ASP.NET/IIS6 Web Farms - confused

[postings]

Hi

I was under the mistaken impression that Application variables could be
shared by websites running under the same IIS process. Looking at the
documentation this isn't true.

So what is the best way to share services/pages/code between IIS6 and a
multitude of websites under a web farm? The only thing I could think of
is that XML web services could help here, but is that it?

I have dabbled a little with SQL Server and saving session state, but
I'd rather avoid having the session's conflict with each other
(that's why I mistakenly thought the application variable could be
useful in this instance, it was separate to the session state), and
there must be a payload with using a database rather than memory.

Can anybody give me any pointers on what ASP.NET technologies I should
be looking at when coding/designing web farms? What really interests me
is websites being able to access one common dll and be able to exchange
variables with each other. I could have a master website where
code/variable could be utilized in this instance.

Many Thanks!

Alex

 

[Juan T. Llibre]

The "shared dll" part is easy to accomplish.
Just install your common assembly to the machine's GAC.

Re shared variables, your best bet is storing them in a database,
where they can be accessed by anybody you want to allow access to.

re:

there must be a payload with using a database rather than memory.

You could always have the original data in the database,
so that only the initial hit will generate a payload,
and use the Cache object to store your data in memory.

Using a SQL Cache dependency will allow you
to re-hit the database if the data has changed.

 

[postings]

Thanks Juan.

I am wondering what would happen in a web hosting provider situation.
They can provide shared hosting on the Windows 2003 server to a number
of customers holding websites. Installing a common assembly into the
machine's GAC means that any other person holding a website on that
server will have access to my code. Also some of my websites may be
held on different web servers, can a GAC be made available, say, by
Active directory or some other technology? The other alternative is to
rent a standand alone server from the hosting provider, but this of
course is far more expensive.

Many Thanks!

Alex