CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windows-services
Gavin
Gavin

Reputation: 17392

Many little services vs One bigger service

We're working on creating a Windows service to import/export data from various places.

Our service currently has methods like the following, each of which run in their own thread on their own timers.

ImportFromFoo
ImportFromFoo2
ExportToFoo
ExportToFoo2

In the long term, there are going to be 10+ different imports/exports, all running in their own threads on different timers. They are all far too specific to be made generic, as the data is sent and retrieved in lots of different ways and different manipulations are performed on the data for each import/export. What I'm trying to work out is if we are better off splitting the service up, so each import/export lives in its own service.

As far as I can see, the benefits are:

  1. Programming/Debugging will be simpler, as we don't have to worry about threading and can concentrate on coding/testing each module in its own environment.
  2. A failure in one import/export won't bring down the others.

The cons are really just that there will be more projects/services to maintain.

I just wondered what other people's opinions were, and if having lots of little services rather than one bigger service is seen as bad practice.

Edit

All the services will be run on our app server so it's just us who has to maintain them, not the user.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 109

Answers (1)

Steve Claridge
Steve Claridge

Reputation: 11090

I'm strongly in favour of creating multiple services. The only reason to not do that is if there was significant performance problems on the user's system from starting 10+ services instead of 1.

Separate services would allow you to:

  • Ask the user which services they wish to install and which they wish to autorun on startup during the install process.
  • Allow the user to stop any processes they don't need manually or though your admin tool if you have one.
  • Simpler deployment/upgrade paths, you can install new services without affecting already running ones.

I don't see the multiple projects as a problem, any good idea should allow you to manage and build them as one.

Upvotes: 2

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