Get your mirroring service up and running in 10 minutes or less using NuGet (legacy)

This walk-through covers the legacy WCF-based mirroring service. It uses the SuperOffice.Crm.Online.Mirroring NuGet package to implement a partner-hosted WCF endpoint.New deployments should use the outbound-only client instead and there is no NuGet package, no WCF service, and no certificate management. See Set up the Database Mirroring client. If you are migrating an existing legacy deployment, see Migrate from the legacy mirroring service.

Although you are free to implement the mirroring service to support any database you prefer, SuperOffice provides a complete implementation of the database mirroring interface as a NuGet package. This walk-through will guide you through creating a new WCF service from scratch using the SuperOffice.Crm.Online.Mirroring package, and help you have a running service in just a few minutes. These steps were documented using Visual Studio 2015.

You can download the completed result of these steps on GitHub. View the DevNet-Database-Mirroring repository on GitHub.

Create a new WCF Service Application in Visual Studio

In Visual Studio, click File, then New, and then Project.
In the New Project dialog, expand the WCF section and select to create a new WCF Service Application.
In the Solution Explorer, delete the following files: IService1.cs, Service1.svc, and Service1.cs. Before: After:

Install the NuGet package

Open the Package Manager Console:
- Click Tools, then NuGet Package Manager, and then Package Manager Console.
Start the installation by typing: Install-Package SuperOffice.Crm.Online.Mirroring
Verify that the packages have been added:
1. When you see the successfully installed message in the Package Manager Console, go back to the Solution Explorer.
2. Confirm that you have a new assembly references and that the following files have been added to your project: MirroringClientService.svc, MirroringClientService.cs, and Private.txt.
3. Open the package.config file and check that you now have the new Mirroring package and its 2 dependencies. Your package versions may be different, and that is OK.

During installation, you will see a lot of data scroll by in the NuGet Package Manager Console. The Package Manager inspects the SuperOffice.Crm.Online.Mirroring package and tries to download and add dependencies to your project.

Key points during package installation

package name (SuperOffice.Crm.Online.Mirroring)
System.IdentityModel.Tokens.Jwt dependency
SuperOffice.Crm.Online.Core dependency
successfully installed message

These are underlined with red in the following screenshot: x -screenshot

Update settings in web.config

The functionality in the MirroringClientService.cs file helps you resolve a tenant’s context identifier to a particular database, create the database if necessary, discover and provide the service’s ApplicationToken, as well as the private certificate key it must use to sign the token placed in the AuthenticationResponse message. However, you must still provide those key pieces of information in the project’s web.config file. x -screenshot

appSettings section

SoAppId: set to client ID (application environment-specific) ConnectionBase: the partial connection string used to connect your SQL Server host MirrorDatabaseName: will be used as a template for accessing the specific database on that server based on the context identifier passed to this service from SuperOffice PrivateFileKey: the name of the file that contains your private certificate key in the RSA XML <RSAKeyPair> and <RSAKeyValue> format. Critical for initial authentication! You get the private certificate key for all environments from SuperOffice. x -screenshot

system.serviceModel section

Because synchronizing a database requires a lot of data, it’s important to set size options to the maximum capabilities for the mirroring service. A complete system.serviceModel configuration example:

<system.serviceModel>
  <behaviors>
    <serviceBehaviors>
      <behavior>
        <!-- To avoid disclosing metadata information,
             set the values below to false before deployment -->
        <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="false" httpsGetEnabled="false" />
        <!-- To receive exception details in faults for debugging purposes,
             set the value below to true. Set to false before deployment to
             avoid disclosing exception information -->
        <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false" />
      </behavior>
    </serviceBehaviors>
  </behaviors>
  <protocolMapping>
    <add binding="basicHttpBinding" scheme="https" bindingConfiguration="DbMirroring" />
  </protocolMapping>
  <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" />
  <bindings>
    <basicHttpBinding>
      <binding name="DbMirroring"
               maxBufferPoolSize="2147483647"
               maxReceivedMessageSize="2147483647"
               maxBufferSize="2147483647">
        <readerQuotas maxDepth="2147483647"
                      maxStringContentLength="2147483647"
                      maxArrayLength="2147483647"
                      maxBytesPerRead="2147483647"
                      maxNameTableCharCount="2147483647" />
      </binding>
    </basicHttpBinding>
  </bindings>
  <services>
    <service name="DatabaseMirroringProject.SuperOfficeMirror.MirroringClientService">
      <endpoint binding="basicHttpBinding"
                bindingConfiguration="DbMirroring"
                contract="SuperOffice.Online.Mirroring.Contract.IMirroringClientService" />
    </service>
  </services>
</system.serviceModel>

The naming and linking of key items are annotated in the following image. x -screenshot

Expose service to a public secure URL

Open the service in a browser: In the solution directory, right-click the MirroringClientServer.svc file, then click View in Browser. Assuming everything is correctly in place, you will see the default IIS or IISExpress web service page. x -screenshot

Finally, you will want to expose this service to a public HTTPS URL for the SuperOffice Mirroring Task to access it. This will be the URL you must give SuperOffice when registering your application. Remember to specify this URL as the Database Mirror URL, not the Redirect URL. x -screenshot

​Create a new WCF Service Application in Visual Studio

​Install the NuGet package

​Key points during package installation

​Update settings in web.config

​appSettings section

​system.serviceModel section

​Expose service to a public secure URL

Create a new WCF Service Application in Visual Studio

Install the NuGet package

Key points during package installation

Update settings in web.config

appSettings section

system.serviceModel section

Expose service to a public secure URL