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XAP.NET SQL Server Data Grid

Author XAP Version Last Updated Reference Download
Shay Hassidim 9.7 April 2014

Overview

The SQL Server Data-Grid example demonstrates a common Data Grid / Caching architecture using SQL Server for persistence and initial data load into the data grid. It includes the following components:

  • A Client application that perform write and read operations against a remote clustered IMDG.
  • A Clustered IMDG with write-behind (Mirror service) with pre-fetch (initial load) enabled. The Data grid using nHibernate to Map .Net objects to database tables and persist data into the SQL Server database.

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This best practice will demonstrate how to implement this with XAP.NET.

Structure

The example includes four projects:

  • GigaSpaces.Examples.Datagrid.Commons - contains the entities project (Person) used in the example and other common functionalities.
  • GigaSpaces.Examples.Datagrid.Mirror - The mirror service (write-behind service) as a Processing Unit.
  • GigaSpaces.Examples.Datagrid - The Data Grid processing unit (clustered space).
  • GigaSpaces.Examples.Datagrid.Client - A client application performs write and read operations against the data grid.

Prerequisites

  • MS SQL Server 2012 installed and running.
  • Visual Studio 2010 with Service pack 1 or Visual Studio 2013.
  • XAP.NET 9.7 installed. Have the license key placed into C:\GigaSpaces\XAP.NET 9.7.0 x64\Runtime\gslicense.xml.

Building the Example

Step 1: Download the example and extract it into the <GigaSpaces XAP .Net Root>\Examples folder. A new folder called Datagrid-SQLServer will be created.

Step 2: Browse to the example directory : <GigaSpaces XAP .Net Root>\Examples\Datagrid-SQLServer.

Step 3: Edit the following NHibernate conf files and update the connection.connection_string to have the right value for the Data Source (database server and instance name). Keep the Initial Catalog as datagrid. - \Datagrid-SQLServer\config\nHibernate\CreateTablesNHibernate.cfg.xml - \Datagrid-SQLServer\config\nHibernate\nHibernate.cfg.xml See example for the connection.connection_string you will need to modify:

<property name="connection.connection_string">Server=MY-SERVER;Database=datagrid;Trusted_Connection=True</property>

Step 4: Run the BuildAll.bat script to compile the example. This script also copies the deployment files to the <GigaSpaces Root>\deploy folder.

Running the Example

Step 1: The example must be compiled before running (see Building the Example).

Step 2: Create a Database Named datagrid:

  • If its the first time you are running the example where the database and the Person table have not been created yet:
  • Go to Microsoft Sql Server Management Studio , Right click on Databases and Choose New Database, in the Database name Enter: datagrid and press the OK button.
  • To Create the database Tables run:
<GigaSpaces Root>\Examples\Datagrid-SQLServer\tools\SqlServerCreateDBTables.bat.

This will generate the Person table within the datagrid database.

Running the Data Grid

You may run the data grid as single process (good for development) or in a distributed manner (production environment). Once the data grid is started it is loading its data from the Database. You may customize this by having your own NHibernateExternalDataSource extension. See the EdsUtils and the C:\GigaSpaces\XAP.NET 9.7.0 x64\NET v4.0.30319\Practices\ExternalDataSource\NHibernate project for details.

Running the Data Grid as a Single Process

To run the data grid in a single process for debug mode run the runDebug.bat script as an administrator. This will run the clustered data grid and the mirror service within the same process. You may run it within Visual Studio to debug the data grid construction.

Running the Data Grid in a Distributed Configuration

  1. Run Gigaspaces Agent and containers by running the StartAgent.bat script. This will start 3 containers. Run this script as an administrator.
  2. Deploy the data grid and the Mirror service by running DeployDataGrid.bat. This script will undeploy first the existing data grid and mirror if they are already running.

Once deployed you should see the following within the GS-UI:

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Running the Client Application

The client application has several options:

  1. runWrite.bat - will write 10 Person objects into the data grid and persist to SQL Server.
  2. runWriteMultiple.bat - will write 100 Person objects (10 batches of 10 Person objects) into the data grid and persist to SQL Server.
  3. runRead.bat - will read a Person object from the data grid.
  4. runReadMultiple.bat - will read a 100 Person object from the data grid.

When you write objects into the data grid you should see these as well within the database in the Person table.

Opening .NET Solution with Microsoft Visual Studio

  1. Double-click the GigaSpaces.Examples.Datagrid.sln file.
  2. Choose Build > Build Solution menu. The project files and dependencies are created and copied to the release directory.

Viewing the data within the Data Grid

Run GigaSpaces UI: Go to <GigaSpaces Root>\Bin and run Gs-ui.exe. This will allow you to view the content of the data grid.

Viewing the data grid instances:

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Viewing the data grid space types:

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Viewing the data within the data grid:

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Important

Before you deploy the data grid make sure you will have the nHibernate.cfg.xml and Person.hbm.xml located under the following folders:

  • \Deploy\datagrid\NHibernateCfg
  • \Deploy\mirror\NHibernateCfg