What is Configuration Services 2.0?

gregleak@microsoft.com — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:36:00 GMT

Last week, I presented at different types of user group sessions including the .NET Connected Systems Group in NYC and the Scalability Group in Boston. I showed a new feature of my StockTrader app, Configuration Services 2.0, which makes it easier to build services easier with .NET Framework 3.5 and WCF, and you may have read more here, Microsoft Continues Its Work On Oslo -- SOA for Windows.

Here are a few of the main objectives of the Configuration Services 2.0 and this will all be posted in the white paper on MSDN on the .NET StockTrader site:

1. Make it easier to build services with .NET 3.5 and WCF

o Includes template bindings, security examples, interoperability examples with Java

o Manages host process, endpoints, connections between services automatically

o Designed for high-performance

2. Provide centralized configuration management of service nodes

o Move host and application-specific settings from config files to a repository approach

o Provide Web-based management UI

o Provide way to automatically update settings without host restarts

3. Provide these capabilities via easily re-usable shared libraries

o Easy for customers to implement in their own applications and services

o Provides base classes, uses .NET reflection

o ~20 lines of code and not much time investment for customer to implement!

You can also call this something like a distributed “Service Network” and is one of the first examples of a general purpose Service Network built using .NET managed code. These code libraries can be leveraged as part of your SOA projects to develop new composite application that mix/match services across both .NET and Java. The Service Network should be able to automatically detect when you’ve added new computing nodes to the network and take advantage of scaling out with greater power without requiring complex setup or configuration – it should auto-detect that more resources are available for use. You can read more about Service Network on Steven Martin’s blog.

Below is also a diagram that might make more sense. Let me know what you think and would love your thoughts on this.

Inside The Lab : Load Balancing

What is Configuration Services 2.0?