Microsoft .NET and Windows
ScaleOut StateServer® (SOSS) includes complete support for .NET applications running under the Microsoft Windows operating system. ASP.NET Web applications hosted on .NET server farms can scale their performance to handle heavy client loads by transparently storing Web session-state in SOSS's distributed data grid. Application developers can take advantage of SOSS's comprehensive .NET APIs to integrate a distributed data grid into their applications. IT Managers can use SOSS's management tools, including a GUI management console and object browser, to easily configure and manage SOSS's distributed data grid. Together, these capabilities make ScaleOut StateServer the industry's leading distributed data grid solution for .NET server farms and HPC compute grids.
Transparent ASP.NET Session-State Support
ScaleOut StateServer eliminates a key bottleneck in scaling the performance of ASP.NET applications. ASP.NET's built-in session-state providers lack the scalability needed by server farm applications, and in-process storage does not keep mission-critical session-state highly available. ScaleOut StateServer's in-memory distributed data grid solves these problems and takes ASP.NET application to the next level of performance and reliability. By transparently hosting session-state in ScaleOut StateServer or ScaleOut SessionServer, ASP.NET users can enjoy scalable and highly available scalable storage, high throughput, and fast response times in their Web farm applications.
SOSS eliminates the cost and overhead of storing session-state in a database server and avoids the inherent limitations of in-process storage or database partitioning schemes. Since any server can immediately access any session-state object, the Web farm's IP load-balancer can avoid "sticky" sessions and eliminate hotspots on the farm. Patented, intelligent data replication keeps session data safe and lets IT managers easily take servers offline for maintenance. Easy-to-use .NET APIs give developers the flexibility they need to customize ASP.NET applications for maximum performance. SOSS's in-memory distributed data grid is the production-proven solution for session-state storage that delivers both scalability and high availability.
ScaleOut StateServer supports ASP.NET versions 1.1 and later. For ASP.NET version 2.0 and later, SOSS supports Microsoft's session-state store provider model, which lets ASP.NET applications seamlessly and transparently take full advantage of ScaleOut StateServer's unique capabilities. With ASP.NET 2.0's session-state provider model, Microsoft's industry-leading platform provides a fully transparent method for Web applications to access third party storage providers. ScaleOut StateServer makes use of ASP.NET's session-state provider model to seamlessly replace ASP.NET's built-in providers after just a quick edit to the Web application's configuration file. ScaleOut StateServer implements all of the interfaces, locking, and expiration logic that are required for a compliant session-state store, ensuring reliable operation. ScaleOut StateServer installs as a standard Windows software service and uses the Web farm's existing local area network.
Comprehensive APIs
.NET and C/C++ applications can directly access ScaleOut StateServer's distributed data grid using comprehensive application programming interfaces (APIs) supplied with the product. The .NET APIs support all .NET languages, including C#, C++, and Visual Basic. Additional APIs support "unmanaged" C/C++ applications and Java applications.
ScaleOut StateServer's APIs provide simple, straightforward access to the distributed data grid to:
- store serialized data objects identified by a 256-bit key,
- read previously stored data objects,
- update previously stored data objects, and
- remove data objects from the store.
ScaleOut StateServer incorporates extensive and flexible data grid features that provide the flexibility needed to build powerful server farm and HPC compute grid applications, including:
- separate name spaces for groups of logically related objects,
- automatic name space separation for different .NET applications,
- distributed object locking that synchronizes access by multiple clients and threads,
- optional object expiration after sliding or fixed timeouts, LRU memory reclamation, or object dependency changes,
- scalable, highly available asynchronous event handling,
- optional, "in process" caching
- transparent access to a database server or other backing store,
- fully parallel query of grid data, and
- parallel data analysis unique automatic, parallel method invocation ("map/reduce").
Powerful .NET Management Tools
IT managers can manage ScaleOut StateServer's distributed data grid from any server in the farm or from a remotely connected workstation using its easy to use .NET GUI management console or a command line control program. The .NET management console provides complete control over ScaleOut StateServer's configuration and operations, notifies of configuration changes and failures, and displays comprehensive performance information, including real-time performance charts.
ScaleOut StateServer also includes a full set of performance counters that display key parameters of the distributed data grid's real-time performance, such as access rates and memory usage, using the Microsoft Perfmon utility.
The optional ScaleOut Object Browser, provided as part of the ScaleOut Management Pack™, lets IT managers directly browse data stored within the distributed data grid. This gives developers and administrators a unique new means of accessing the contents of the data grid, including both metadata and serialized data for individual C/C++, Java, and .NET objects. In addition, the object browser can load .NET assemblies so that it can deserialize .NET objects and display properties/fields from custom classes, including items within ASP.NET session objects.
