Announcing Velocity CTP3 !

velocityteam — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 07:03:00 GMT

Velocity Team is happy to announce release of Microsoft project code named "Velocity" CTP3

For community technology preview 3 (CTP3), Microsoft project code named "Velocity" offers several enhancements and revised APIs. The enhancements include cache notifications feature, performance improvements, security enhancements, and new cluster management options. There have also been updates to the installation program. Please checkout Velocity CTP3 Help/Documentation for more details [Microsoft Project Code Named “Velocity” CTP3 on the Microsoft Download Center]

Cache Notifications

When using local cache to store data that changes infrequently, you no longer have to wait for the configured timeout before the client pulls the latest object from the cluster. Using cache notifications, the object in the local cache automatically invalidates as soon as it is notified that the object has changed. This greatly reduces the possibility that your application is working with stale data.

When caching data that changes frequently, you may want your applications to perform certain tasks based on various cache operations. For example, you may want your application to do something specific when a cached object is added, replaced, or removed. You might also want your application to do something different when a region is added, cleared, or removed from the cache. Specifying an event-triggered task is now possible with cache notifications.

Performance Improvements

Throughput, latency, and memory usage have been further optimized to improve performance for your applications.

Security Enhancements

The cache host Windows service now runs under a lower-privileged account: Network Service. To simplify deployment, the installation program now helps to configure the permissions of installation folders and the cluster configuration storage location. You still need to be an administrator on the cache servers and cluster configuration storage location in order to install "Velocity."

Note: Although these efforts help to secure the cache cluster; they are not enough to protect it from malicious activity. "Velocity" is designed to be operated in the datacenter, within the perimeter of the corporate firewall. Data transfer is not encrypted and is at risk of network "sniffing" and "replay" attacks.

New Cluster Management Options

Previously, only lead hosts could manage the cache cluster operations. Now, when using SQL Server to store the cluster configuration information, you have the option to let SQL Server perform the cluster management role instead of the lead hosts. This option improves supportability and availability of the cluster, eliminating the possibility of the cluster going down due to an insufficient number of (running) lead hosts.

Updates to the Installation Program

To streamline deployment, the installation program now supports automated installation for the cache host.

Cluster Configuration Editing Options Decoupled from Storage Options

Previously, how you chose to store your cluster configuration settings in the cluster configuration storage location dictated the options available to you for editing those configuration settings. Now, regardless of where you store your cluster settings, you can change those settings with the PowerShell-based cache administration tool or by directly editing an XML representation of the cluster configuration.

Along with this paradigm shift, the option to store the cluster configuration settings in XML (the cluster's "working copy") has been removed. Now you can export and edit (and import back) the configuration settings in XML when you choose to store your cluster configuration settings in a SQL Server database or a SQL Server Compact data file in a shared network folder.

With this change, your decision for the cluster configuration storage location can be based on application availability requirements and the resources available to your application (that is, how challenging it would be to procure an instance of SQL Server that your distributed cache cluster could use).

Revised APIs

To minimize changes in the following release, the "Velocity" APIs have been changed to enhance usability and more closely resemble the naming conventions of other Microsoft namespaces. The namespace of "Velocity" has been changed to Microsoft.Data.Caching from System.Data.Caching. Additionally, all class and delegate names have been renamed to include the prefix DataCache. Along with the name changes, many overloads have also been changed. For more details about the CTP3 API changes, checkout Velocity Online Help Section: CTP3 API Changes (Velocity)

Velocity MSDN Link : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/cc655792.aspx

Velocity CTP3 Download Link: Microsoft Project Code Named “Velocity” CTP3 on the Microsoft Download Center

Velocity Team

Microsoft project code named "Velocity" : CTP3