Archive for the ‘WCF’ Category

Microsoft Julekalender låge #7 vinder

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

Yet another blog post in Danish, sorry.

Vinderen af gårsdagens Microsoft Julekalender låge #7 fundet. Vinderen er Gianluca Bosco, som har indsendt følgende WCF klient til servicen:

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Ready? Press [ENTER]...");
        Console.ReadLine();

        var factory = new ChannelFactory<Shared.IMyService>(
            new WSHttpBinding(),
            new EndpointAddress("http://localhost:8080/MyService"));

        factory.Endpoint.Binding.SendTimeout = new TimeSpan(0,2,0);

        var names = new[] { "Anders", "Bende", "Bo", "Egon",
            "Jakob", "Jesper", "Jonas", "Martin", "Ove",
            "Rasmus", "Thomas E", "Thomas" };

        var x = from name in names.AsParallel()
                    .WithDegreeOfParallelism(12)
                select Do(factory, name);

        x.ForAll(Console.WriteLine);

        Console.WriteLine("Done processing...");
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    static string Do(ChannelFactory<Shared.IMyService> factory,
         string name)
    {
        var proxy = factory.CreateChannel();

        var result = proxy.LooongRunningMethod(name);

        return result;
    }
}

Gianluca har rigtig nok fundet den værste performance synder af dem alle, at man ikke skal instantier en ChannelFactory for hvert kald. Alene denne forbedring kan halvere tiden brugt ved et WCF kald.

Desuden fandt Gianluca den indbyggede fælde i min implementation. Server implementationen kalder Thread.Sleep (mellem 1 og 100 sekunder) for at simulere langvarigt arbejde. Default SendTimout på wsHttpBinding (og alle andre bindings) er 1 minut, hvilket betyder, at klienten vil få en TimeoutException pga. serverens lange arbejde.

Tillykke til Gianluca med hans nye helikopter.

Der er en mindre optimering, som kan forbedre performance yderligere og det er at kalde Open og Close på en Channel explicit. Det skyldes, at der i en implicit Open er thread synchronisation, således at kun én thread åbner en Channel og de resterende threads venter på at Channel er klar.

Hvis du har forslag til yderligere forbedringer, så skriv en kommentar.

Microsoft Julekalender låge #7

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

Sorry – this post is in Danish.

Dagens opgave handler om Windows Communication Foundation. WCF er kompleks pga. mængden af funktionalitet og kan derfor virke indviklet. Kompleksiteten afspejles også i størrelsen på WCF assembly System.ServiceModel.dll, som er klart den største assembly i hele .Net Framework Class Library (FCL) … selv større end mscorlib.dll.

Opgaven:

Implementer en klient til nedstående service, som benytter WSHttpBinding med default settings.

[ServiceContract(Namespace = "www.lybecker.com/blog/wcfriddle")]
public interface IMyService
{
    [OperationContract(ProtectionLevel =
        ProtectionLevel.EncryptAndSign)]
    string LooongRunningMethod(string name);
}

public class MyService : IMyService
{
    public string LooongRunningMethod(string name)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("{0} entered.", name);

        // Simulate work by random sleeping
        var rnd = new Random(
            name.Select(Convert.ToInt32).Sum() +
            Environment.TickCount);
        var sleepSeconds = rnd.Next(0, 100);
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(sleepSeconds * 1000);

        var message = string.Format(
            "{0} slept for {1} seconds in session {2}.",
            name,
            sleepSeconds,
            OperationContext.Current.SessionId);
        Console.WriteLine(message);

        return message;
    }
}

Klienten må meget gerne være smukt struktureret og skal:

  • Implementeres i .Net 3.x eller .Net 4.0
  • Simulere et dusin forskellige klienter
  • Være så effektiv som mulig (tænk memory, CPU cycles, GC)

Beskriv kort jeres valg af optimeringer.

For at gøre opgaven nemmere at løse, så har jeg allerede løst den for jer… dog ikke optimalt. Download min implementation.

Send løsning til anders at lybecker.com inden midnat; vinderen vil bliver offentligt i morgen og vil blive den lykkelige ejer af en fjernstyrret helikopter med tilbehør, så den er klar til af flyve. En cool office gadget. Helikopteren er nem at flyve og kan holde til en del. Det ved jeg af erfaring :-)

Se helikopteren flyve nedefor.

WCF Timeouts

Thursday, October 14th, 2010

The last two articles about WCF Throttling part 1 and part 2 would not be complete without looking at WCF timeouts. Any potentially lengthy operation must have a timeout or the system might end up waiting indefinitely – this is remarkably prevalent when working across any network connection (Yes, LAN connections too).

