Creating custom web farm synchronization tasks

Web farm tasks are code executed by web farm servers. Create custom web farm tasks if you extended Kentico with functions that work directly with the application’s memory or file storages. For example, if your custom function writes files to the file system and you want these files to be synchronized across all servers in your web farm, you need to write a custom web farm task that handles the synchronization.

Example

The following example shows how to create a custom synchronization task that logs information events into the event log of all servers in the web farm:

1. Open the Kentico web project in Visual Studio (using the WebSite.sln or WebApp.sln file).
2. Create a custom module class.
   • Either add the class into a custom project within the Kentico solution (recommended) or directly into the Kentico web project (into a custom folder under the CMSApp project for web application installations, into the App_Code folder for web site installations).

3. Add a method inside the moduleclass, for example RegisterCustomTask.

4. Override the module’s OnInit method and call the RegisterCustomTask method.

   Copy

   
   
   
    using System;
   
    using CMS;
    using CMS.Base;
    using CMS.DataEngine;
    using CMS.EventLog;
    using CMS.Core;
    using CMS.Helpers;
   
    // Registers the custom module into the system
    [assembly: RegisterModule(typeof(CustomWebFarmTaskModule))]
   
    public class CustomWebFarmTaskModule : Module
    {
        // Module class constructor, the system registers the module under the name "CustomWebFarmTasks"
        public CustomWebFarmTaskModule()
            : base("CustomWebFarmTasks")
        {
        }
   
        // Contains initialization code that is executed when the application starts
        protected override void OnInit()
        {
            base.OnInit();
   
            RegisterCustomTask();
        }
   
        // Registers a custom web farm synchronization task in the system
        public void RegisterCustomTask()
        {
            // Creates a custom web farm task which logs information to the event log
            WebFarmTask task = new WebFarmTask
            {
                Type = "CustomTask",
   
                // Logs a record into the system's event log, with 'Execute' as the event code
                Execute = (target, textData, binaryData) =>
                {
                    string message = String.Format("Slave {0} is going to process task from master {1}", SystemContext.ServerName, textData);
                    EventLogProvider.LogInformation(target, "Execute", message);
   
                    // TODO: Slave operation
                }
            };
   
            // Registers the given web farm task
            WebFarmHelper.RegisterTask(task);
        }
    }
   
   
    

5. Deploy these code changes to all of your web farm servers.

Each server in the web farm can now process the custom tasks.

To create the custom tasks, call the WebFarmHelper.CreateTask method anywhere in your custom code. For example:

1. Add a CreateCustomTask method into the module class that handles the task registration:

   Copy

   
   
   
    // Creates a custom web farm synchronization task
    public void CreateCustomTask()
    {
        // TODO: Master operation
   
        // Prepares the data parameter of the custom task
        string data = SystemContext.ServerName;
   
        // Creates the custom web farm synchronization task
        if (WebFarmHelper.CreateTask("CustomTask", "MyTask", data, null))
        {
            // Runs if the custom task was created successfully
            // Logs a record in the event log on the server that created the web farm task
            string message = String.Format("Master {0} finished processing operation and created task for slaves", SystemContext.ServerName);
            EventLogProvider.LogInformation("CustomTask", "Create", message);
        }
    }
   
   
    

2. Call CreateCustomTask() within the module’s OnInit method:

   Copy

   
   
   
    // Contains initialization code that is executed when the application starts
    protected override void OnInit()
    {
        base.OnInit();
   
        RegisterCustomTask();
   
        CreateCustomTask();
    }
   
   
    

The instance where you added the code now always creates the custom task during initialization (application start). If the task is successfully created, the system also logs a record into the event log, with Create as the event code. You can see the results by checking the event log in the Event log application.

You need to have web farms properly configured and working (have more than one server in the web farm) to try out this example.