Azure and ASP.NET MVC session storage.

Question

Hello,

I have a web role with several instances that needs to share session data.

How do I achieve this in Azure?

I want to be able to use ASP.NET MVC features like VIEWBAG and VIEWDATA as if I’m coding for a regular one instance MVC application.

Is this possible?

What kind of configuration must I perform in web.config to achieve this?

Thank you all!

Answer 1

You could use Windows Azure AppFabric Caching for session state:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/gg457897

Cheers

Answer 2

Agree with BaileAthaAbu, you can use Windows Azure AppFabric Cache. And you can set your session provider by using the configuration.

<configSections>

  <!-- Append below entry to configSections. Do not overwrite the full section. -->

  <section name="dataCacheClients" type="Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.DataCacheClientsSection, Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.Core"

           allowLocation="true" allowDefinition="Everywhere"/>

</configSections>

<!-- Cache exposes two endpoints: one simple and other SSL endpoint. Choose the appropriate endpoint depending on your security needs. -->

<dataCacheClients>

 

  <dataCacheClient name="default">

    <hosts>

      <host name="shaunxu-caching.cache.windows.net" cachePort="22233" />

    </hosts>

 

    <securityProperties mode="Message">

      <messageSecurity 

        authorizationInfo="XXXXXXXX"

      </messageSecurity>

    </securityProperties>

  </dataCacheClient>

</dataCacheClients>

<sessionState mode="Custom" customProvider="AppFabricCacheSessionStoreProvider">

  <providers>

    <add name="AppFabricCacheSessionStoreProvider"

         type="Microsoft.Web.DistributedCache.DistributedCacheSessionStateStoreProvider, Microsoft.Web.DistributedCache"

         cacheName="default"

         useBlobMode="true"

         dataCacheClientName="default" />

  </providers>

</sessionState>

Answer 3

 

Do you use SQL Azure in your project? If so, I think ASP.NET Universal Providers [1] would be a good option to consider. The "DefaultSessionStateProvider" should allow you to use SQL Azure in a similar way to the traditional SQL Session State Provider.

 

It will save you $ costs associated with AppFabric Caching, if your application and SQL Azure database are hosted on the same data center.

 

[1] http://nuget.org/packages/System.Web.Providers

[2] http://www.hanselman.com/blog/IntroducingSystemWebProvidersASPNETUniversalProvidersForSessionMembershipRolesAndUserProfileOnSQLCompactAndSQLAzure.aspx

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Srini