Access Azure WebApp Object From Azure WebJob

Question

We have a Static Class in the WebApp that contains a static dictionary of current sessions and username. We need to have access to the data in the dictionary in the WebJob as we want to update data based on who currently has active sessions. The webJob runs every 5 minutes and needs to have the current list of sessions/users.

I can access the dictionary from the webjob but its always null. We have logging in the webApp that verifies there are entries in the dictionary but when the webjob accesses the dictionary its null.

How can I get that object in the webJob and get its data? Do we need to use Azure Storage (Queue/Table) for this to work?

Answer 1

An "Azure AppService" is hosted on an "AppService Plan", which in turn consists of a number of virtual machines. WebJobs ("your.webjob.exe") and WebApps(usually "w3wp.exe") are completely independent processes on theses systems. They may run on the same machine, but there is no guarantee for it. Either way, communication between them would be difficult and can definitely not be achieved by using a common static variable.

For your use case, you should use a common storage. Azure Storage could work, but Azure Redis Cache or simple SQL might also do the trick. Depends on your framework and requirements.