Hosting WCF REST and NET.TCP endpoints together on Azure with ASP.NET

Question

I'm hosting my REST services by an ASP.NET application on Windows Azure. It's working perfect, but I needed an Inter-Role communication service a few days ago, I built my service but I have problems with hosting it.

This Code in my Global.asax works great in my local Azure Development Server but It did not work in Azure Cloud.

What is the best way to host them correctly?

Global.asax:

public class Global : HttpApplication
{
    void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        StartNotificationServiceHost();
        RegisterRoutes();
    }

    public ServiceHost ServiceHost { get; private set; }
    private void RegisterRoutes()
    {
        var hostfactory = new WebServiceHostFactory();
        RouteTable.Routes.Add(new ServiceRoute("REST/Companies",hostfactory, typeof(Companies)));
        RouteTable.Routes.Add(new ServiceRoute("REST/Public", hostfactory, typeof(Public)));
        RouteTable.Routes.Add(new ServiceRoute("REST/Users", hostfactory, typeof(Users)));
        RouteTable.Routes.Add(new ServiceRoute("REST/Contacts", hostfactory, typeof(Contacts)));
        RouteTable.Routes.Add(new ServiceRoute("REST/Projects", hostfactory, typeof(Projects)));
        RouteTable.Routes.Add(new ServiceRoute("REST/Instances", hostfactory, typeof(Instances)));
        RouteTable.Routes.Add(new ServiceRoute("REST/Activity", hostfactory, typeof(Activity)));
        RouteTable.Routes.Add(new ServiceRoute("REST/Search", hostfactory, typeof(Search)));
        RouteTable.Routes.Add(new ServiceRoute("REST/Tasks", hostfactory, typeof(Tasks)));
        RouteTable.Routes.Add(new ServiceRoute("REST/Documents", hostfactory, typeof(Documents)));
    }
    private void StartNotificationServiceHost()
    {
        Trace.WriteLine("Starting Service Host", "Information");
        NotificationServiceHost serviceHostBase = new NotificationServiceHost();
        serviceHostBase.RecycleNotificationRecieved += new RecycleNotificationRecievedEventHandler(ServiceHost_RecycleNotificationRecieved);
        serviceHostBase.CheckInstanceStatusRecieved += new CheckInstanceStatusRecievedEventHandler(serviceHostBase_CheckInstanceStatusRecieved);
        ServiceHost = new ServiceHost(serviceHostBase);
        this.ServiceHost.Faulted += (sender, e) =>
        {
            Trace.TraceError("Service Host fault occured");
            this.ServiceHost.Abort();
            Thread.Sleep(500);
            this.StartNotificationServiceHost();

        };
        NetTcpBinding binding = new NetTcpBinding(SecurityMode.None);
        RoleInstanceEndpoint notificationServiceHostEndPoint = RoleEnvironment.CurrentRoleInstance.InstanceEndpoints["NotificationServiceEndPoint"];
        this.ServiceHost.AddServiceEndpoint(
            typeof(INotifyService),
            binding,
            String.Format("net.tcp://{0}/NotifyService", notificationServiceHostEndPoint.IPEndpoint)
            );
        try
        {
            this.ServiceHost.Open();
            Trace.TraceInformation("Service Host Opened");
        }
        catch (TimeoutException timeoutException)
        {
            Trace.TraceError("Service Host open failure, Time Out: " + timeoutException.Message);
        }
        catch (CommunicationException communicationException)
        {
            Trace.TraceError("Service Host open failure, Communication Error: " + communicationException.Message);
        }
        Trace.WriteLine("Service Host Started", "Information");
    }
        InstanceItem serviceHostBase_CheckInstanceStatusRecieved(object sender, int e)
        {
...
        }
        void ServiceHost_RecycleNotificationRecieved(object sender, NotificationMessage e)
        {
...