Timeouts are not directly related to throttling properties, but effect the way the service (or client) performance under load. Timeout properties can be perceived as an annoyance when sending larger messages or dealing with slow connections or services. The frustration increase as the naming of the properties can be deceiving. Read on… and I’ll explain :-)

Below are the binding properties that all throw TimeoutExceptions if any of setting thresholds are exceeded:

  • OpenTimeout (TimeSpan) – the interval of time provided for an open operation to complete including security handshakes (WS-Trust, WS-Secure Conversation etc.). The default is 00:01:00.
  • CloseTimeout (TimeSpan) – the interval of time provided for a close operation to complete. The default is 00:01:00.
  • SendTimeout (TimeSpan) – the interval of time provided for an entire operation to complete. This includes both sending of message and receiving reply! The default is 00:01:00.
  • ReceiveTimeout (TimeSpan) – the interval of time that a connection can remain inactive, during which no application messages are received, before it is dropped. The default is 00:10:00.
    • This setting is only used on the server-side and has no effect on client-side.
    • When using Reliable Sessions remember to set the InactivityTimeout property on the reliableSession element to the same value as the ReceiveTimeout property, as both inactivity timers has to be satisfied.

Example of configuration file:

<system.serviceModel>
  <bindings>
    <netTcpBinding>
      <binding name="netTcpBindingConfig"
               openTimeout="00:01:00"
               closeTimeout="00:01:00"
               sendTimeout="00:01:00"
               receiveTimeout="00:10:00">
        <reliableSession enabled="true"
                         inactivityTimeout="00:10:00" />
      </binding>
    </netTcpBinding>
  </bindings>
</system.serviceModel>

WCF Throttling – Part 2

Monday, October 11th, 2010

In the WCF Throttling – Part 1 article the service throttling behavior was introduced.

There are other throttling features in WCF that are designed to protect the service from request flooding.

These WCF throttling feature are configured on the binding, service behaviors and endpoint behaviors.

Binding properties:

  • MaxConnections (int) – specifies the maximum number of outbound and inbound connections the service creates and accepts respectively. Default value is 10 connections. This setting only applies for statefull TCP connections like netTcpBinding and not stateless HTTP protocols like basicHttpBinding, wsHttpBinding or webHttpBinding.
  • MaxReceivedMessageSize (long) – the maximum size of a message (including headers), that can be received on a channel. The sender of a message exceeding this limit will receive a fault and the receiver will drop the message. The default value is 65,536 bytes (64K).

There are two additional properties on the binding that one might mistakenly think is request throttling properties. These are the MaxBufferPoolSize and MaxBufferSize properties and they control WCF memory Buffer Manager.

Note: remember to set the MaxReceivedMessageSize and MaxBufferSize properties to the same value if using TransferMode.Buffered or an ArgumentException will be thrown at runtime with the message “For TransferMode.Buffered, MaxReceivedMessageSize and MaxBufferSize must be the same value.”

Binding properties for the readerQuotas element – used by XmlReader under the hood:

  • MaxArrayLength (int) – the maximum allowed array length of data received from a client. The default is 16,384 (16K).
  • MaxBytesPerRead (int) – the maximum allowed bytes returned per read for the XmlReader. The default is 4,096 (4K).
  • MaxDepth (int) – the maximum XML nested node depth. The default is 32.
  • MaxNameTableCharCount (int) – the maximum characters allowed in a table name. This is the maximum length of an XML element or attributes identifier including XML namespace. The default is 16,384 (16K).
  • MaxStringContentLength (int) – the maximum characters allowed in XML element or attribute content. The default is 8,192 (8K).

The DataContractSerializer is by default used to serialize and deserialize messages as it is much faster the XMLSerializer, but with less features. The DataContractSerializer has a single property that can be configures at the endpoint or service behavior:

  • MaxItemsInObjectGraph (int) – maximum number of items in an object graph to serialize or deserialize. The default is 65,536 (64K).

Resist the temptation of settings any of these properties to Int.MaxValue and the likes, because determining the correct values are difficult. Throttle the service, so some clients gets served instead of risk boggling down the service with request flooding, resulting in no clients get served.

You will become the service hero in your organization by throttling instead of letting the service run wild :-)

Example of configuration file:

<system.serviceModel>
  <behaviors>
    <endpointBehaviors>
      <behavior name="endpointBehavior">
        <dataContractSerializer maxItemsInObjectGraph="65536"/>
      </behavior>
    </endpointBehaviors>
    <serviceBehaviors>
      <behavior name="serviceBehaviors">
        <dataContractSerializer maxItemsInObjectGraph="65536"/>
      </behavior>
    </serviceBehaviors>
  </behaviors>
  <bindings>
    <netTcpBinding>
      <binding name="netTcpBindingConfig"
                maxReceivedMessageSize="65536"
                maxConnections="10">
        <readerQuotas maxArrayLength="16384"
                      maxBytesPerRead="4096"
                      maxDepth="32"
                      maxStringContentLength="8192"
                      maxNameTableCharCount="16384"/>
      </binding>
    </netTcpBinding>
  </bindings>
</system.serviceModel>

WCF Throttling – Part 1

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

The default throttling settings in WCF has always been very conservative. There where configured conservatively to diminish the risk of request flooding. Without throttling settings a large number of requests will make the service unresponsive by consuming all resources trying to respond to all requests simultaneously.

