Deploying Microservices on Azure Service Fabric

The way we develop scalable and resilient applications have been redefined by the microservices architecture in fast paced digital environment. Azure Service Fabric is an extensive platform from Microsoft that provides a best-in-class way to build, deploy and manage microservices. This guide takes you deep into the world of deploying microservices with Azure Service Fabric, giving more than enough insights for utilizing its whole potential.

Azure Service Fabric

Azure Service Fabric is a distributed systems platform that makes it easy to package, deploy, and manage scalable and reliable microservices and containers. It provides a powerful runtime, which supports both stateless and stateful microservices; so that developers can focus on adding value to the feature they are working rather than worrying about all related infrastructure requirements.

Azure Service Fabric Features:-

Elasticity: Scale application) applications automatically to meet demand.

Resilience: Automatic failover & self-healing facilities built-in.

Flexible programming models Across preferred languages and frameworks.

Complete Monitoring: From the smallest to most extensive monitoring and diagnostics.

1. Development Environment Setup

To get started with microservices development on Azure Service Fabric, we have to first establish your own working environment. Install the following tools:

Visual Studio with Azure development workload (Latest version required).

Azure Service Fabric SDK: The runtime, tools and templates for servicing fabric applications.

Azure CLI: Mainly used to manage Azure services from the command line.

2. Create Service Fabric Cluster

Service Fabric cluster is a set of virtual or physical machines connected by network where you deploy applications. Create Cluster step-by-step

Azure Portal: Create a Service Fabric cluster with the Azure Portal. Enter cluster name, region and node type.

ARM-template in Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Template : This is an ARM template, used to automate the Container Cluster a good option if you want everything automated from cluster creation.

3. Developing Microservices

Two types of microservices are supported by Service Fabric.

Stateless Microservice: These services do not maintain mutable state outside of the life-cycle of a single request and its response.

Long-running stateful microservices: These services maintain a durable, reliable collection of some form, such as cache or record aggregated data.

Stateless Microservices Creation:

New Project: Create a new Service Fabric Application project in Visual Studio.

Service Type: Add a state less service to your application.

Code Implementation ) Implement your business logic in the available templates.

Stateful Microservice Examples

New Service: To add a stateful service to your application.

State Management: Use Reliable Collections for managing state. For example, use a ReliableDictionary to store key/value pairs.

4. Deploying Microservices

Packaging and uploading an application as part of deploying your microservices to a Azure Service Fabric cluster. Follow these steps:

Packaging Application: Right-click your Service Fabric application in Visual Studio and select Package.

Deploy Application: Use Visual Studio, or Azure CLI to deploy your packaged application into the Service Fabric cluster.

Using Visual Studio:

How to publish:- GoTo Service Fabric project, Right Click -> Publish

Cluster Connection: Specify the connection information for your Azure Service Fabric cluster.

Deploy: Push publish to deploy microservices.

Using Azure CLI:

Sign in: Using az login sign into your Azure account.

Configure the package: az sf application upload Configure service type and capacity structure: az sf application provision Deploy using this command --az sf application create

5. Monitoring and Administered Microservices

With Azure Service Fabric you get tools like monitoring and diagnostics to help ensure your microservices are working as expected. View the service from your browser usingService Fabric Explorer. Also include Azure Monitor and Application Insights for increased telemetry and analytics.

6. Scaling Microservices

Azure Service Fabric scaling can be manual or automatic. Create scaling rules related to metrics (such as CPU Utilization, Memory Consumption and your custom performance counters) Through the Azure Portal or using Azure CLI, you can allow more (or less) no. of instances for each microservice to scale with loads in an optimum manner.

Architecting a Microservices: Driven Cloud-Native Application For Microsoft Azure Service Fabric Deployments

Design for Failure: Plan, and code to handle failures of services better.

Security: Secure your services using Azure Active Directory & Managed Identities.

Azure DevOps (integrated CI/CD): Automate the process of build, test and deployment using Azure DevOps.

Logging & Monitoring: Monitor your applications and set up alerts for any critical issues.

Conclusion

Azure Service Fabric provides a platform to build scalable, reliable and easily managed applications with microservices. With this complete tutorial, you can leverage the full capability of Azure Service Fabric and have your microservice architecture robust as well as future proofed.

Follow me on LinkedIn for more insights on Azure architecture: www.dhirubhai.net/in/rajcloudx

Follow me on Substack for more free trainings: https://careerbytecode.substack.com/welcome