Hi Fellow developers,

Juz wondering if there is a remote Global Assembly Cache (GAC) Middle-Tier
Server that acts just like a COM+ Server. Only things is its serving .NET
Assemblies instead of COM Components. How do you deploy that GAC Server, if
there is ?

I have a web farm that runs 7 IIS Web Servers and each Web Server houses 3
applications that shares a common set of .NET Assemblies. Instead of having
all these assemblies in each GAC which means 7 GACs together, I would like a
middle-tier layer to house all these .NET Assemblies Business Logic

Please revert any advice.

Thank You Very Much.

--
William T
Chief Software Developer
Software Architect
Softwaremaker.Net Pte Ltd

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The first question I always ask when the GAC comes up is whether you really
need it. There are costs and benefits to the GAC, and in most cases the
costs outweigh the benefits in my mind. Here are some thoughts on the topic

http://www.lhotka.net/Articles.aspx?...4-486e03ccb495

But what you are proposing in your post has less to do with the GAC than it
has to do with the potential benefits (and costs) of introducing an
application server into your environment.

Adding physical tiers to an application reduces performance - often by as
much as 50% - due to the extra network hop required for any request. This is
a pretty high price to pay in most cases.

The question you need to ask yourself is whether it is worth upwards of a
50% performance hit to simplify the management of these shared DLLs. If it
is worth it, then you're all set. Most people over the past several years
have discovered that the performance hit is too high and they've come up
with other ways to manage the deployment and update of the DLLs to their
servers.

If you do _not_ use the GAC, you can use xcopy deployment or ftp to easily
update your web applications with updated versions of the DLLs. If you use
the GAC then you're kind of stuck since deployment requires registration, so
you're best bet is probably an msi file or a custom install script that runs
on each server.

Rocky
--
Rockford Lhotka
Author of 'Expert One-on-One Visual Basic.NET Business Objects'
rocky (AT) lhotka (DOT) net http://www.lhotka.net

"Softwaremaker" <msdn (AT) removethis (DOT) softwaremaker.net> wrote

Hi,

Thank you for your interesting thoughts and comments. I am evaluating all
options and your suggestion is something I will seriously consider.

However, my point is that, is there such a thing as a .NET GAC App Server ?
Is this a COM+ Server ? and if there is, how do I deploy it and how does
communction between the application-tier and the logic-tier takes place ?
Thru DCOM ? Remoting ? How does it happen ?

Any advise is greatly appreciated.

Thank You.

Willie

"Rockford Lhotka" <rockyNOSPAM (AT) NOSPAMlhotka (DOT) net> wrote

Thank you, Santiago.

+++++++++++++++++
"Santiago" <replytonewsgroup> wrote

A .NET application server is a host for assemblies that are usable by client
workstations or client servers. There are several ways to create a .NET app
server.

1) use web services - host them in IIS/ASP.NET and call them from clients

2) use remoting hosted in IIS/ASP.NET to expose .NET assemblies to clients

3) use remoting hosted in a custom host (typically a Windows Service) to
expose .NET assemblies to clients

Remoting is faster and more powerful than web services, but doesn't offer
the cross-platform interop of web services.

With the classic definitiion of an application server typically hosts
components as one tier in an n-tier application, so interoperability in such
a case is pretty meaningless. This means that if the assemblies on your
application server are part of a larger application and are not an
application all by themselves then remoting is probably your best bet.

However, if you are trying to create an application server that simply hosts
a self-contained application and exposes its functionality to the rest of
your organization then web services are the best bet. The scenario here is
NOT a classic application server that is merely another tier in an n-tier
application.

If you opt for remoting, the easiest approach is to go with #2 above - host
the assemblies in IIS. Ingo Rammer's 'Advanced .NET Remoting' books are a
good resource. You can also find some information on remoting and web
services on MSDN - including here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en...et10232001.asp

And you can find some information on the creation of an applicaiton server
with remoting here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en...et05272003.asp

Rocky
--
Rockford Lhotka
Author of 'Expert One-on-One Visual Basic.NET Business Objects'
rocky (AT) lhotka (DOT) net http://www.lhotka.net


"Softwaremaker" <msdn (AT) removethis (DOT) softwaremaker.net> wrote