Azure Worker Role data volatility -
i create application holds big amount of volatile info in memory. little part of info needs persisted when host machine shuts down, or in case of maintenance. outages should rare, in memory info needs accessible of time, rare restrats of service bearable.
if have been developing server, create windowsservice, runs reliably while machine up, , persist fraction of info in onstop() method.
i'm thinking of moving whole thing cloud. question if worker role similiar windows service point of view? run of time rare outages, or recycled / restarted time time or when idle?
like windows service, worker role meant processing background tasks. 1 thing need maintain in mind worker role can go downwards time. may because of hardware failure or software updates. can't assume highly available. that's why windows azure recommends deploying multiple instances of application.
what have multiple instances of worker role running , of them sharing mutual cache set volatile data. take @ windows azure caching (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/gg278356.aspx) either dedicate memory of vm (i.e. instance) caching purpose or have total vm dedicated caching. way you'll have volatile info somewhere outside of worker roles , making available instances.
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