• road to orleans
  • build & run
  • monitoring
  • code
  • further reading

road to orleans

This repository illustrates the road to orleans with practical, real-life examples such as .NET solutions. From most basic to more advanced techniques. The code is written using .NET 6 and was tested on macOS (Catalina 10.15.7) and, wherever docker is supported, Linux (Alpine 3.12).

build & run

• IDE: build + run (first the cluster, then the client)
• run-[client/silo]-[docker/local].sh

monitoring

Silo dashboards are available by default on localhost:8080 unless configured otherwise in the code/dockerfile/run-[client/silo]-[docker/local].sh. Additionally, Datadog APM support is illustrated in solution 3b.

code

flowchart TD
Solution1(Solution1: One basic silo, no grains.)
Solution2(Solution2: One basic silo, one grain, one console client.)
Solution3(Solution3: One basic silo, one grain, one console client, <br/>everything containerized.)
Solution3a(Solution3a: Solution3 + grain persistence.)
Solution3b(Solution3b: Solution3 + datadog APM.)
Solution4(Solution4: First in-memory clustering example. <br/>Many silos, many clients.)
Solution5(Solution5: Solution4 where the grain interfaces F# library code. <br/>Additionally, F# unit tests covering the F# library code.)
Solution5a(Solution5a: Solution5 where the host and client are written in F#.)
Solution6(Solution6: Solution5 where the cluster is being called from a Web API.)
Solution7(Solution7: Solution6 + FeatureManagement, dependency injection in grains, <br/>unit tests for grains using OrleansTestKit.)
Solution8(Solution8: Solution7 + Persistent Membership Table in DynamoEB,<br/>ECS hosting, CloudFormation Template.)

Solution1 --> Solution2
Solution2 --> Solution3
Solution3 --> Solution3a
Solution3 --> Solution3b
Solution3 --> Solution4
Solution4 --> Solution5
Solution5 --> Solution5a
Solution5 --> Solution6
Solution6 --> Solution7
Solution7 --> Solution8

solution	description	docker support	clustering	clustered silos	grains	clients	*visual studio code support	*remote containers support
solution1	One basic silo, no grains.	✅	-	1	0	0	✅	✅
solution2	One basic silo, one grain, one console client.	-	-	1	1 C# grain	1 - console	✅	✅
solution3	One basic silo, one grain, one console client, everything containerized.	✅	-	1	1 C# grain	1 - console	✅	✅
solution3a	Solution3 + grain persistence.	✅	-	1	1 C# grain	1 - console	✅	✅
solution3b	Solution3 + datadog APM.	✅	-	1	1 C# grain	1 - console	✅	✅
solution4	First in-memory clustering example. Many silos, many clients.	✅	in-memory	n	1 C# grain	n - console	✅	✅
solution5	Solution4 where the grain interfaces F# library code. Additionally, F# unit tests covering the F# library code.	✅	in-memory	n	1 C# grain interfacing F# library code.	n - console		✅
solution5a	Solution5 where the host and client are written in F#.	✅	in-memory	n	1 F# grain interfacing F# library code.	n - console		✅
solution6	Solution5 where the cluster is being called from a Web API.	✅	in-memory	n	1 C# grain interfacing F# library code	n - web api		✅
solution7	Solution6 + FeatureManagement, dependency injection in grains, unit tests for grains using OrleansTestKit.	✅	in-memory	n	1 C# grain interfacing F# library code	n - web api		✅
solution8	Solution7 + Persistent Membership Table in DynamoEB, ECS hosting, CloudFormation Template.	✅	Dynamo	n	1 C# grain interfacing F# library code	n - web api		✅

*visual studio code support:

• [ctrl/cmd]+shift+b: builds selected projects
• f5: runs selected projects

*remote containers support: ability to develop/build/run/debug code inside containers. This is to support those who just want to quickly pull the repository code and experiment with it with e.g. Visual Studio Code. Code + batteries included.

further reading

• https://gitter.im/road-to-orleans/community - road to Orleans gitter
• https://github.com/dotnet/orleans - Orleans repository
• https://dotnet.github.io/orleans/ - Orleans documentation
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/orleans/ - New Orleans documentation
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Orleans20Best20Practices.pdf - Orleans best practices
• https://gitter.im/dotnet/orleans/ - Orleans gitter
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Orleans-MSR-TR-2014-41.pdf - virtual actors paper
• https://github.com/OrleansContrib - orbiting repositories (e.g. Orleans dashboard)
• https://github.com/PiotrJustyna/FeatureManagementSandbox - more involved use cases for FeatureManagement

to watch

• https://youtu.be/GKXiGhFBd90 - observability: logs, tracing, metrics
• https://youtu.be/R0ODfwU6MzQ - orleans: deep dive