MSMQ, WCF and Flaky Servers

Question

I have two applications, let's call them A and B. Currently A uses WCF to send messages to B. A does not require a response, and B never sends messages back to A.

Unfortunately, there is a weak network connection between servers A and B. This results in time-out errors from time to time.

I would like to use WCF + MSMQ as a buffer between two applications. Thus, if B is temporarily omitted or unavailable, messages are not lost.

From an architectural point of view, how do I configure this?

Answer 1

I think that you may have slightly raised your question by including the word "architectural".

If you really need an overview of the architecture of this problem from that level, including SLA problems, your SL will be as good as deploying MSMQ, so if you are concerned about SL, just check the online documentation for MSMQ and SLA.

If you are looking for a more real implementation in terms of code, this article is excellent: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/msmqpluswcf

It lists a lot of things you need to know, including how to configure MSMQ and how to implement chunking to get around the MSMQ 4MB limitation (if necessary ... I hope this is not the case).

Here is a good article on creating a robust and transactional queue that will traverse machines using the MSMQ cluster: http://www.devx.com/enterprise/Article/39015/1954