Because of the very conservative settings many developers have run into what seems like WCF performance problems, but was actually incorrectly configured throttling settings.

WCF throttling is a service behavior configuration and each setting has effect dependent on the InstanceContextMode and ConcurrencyMode settings.

  • maxConcurrentCalls (int) – the maximum number of concurrent messages processing
  • maxConcurrentInstances (int) - the maximum number of concurrent InstanceContext (service type instances) objects processing
  • maxConcurrentSessions (int) - the maximum number of concurrent sessions processing

These throttling settings can be configured in code via the ServiceThrottlingBehavior in the System.ServiceModel.Description namespace or though configuration like below:

<system.serviceModel>
    <serviceBehaviors>
      <behavior name="throttlingServiceBehavior">
        <serviceThrottling maxConcurrentCalls="16"
                           maxConcurrentInstances="160"
                           maxConcurrentSessions="10"/>
      </behavior>
    </serviceBehaviors>
</system.serviceModel>

The default values in .Net 3.0/3.5 are:

  • maxConcurrentCalls = 16
  • maxConcurrentSessions = 10
  • maxConcurrentInstances = maxConcurrentCalls + maxConcurrentSessions

The default has changed in .Net 4.0 as the .Net 3.0/3.5 default values were too conservative and the increase in server resources – especially the number of cores available. The default values for .Net 4.0 are:

  • maxConcurrentCalls = 16 * Environment.ProcessorCount
  • maxConcurrentSessions = 100 * Environment.ProcessorCount
  • maxConcurrentInstances = maxConcurrentCalls + maxConcurrentSessions

The Environment.ProcessorCount property is misleading as the value is the number of cores (Hyper-Threading counts double). In my development laptop with four Hyper-Threading cores looks like this:

Initial slow WCF request

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

SnailIf working with any of the HTTP Bindings you might experience that the first WCF request takes a long time to complete.

This is because the initial HTTP connection tries to get the proxy settings automatically. This is done by requesting the configuration via a HTTP GET http://wpad/wpad.dat. If proxy server automatic configuration is not configured, the request times out and the initial WCF can send the request directly to the destination address. This may add 30 seconds to the initial WCF request!

You can disable this behavior by specifying UseDefaultWebProxy = false on the binding.

You can read more about Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Protocol ( WPAD ) at Wikipedia.

This applies to basicHttpBinding, wsHttpBinding, wsDualHttpBinding, webHttpBinding, ws2007FederationHttpBinding, wsFederationHttpBinding, basicHttpContextBinding, wsHttpContextBinding and the new Azure ServiceBus bindings basicHttpRelayBinding, wsHttpRelayBinding, webHttpRelayBinding

How to view default values for a WCF binding

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

… or create a custom binding from a build-in binding.
… or create an administrative XML-based configuration from an administrative programmatic configuration.

Below codes does all that:

// Specify the source binding
// - Programmatic binding
// - Administrative XML-based binding
// - Convert to custom binding

/* Programmatic binding */
var binding = new BasicHttpBinding();
binding.TransferMode = TransferMode.Streamed;
binding.MaxReceivedMessageSize = 10000;

/* Administrative XML-based binding */
// var binding = new BasicHttpBinding("basicHttp");

/* Convert to custom binding */
// var wsBinding = new WSHttpBinding("wsHttp");
// var binding = new CustomBinding(wsBinding);

string outputConfigFile = "out.config";

Configuration machineConfig = ConfigurationManager.OpenMachineConfiguration();

var fileMap = new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
fileMap.ExeConfigFilename = outputConfigFile;
fileMap.MachineConfigFilename = machineConfig.FilePath;

Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(fileMap, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
config.NamespaceDeclared = true;

var scg = new ServiceContractGenerator(config);

string sectionName, configName;
scg.GenerateBinding(binding, out sectionName, out configName);
config.Save();

The programmatic source binding will create a configuration file with all default values for the BasicHttpBinding except for TransferMode and MaxReceivedMessageSize attributes like so:

