Service Fabric in brief

linux-dev-setup.md

Setup Service Fabric Development Environment on Linux

The official document at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-get-started-linux is problematic (ESPECIALLY, DO NOT follow the instruction in that document to install Docker!). Here're the correct steps.

Prerequisites

1. Check if your Linux distro and version are supported at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-versions#supported-linux-versions-and-support-end-date
2. Setup Docker as instructed by https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu

Install Service Fabric SDK

Add the dotnet repo to your sources list corresponding to your distribution.

wget -q https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/$(lsb_release -rs)/packages-microsoft-prod.deb
sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb

Add the new MS Open Tech Gnu Privacy Guard (GnuPG or GPG) key to your APT keyring.

sudo curl -fsSL https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/msopentech.asc | sudo apt-key add -

Install SDK

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install servicefabricsdkcommon

NOTE:

• servicefabricsdkcommon depends on Python 3 and pip. It will automatically install the dependencies.
• The Service Fabric CLI sfctl is included in servicefabricsdkcommon. See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-cli for more about the CLI.

Service Fabric Dev Cluster

Setup a dev cluster by

sudo /opt/microsoft/sdk/servicefabric/common/clustersetup/devclustersetup.sh

Then you can open Service Fabric Explorer at http://localhost:19080/Explorer for it.

Remove the dev cluster when it's not needed any more by

sudo /opt/microsoft/sdk/servicefabric/common/clustersetup/devclustercleanup.sh

Create a Linux Container App

Follow this document to create a Linux container app on a dev cluster.

See sample code at https://github.com/coin8086/sf-container-sample

sf-in-brief.md

Service Fabric in Brief

Core Concepts

• Cluster and Node
• Application and Stateless/Stateful Services
• Service Partitions and Instances/Replicas

References

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-content-roadmap
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-technical-overview

Programming Models

Reliable Service (ExeHost)

• A Reliable Service can access Service Fabric APIs in C# or Java (C# is taken as default in this artical).
• A Reliable Service can be stateless or stateful.
• A Reliable Service can have a collection of service endpoints.
  • An endpoint is defined by an ICommunicationListener, listening on a specific URL.
  • An ICommunicationListener is wrapped in a ServiceInstanceListener for stateless service, and in a ServiceReplicaListener for stateful service.
  • You override StatelessService.CreateServiceInstanceListeners to return a collection of ServiceInstanceListener for a stateless serivce, or StatefulServiceBase.CreateServiceReplicaListeners to return a collection of ServiceReplicaListener for a stateful service.
  • A KestrelCommunicationListener is provided for HTTP service, so you don't have to implement an ICommunicationListener yourself.

Code Samples

• https://github.com/Azure-Samples/service-fabric-dotnet-getting-started/tree/classic/Services/AlphabetPartitions

  It shows how to implement a ICommunicationListener and use OpenAsync to publish the service URL, and how to resolve a service by ServicePartitionResolver.

• https://github.com/Azure-Samples/service-fabric-dotnet-quickstart

  It shows how to use KestrelCommunicationListener instead of implementing a ICommunicationListener, and how to resolve a service by reverse proxy.

References

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-reliable-services-introduction
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-reliable-services-lifecycle

Container (ContainerHost)

Code Samples

• https://github.com/Azure-Samples/service-fabric-containers/tree/master/Linux/container-tutorial

  It shows how to use DNS service for container.

References

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-containers-overview

Guest Executable (UseImplicitHost="true")

References

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-guest-executables-introduction
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-deploy-existing-app

Service Communication

• Naming Service
• How to Resolve a Service
  • ServicePartitionResolver
  • Reverse Proxy
  • DNS Service (only available on Windows Host)
• How to Publish a resolvable Service
  • Reliable Service (by ICommunicationListener::OpenAsync)
  • Container (by ServiceDnsName in ApplicationManifest.xml)

References

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-connect-and-communicate-with-services

Cluster Health

References

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-health-introduction

Cluster Security

References

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-cluster-security

Manifest

References

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-application-and-service-manifests
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-service-model-schema-elements
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-environment-variables-reference

Packaging & Deployment

References

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-package-apps

Hosting Environments

• Local SF Cluster for dev
  • Windows
  • Linux (problematic, especailly on Windows with WSL or Docker Container)
• SF on Azure
  • SF Cluster
  • SF Managed Cluster (available only for Windows)

Differences of Features between Linux and Windows

SF on Linux has less features than that on Windows. See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-linux-windows-differences for more details.