Web Service scalability?

[Ron Lemire]

Hi,

I've read about Web Farms for scalability of Web Sites.
Does the same concept apply to Web Services (i.e. the same Web Service
running on multiple boxes)?
If Web Service Farms are possible:
1) Can clients access the Web Services asynchronously with callbacks?
2) Can client state be maintained out-of-process with StateServer mode
and SQL Server mode?
3) Is there any documentation or articles on Web Service Farms?

Thanks...Ron Lemire

 

[Chris Botha]

Yes, anything that is true for ASP session states, is also true for Web
Service session states.

1) Yes, you will see that if you have a service MyWebCall, then the proxy
generated on the client side also has the BeginMyWebCall and EndMyWebCall,
these are them.
2) Yes, but by default session state is turned off for Web Services. (a)
When declaring the WebMethod, you must specify EnableSession := True for the
method, and (b), the client has to create a new CookieContainer on the web
service proxy.