Azure durable entity or static variables?

Question

Question: Is it thread-safe to use static variables (as a shared storage between orchestrations) or better to save/retrieve data to durable-entity?

There are couple of azure functions in the same namespace: hub-trigger, durable-entity, 2 orchestrations (main process and the one that monitors the whole process) and activity. They all need some shared variables. In my case I need to know the number of main orchestration instances (start new or hold on). It's done in another orchestration (monitor)

I've tried both options and ask because I see different results.

Static variables: in my case there is a generic List, where SomeMyType holds the Id of the task, state, number of attempts, records it processed and other info. When I need to start new orchestration and List.Add(), when I need to retrieve and modify it I use simple List.First(id_of_the_task). First() - I know for sure needed task is there. With static variables I sometimes see that tasks become duplicated for some reason - I retrieve the task with List.First(id_of_the_task) - change something on result variable and that is it. Not a lot of code.

Durable-entity: the major difference is that I add List on a durable entity and each time I need to retrieve it I call for .CallEntityAsync("getTask") and .CallEntityAsync("saveTask") that might slow done the app. With this approach more code and calls is required however it looks more stable, I don't see any duplicates.

Please, advice

Definitely use Durable Entities for this, you cannot use static variables for state because this data is not persisted across application instances. When your function goes dormant, either waiting for internal or external events or timers, the C# application context will be ended. When running on Azure AppFabric there is no gaurantee that when your app starts up again that it will be on the same host at all, the function pipeline starts fresh and your variables will be left in the default state. — Chris Schaller

Bjorne Bjorne · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-16T11:43:44

Can't answer why you would see duplicates with the static variables approach without the code, may be because list is not thread safe and it may need ConcurrentBag but not sure. One issue with static variable is if the function app is not always on or if it can have multiple instances. Because when function unloads (or crashes) the state would be lost. Static variables are not shared across instances either so during high loads it wont work (if there can be many instances).

Durable entities seem better here. Yes they can be shared across many concurrent function instances and each entity can only execute one operation at a time so they are for sure a better option. The performance cost is a bit higher but they should not be slower than orchestrators since they perform a lot of common operations, writing to Table Storage, checking for events etc.

Can't say if its right for you but instead of List.First(id_of_the_task) you should just be able to access the orchestrators properties through the client which can hold custom data. Another idea depending on the usage is that you may be able to query the Table Storages directly with CloudTable class for the information about the running orchestrators.

Although not entirely related you can look at some settings for parallelism for durable functions Azure (Durable) Functions - Managing parallelism

Please ask any questions if I should clarify anything or if I misunderstood your question.

Azure durable entity or static variables?

1 Answers