Using Replication to Build Highly Available .NET Applications

Replication is a well-known technique to achieve fault-tolerance in distributed systems, thereby enhancing availability. However, so far, not much attention has been paid to object replication using Microsoft´s .NET technologies. In this paper, we present the lessons we have learned during design and implementation of a .NET based replication framework that allows building dependable, distributed .NET applications. Our framework does not only support traditional replication protocols like primary-backup replication or voting but also a new protocol for explicit balancing between data integrity and availability. Based on our experiences, we recommend to use a state-of-the-art group communication toolkit (e.g., spread) and .NET remoting as basis for object replication in a .NET environment