing the wheel, I only need to
remember a few
> session
> variables on a server farm.  They are simple variables
likes strings and
> ints.  I don't want to use a state server or sql server
- at the moment
> they
> would be single points of failure.
>
> Is there any open-source (.NET) code which allows a
cluster of computers
> to
> synchronize this session information?
> If I need to write my own, is it better to run
clustering session software
> as a windows service or inside the asp.net app domain?
> Hash tables in .NET 2.0 - do they suffer the problems
that apparently
> 1.1suffered where at ~30k items their performance
degraded?  I'm
> thinking it's
> probably better to store the information in a _local_
SQL database on each
> server to reduce memory usage - any thoughts on that?
>
> If there's nothing free on the market, I'm going to
make an article and
> release the source when I'm done.
>
> Thanks,
> Brian
>
> ===================================
> This list is hosted by DevelopMentor(r)  http://www.develop.com
>
> View archives and manage your subscription(s) at
> http://discuss.develop.com

>

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> I realize that there are commercial products like
nCache for this type of
> scenario, but 5k is a lot for a product with a lot of
features that I don't
> need.

While I like nCache, its a fine product.. you might also
consider
ScaleOut StateServer  http://www.scaleouts
oftware.com/

If you don't need that level of performance though....

> Although I hate reinventing the wheel, I only need to
remember a few session
> variables on a server farm

The why not use the SQL Server based session state?  Unless
you've got
servers that are physically distanced from the SQL Server
(in a
prohibitive latency).  It's built-in, and it works very well
for
medium loads (those not requiring nCache-sized solutions).

Lastly you can use the State Server stuff (also built into
ASP.Net
2.0), but I've never seen a system where that was superior
to SQL
Session State while not still being big enough to really
need nCacher.
So I can't really help you on it...

> I don't want to use a state server or sql server - at
the moment they
> would be single points of failure.

For State server, yes... but not for SQL Server... you can
cluster SQL
servers or put them in standby-server pairs.  I can't really
believe
that you are going to beat that reliability with anything
you (or I)
can write... no offense.

> If I need to write my own, is it better to run
clustering session software
> as a windows service or inside the asp.net app domain?

Clustering is probably best at the entire-server level.

--
"Statistics do not apply to anyone, however they do
apply to everyone."
Marc C. Brooks
http://musingmarc.blog
spot.com

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