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I need to build a proxy (maybe a bad description) that receives an XML file from a 3rd party, saves it, sends it on to another 3rd party, gets the response back and passes that back to the original 3rd party. Let's call that entire process a "unit".

Should I use a webservice? A Generic Handler? Something else?

I might have to do 20 "units" per second, but I know that each "unit" may span 30 seconds to a minute each, so really, I mean that I need to be able to have 1200 of these "units" running at the same time, in all varying stages of the process that I described above.

As far as the file saving goes, I eventually want to put this into a database, but I would imagine that writing the file is quicker than actually saving the data into a database, so I'll just have another process that isn't nearly as time critical as this grab the files and insert them into the DB at its own convenience.

The "app" will only consist of 1 page and it will be running under SSL. This will likely be the only thing on this server at any given time to ensure that this little process is not a bottleneck.

What in .Net would be a good (fast and scalable) way to go about this? I don't have any effective limit on what I would need as far as hardware goes -- so I can get a screaming machine if it would guarantee no bottlenecks.

Matt Dawdy
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    you say a unit can take 30 seconds, how much of that time is in transfer across the network and how much is in the processing? – Geoff Mar 25 '11 at 17:01
  • Also, how much data are you actually transferring? – NotMe Mar 25 '11 at 18:33
  • Almost all of it will be waiting on the 2nd 3rd party to respond. My proxy will merely receive the file (10k or less), save it to disk, then pass it along and receive the response then forward the response to the calling client. – Matt Dawdy Mar 25 '11 at 18:54

2 Answers2

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I would write a WCF service, use REST to simplify it's URLs, and set the WCF service to run as a singleton so that your memory doesn't get out of control.

Good article on WCF: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/sridhar_subra/116/

NovaJoe
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Since webservices are based on XML you need to consider the fact that you could end up with "XML inside XML". But part from that I'd say using webservices is a good way to go. Mostly because it is compatible, easy to use and easy to understand (for future maintainers).

There are however alternatives that use less CPU/memory/bandwith. WCF provides several models to solve this both in regard to running under IIS or stand-alone process and transfer type.

Personally I'm a fan of plain old binary transfer through TCP. REST could be one way to go as it is compatible (frontend proxy/caching for instance) and essentially gives you a binary transfer with little overhead.

I also like to leave the dirty work to IIS, so I avoid stand-alone WCF apps. I assume IIS is faster and more stable than what I can do easily.

Maybe my question on high concurrent load can be of help.

Community
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Tedd Hansen
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