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I have developed a Windows service in C# which has a functionality to send emails on a scheduled basis to the users. Now this service is to be deployed for a large number of clients (say, 50) who actually access the same server. Each client have a dedicated DB on this server, obviously. Hence, their configurations like the Database connection strings, schedule and time interval for running the service vary.

Please advise now:

  1. Is it a good practice to deploy the service per client ?(ie 50 services for 50 clients). Imagine the list of services in the Computer Management> Services

  2. I have now used a separate configuration file which is not a part of the project which therefore wouldn't require compilation. My service now reads from this config file where it is easy to make changes. What is the best method to manage configuration files, anyway?

I hope I will find some good suggestions for my very first question at stackoverflow. Thanks!

NewTechie
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1 Answers1

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I don't think this is the right approach:

  • A windows service is always on. Within this service you need to implement a scheduling mechanism using something like Timer, if you need to then you can also implement a job engine within the windows service for clients to handle tasks for clients on different threads
  • I don't see why you need a separate database for each client. This is not the point of a database, usually you would use a single SQL Server instance and database to store all the data, and implement the table structure so that you can associate any given data record to a user.
  • Therefore I would not deploy a service per client, but a single service with a single database

As an aside, most visual studio .net projects (and certainly the windows service project) gives you the ability to use an app.config file (or web.config file for web projects) which is used for application configuration - this should be the first choice for having common configuration which shouldn't need recompliation to be changed. This is usually part of the project.

It is unlikely that, for this vague a question, you are going to get anyone to offer code samples or more than this. You should try things out for yourself based on these suggestions, and then ask specific questions that are not too vague (links provided to guidance on appropriate questions). Oh, and welcome to SO.

Community
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Andy Brown
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  • Actually the application in itself is huge and we make a copy of the dlls and the database for each client, obviously since each client has its own set of users and other data. This Windows service which is a recent implementation for various purposes like send out automatic emails, triggr new events, create reports etc (everything is client specific). So given the scenario, is it possible to deploy one single service for all the clients - to pick/update data from the client specific database? – NewTechie Jun 21 '13 at 13:58
  • @NewTechie. Sure, just have a way of selecting a database based on the client you are working with. This is basically a job engine as I mentioned. There are many ways of cutting this, you can either have a fully self contained app install per client, or a SaaS approach which is centrally hosted on a single instance for all clients. Even with your scenario this is possible. – Andy Brown Jun 21 '13 at 18:24