Using Web Farm Framework workflows to fire custom command automatically

Question

I'm using Microsoft's Web Farm Framework, and I'm trying to use the Workflow features of version 2.0 to fire a custom command when 'Remove from Load Balancing' is selected.

Based on the linked article, I think I should be able to simply create my command using the Workflow Builder (currently I'm just testing with a simple mkdir c:\bob as my command), and then add ArrDisableLoadBalancing as a dependant.

This should [again I think!] mean that the command is fired immediately before ArrDisableLoadBalancing.

However this just does not work, the command itself is fine as I can use the 'Server Operations' option to fire it manually.

Does anyone have an ideas? There is very little literature on people successfully setting something like this up. So I fear I may have mis-read WFF's workflow capability.

Answer 1

Going to throw a couple of suggestions at you:

• MKDIR is probably failing on all non-first-time attempts, meaning the dependants (i.e. the things that depend on success, you're right with your interpretation) won't fire - try a DIR instead, and check your WFF debug logs for an entry like "A subdirectory or file c:\yourdir already exists" - mkdir is possibly a bad command to lead with, without being wrapped in a nice, comfy batch file

• ArrDisableLoadBalancing... I ran your example as a Server command, and instead used DisableLoadBalancing (i.e. without ARR on the front), and the server created a directory, then knocked itself out of load balancing. (edit: saw the action fire, but the server was slightly broken from an unexpected DHCP reallocation... might need some more work on this theory) But it only did it once; doing it a second time ran into the error above, which I'm going to RD my way through in a little while to check I'm not insane. (it's proof, I tell you). My guess is that Arr* might work only on the controller, while Enable/Disable might work on the servers themselves. Dunno, really.