Azure co-located cache starting too long

Question

I am working on Azure solution (Azure SDK 2.1) with one web role (2 instances) and one worker role (2 instances). Both are using co-located (in-role) caching. The problem is that cache service on the worker role instances starting way too long - for several minutes every call to cache returns only DataCacheException-s saying that cache is temporary unavailable etc.

From your experience, is this normal? I think that cache service should be part of the "provisioned" environment, and should be already ready when Run method is called.

Is there anything I can do to handle this? Maybe some "event" to know when cache is ready? A way to say azure fabric to run my worker code only when cache is ready, etc. ?

Answer 1

We have run into the same issue, and most people have suggested a 2-3 minute sleep in your OnRun event as a work around.

I am pretty sure there is an item on the Microsoft Azure backlog for this, and they don't really have a work around other than waiting to use caching until it is ready.

I know this is not the most elegant solution, but in my talks with different people at Microsoft this has been their suggestion for the time being.