        }
}

Web.config/ServiceModel section:

  <system.serviceModel>
    <behaviors>
      <serviceBehaviors>
        <behavior>
          <!-- This behavior enables API Key Verification -->
          <serviceAuthorization serviceAuthorizationManagerType="OfisimCRM.Webservice.APIKeyAuthorization, OfisimCRM.Webservice" />
        </behavior>
      </serviceBehaviors>
      <endpointBehaviors>
        <behavior>
          <webHttp />
          <serviceValidator />
        </behavior>
      </endpointBehaviors>
    </behaviors>
    <extensions>
      <behaviorExtensions>
        <add name="serviceValidator" type="OfisimCRM.Webservice.WebHttpWithValidationBehaviorExtension, OfisimCRM.Webservice, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null" />
      </behaviorExtensions>
    </extensions>
    <serviceHostingEnvironment multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" />
    <standardEndpoints>
      <webHttpEndpoint>
        <!-- 
            Configure the WCF REST service base address via the global.asax.cs file and the default endpoint 
            via the attributes on the <standardEndpoint> element below
        -->
        <standardEndpoint crossDomainScriptAccessEnabled="true" faultExceptionEnabled="true" hostNameComparisonMode="WeakWildcard" name="" defaultOutgoingResponseFormat="Json" helpEnabled="true" automaticFormatSelectionEnabled="true" maxBufferSize="65536" maxReceivedMessageSize="104857600" transferMode="Streamed" />
      </webHttpEndpoint>
    </standardEndpoints>
  </system.serviceModel>

ServiceDefinition/WebRole:

 <WebRole name="OfisimCRM.WebClient" vmsize="Small">
    <Sites>
      <Site name="Web">
        <Bindings>
          <Binding name="Endpoint1" endpointName="Endpoint1" />
        </Bindings>
      </Site>
    </Sites>
    <Endpoints>
      <InputEndpoint name="Endpoint1" protocol="http" port="80" />
      <InternalEndpoint name="NotificationServiceEndPoint" protocol="tcp" />
    </Endpoints>
    <Imports>
      <Import moduleName="Diagnostics" />
      <Import moduleName="RemoteAccess" />
    </Imports>
    <ConfigurationSettings>
    </ConfigurationSettings>
  </WebRole>

Error:

The server encountered an error processing the request. The exception message is 'Could not connect to net.tcp://x.x.x.29:8000/NotifyService. The connection attempt lasted for a time span of 00:00:21.0918600. TCP error code 10060: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond x.x.x.29:8000. '. See server logs for more details.

Answer 1

Role instances access has been restricted by the Firewall. Usually, the instance accepts connections only from the load balancer. You add setting to service definition file (*.csdef) as follows, and it is necessary to accept connection.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
  <ServiceDefinition name="RoleCommunication" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition"> 
: 
  <NetworkTrafficRules> 
    <OnlyAllowTrafficTo> 
      <Destinations> 
        <RoleEndpoint endpointName="YourEndPointName" roleName="YourRole" /> 
      <Destinations> 
      <WhenSource matches="AnyRole"> 
        <FromRole roleName="YourRole" /> 
      </WhenSource> 
    </OnlyAllowTrafficTo> 
  </NetworkTrafficRules> 
</ServiceDefinition >

Alternatively, you can add rule the connection expresily using netsh command in Startup Task.

ex) netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="YourEndPoint" dir=in action=allow localport=80 protocol=tcp

====

Is 'InternalEndpoint' a dynamic port? If possible, Could you set a fixed port in .csdef and startup task.

ex)

<InternalEndpoint name="NotificationServiceEndPoint" protocol="tcp" port="8000"/>

and

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="NotificationServiceEndPoint" dir=in action=allow localport=8000 protocol=tcp

====

Or, Environment Variable is available as follows:

   <Endpoints>
      <InputEndpoint name="Endpoint1" protocol="http" port="80" />
      <InternalEndpoint name="NotificationServiceEndPoint" protocol="tcp" />
    </Endpoints>

      <Startup>
          <Task commandLine="configfirewall.cmd" executionContext="elevated" taskType="simple">
              <Environment>
                  <Variable name="NotificationServiceEndPointPort" value="/RoleEnvironment/CurrentInstance/Endpoints/Endpoint[@name='NotificationServiceEndPoint']/@port" />
              </Environment>
          </Task>
      </Startup>

and You use environment variable in startup tasks

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="ServiceEndPoint" dir=in action=allow localport=%NotificationServiceEndPointPort% protocol=tcp