<basichttpbinding>
    <binding name="BasicHttpBinding"
             closeTimeout="00:01:00"
             openTimeout="00:01:00"
             receiveTimeout="00:10:00"
             sendTimeout="00:01:00"
             allowCookies="false"
             bypassProxyOnLocal="false"
             hostNameComparisonMode="StrongWildcard"
             maxBufferSize="65536"
             maxBufferPoolSize="524288"
             maxReceivedMessageSize="10000"
             messageEncoding="Text"
             textEncoding="utf-8"
             transferMode="Streamed"
             useDefaultWebProxy="true">
        <readerquotas maxDepth="32"
                      maxStringContentLength="8192"
                      maxArrayLength="16384"
                      maxBytesPerRead="4096"
                      maxNameTableCharCount="16384" />
        <security mode="None">
            <transport clientCredentialType="None"
                       proxyCredentialType="None"
                       realm="" />
            <message clientCredentialType="UserName"
                     algorithmSuite="Default" />
        </security>
    </binding>
</basichttpbinding>

I found this tip by Brian McNamara on the MSDN WCF forum.

Handcrafting the WCF client

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

Two years ago I wrote an article Building a Windows Communication Foundation client, describing three ways of creating WCF clients. I did not mention the fourth one, as I did not know at the time. Now I am older and wiser ;-)

The four ways of creating a WCF client are:

  1. Visual Studio’s “Add Service” reference
  2. Service Model Metadata Utility Tool (SvcUtil.exe) command line tool
  3. Dynamic proxy with ChannelFactory
  4. Handcrafting the WCF client

The last two options are only viable for WCF to WCF implementations where you either have control of both service and client or the service provider supplies a .Net assembly. Because both of them require the service contract aka the .Net interface marked with ServiceContractAttribute and OperationContractAttribute.

Anybody that has tried the “Add Service” reference in Visual Studio knows it is broken. First of all it generates an enormous amount of files, even for the simplest service contract.

Secondly it sometimes corrupts the state of the generated files, so you have to remove the reference and then add it again.. Just try to google it and you will find many frustrated developers. Do not use it!

The SvcUtil.exe is better and has a vast number of options. This is the preferred option for non .Net services or where the service contract interface is not available.

The dynamic proxy with ChannelFactory is useful, but be aware that the interface returned does not implement IDisposable, but the implementation does. See below:

var factory = new ChannelFactory<ihelloworldservice>("myEndPoint");

IHelloWorldService proxy = factory.CreateChannel();

using (proxy as IDisposable)
{
   MessageBox.Show(proxy.HelloWorld());
}

Finally the handcrafted version – the one I want to talk about. Writing the WCF client by hand is fairly easy – it requires the implementation to inherit from ClienBase and implementing the service contract interface. Below is first a simple service contract IHelloWorldService:

[ServiceContract(Namespace = "www.lybecker.com/blog/HelloWorldService")]
public interface IHelloWorldService
{
   [OperationContract]
   string HelloWorld();
}

Next the handcrafted WCF client with constructors and service contract interface implementation:

public class HelloWorldClient : ClientBase<ihelloworldservice>, IHelloWorldService
{
   public HelloWorldClient()
   { }

   public HelloWorldClient(string configurationName) : base(configurationName)
   { }

   public HelloWorldClient(Binding binding, EndpointAddress address) : base(binding, address)
   { }

   public string HelloWorld()
   {
      return Channel.HelloWorld();
   }
}

That’s it. :-)

Now you have full control of the WCF client implementation.

Download the sample application Hello World WCF clients including a handcrafted version

Serialization in .Net 3.5 SP1

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008

In .Net 3.5 SP1 it is now possible to serialize any object that has a default constructor without decorating it with [DataContract] or [Serializable].

Developers have these choices now when serializing objects:

  • Implicit serialization – requires public default constructor and only serialize public read/write fields
  • Use the [Serializable] attribute
  • Use [DataContract] and [DataMember] attributes
  • Implement the ISerializable interface

I must say, that I’m not keen on this new feature. I prefer explicit serialization to implicit serialization. I predict that implicit serialization of entire object graphs will cause performance problems for many .Net developers in the years to come. This could also be a good thing as I am a consultant  ;-)

Aaron Skonnard has a more detailed blog post about the new serialization features in .Net 3.5 SP1.

.Net debugger visualizers

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

The .Net framework 2.0 gave some great tools for debugging – they are a great help when writing code.

Some of these features are the DebuggerDisplay and DebuggerStepThrough attributes. I seldom use any of them, as I prefer to just overriding the ToString method instead of using the DebuggerDisplay attribute. This makes it easy to instrument the code too, as I can reuse the ToString method implementation for tracing.

Another feature is the ability to develop custom debugger visualizers. They enable smart developers to build their own. I find some really useful, especially the WCF visualizer. But there a many – check out this list of custom .Net debugger visualizers.

These small enhancements make it so easy to get an overview of the current state, instead of inspecting properties.