Well since we now have Azure AppFabric Cache available, let’s get a head start on how to use it in your Cloud
ASP.NET (MVC) application. First, you need to have
AppFabric 1.0 April Refresh SDK installed on your machine so grab it at
here.
Next, go to Windows Azure Management portal. Log in, go to AppFabric/Cache and create new service namespace: wait for the service to be activated.
Then click 'View Client Configuration Button'
you will get a nice pre prepared configuration settings (with all those pesky security information included) for your app:
now we have all the pieces of the puzzle ready, all we have to do is to add references to caching dlls (located at C:\Program Files\Windows Azure AppFabric SDK\V1.0\Assemblies\NET4.0\Cache) to our application and change web.config with the settings given by previous step.
You would always need to put cache section in <configSections> node:
<section name="dataCacheClients"
type="Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.DataCacheClientsSection,
Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Caching.Core"
allowLocation="true"
allowDefinition="Everywhere"/>
and configure your Cache EndPoints:
<dataCacheClients>
<dataCacheClient name="default">
<hosts>
<host name="ntkonferenca.cache.windows.net" cachePort="22233" />
</hosts>
<securityProperties mode="Message">
<messageSecurity
authorizationInfo="1AmN0tT371NgUtH@T">
</messageSecurity>
</securityProperties>
</dataCacheClient>
<dataCacheClient name="SslEndpoint">
<hosts>
<host name="ntkonferenca.cache.windows.net" cachePort="22243" />
</hosts>
<securityProperties mode="Message" sslEnabled="true">
<messageSecurity
authorizationInfo="1AmN0tT371NgUtH@T">
</messageSecurity>
</securityProperties>
</dataCacheClient>
</dataCacheClients>
If your application uses Session State and you want it to use Azure AppFabric Cache (which you do) you change your <sessionState> node to:
<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>
and the same for OutputCache by changing <caching> note:
<caching>
<outputCacheSettings enableFragmentCache="true" defaultProvider="DistributedCache">
<outputCacheProfiles>
<add name="default" duration="43000" />
<add name="DistributedCache"
type="Microsoft.Web.DistributedCache.DistributedCacheOutputCacheProvider,
Microsoft.Web.DistributedCache"
cacheName="default"
dataCacheClientName="default" />
</outputCacheProfiles>
</outputCacheSettings>
</caching>
That’s it, nothing needs to be changed in your code, your app is configured and ready to be published to the cloud. AppFabric Cache is not a free service even if you
won’t be charged anything for its use prior to
August 1, 2011. After that the prices are:
- 128 MB cache for $45.00/month
- 256 MB cache for $55.00/month
- 512 MB cache for $75.00/month
- 1 GB cache for $110.00/month
- 2 GB cache for $180.00/month
- 4 GB cache for $325.00/month
In my next post, Ill tackle with using AppFabric Cache without using prepared providers by simple GET and PUT statements (lets get rid of HttpRuntime.Cache as well).