Windows service on Azure

Question

Hi

I have found that Azure does not support windows servcie and has an alternate approach known as "Worker Role". Is this correct? Are there any difference between them.

I need to fetch some queued data using a web service from one web application analyise it and push it some other web application using web service. Is this possible to do using worker process. If no is there any other apprach to do this? If yes is it the right approach?

I dont want to host a windows service on the intranet.

Answer 1

Hi,

Yes, worker role is very similar to Windows Service. Worker role allows you to run an application when the virtual machine instance starts up, and it allows you to run it continuously until the instance shuts down.

I don’t know the details of your scenario. Usually in a worker role, you have a while loop that checks the queue continuously, and process messages if there’s any:

while (true)
{
Message msg = queue.GetMessage();
ProcessMessage(msg);
Thread.Sleep(10000);
}

You can get started from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/wazplatformtrainingcourse_introtowindowsazurelabvs2010_topic3.

 

Best Regards,

Ming Xu.

---

Please mark the replies as answers if they help or unmark if not.
If you have any feedback about my replies, please contact [e-mail].
Microsoft One Code Framework

Answer 2

Jayesh, the quickest way you could do this would be to simply host a VM of your current server in Azure.  That way, you can use your existing Windows Service, likely without modification.  Here is the link:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/gg433107.aspx

 

Cheers,

Matt

Answer 3

Thans a lot.

I dont have the service ready it is going to be developed what would be better a worker role or Server VM. Are there any limitations of worker role?

Answer 4

Hi,

Essentially, at runtime, your worker role does not have administrator privilege. In addition, the only way to install software on a worker role is to write a startup task and use a script to install it.

VM role allows you to use any images you like, as long as the image is a Windows Server 2008 R2 image. So essentially it is the same as your local environment (with a few exceptions such as network). But you have to manage the VM image yourself, including tasks such as Windows update.

 

Best Regards,

Ming Xu.

---

Please mark the replies as answers if they help or unmark if not.
If you have any feedback about my replies, please contact [e-mail].
Microsoft One Code Framework

Answer 5

I would like to understand the best way to do an equivalent of Windows services.

Is worker role in Azure a single tenant?

Can I write multiple services within one Azure Worker role?

Can the service be consumed by multiple applications?

---

Jawaid