CODEWITHSUNDEEP
entity-frameworkasp.net-web-api.net-core
dreza
dreza

Reputation: 3645

WebApi supporting Range requests without querying the db multiple times

Currently I have a dotnetcore WebApi that is serving up videos. The videos are stored in a SQL server table as a varbinary(MAX). This was working however I was reading that to support on IOS safari we needed to accept the ranges header, so I have added support for this (I think).

However now I am noticing two things (could be unrelated):

1) Whenever a call is made to this API the CPU throttles to 100%. I can only assume that is EntityFramework querying the db for a 25MB file. Seems crazy but the API is doing nothing else? Can this be improved as the server just grinds.

2) Multiple requests are made to the API with different range bytes requested. However my api in turn queries the db on each request and so sends the CPU into overdrive for a long period.

Is there a better way of handling range requests when querying for a large object?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 21

Answers (1)

Andrei Dragotoniu
Andrei Dragotoniu

Reputation: 6335

If you ask me, EF is not really well suited for this, it's too clunky and resources consuming. You can write your own T-SQL using something like substring. This being said, from a practical point of view, depending on how many and how big these files are and how many users you have, I would not go with such a solution.

I don't think a SQL database should be how you store your data at all for this. You could start doing some research on how netflix does it: https://www.techhive.com/article/2158040/how-netflix-streams-movies-to-your-tv.html

You probably want something like that, a CDN system, some sort of caching. Your way of doing it now might work while you build it, with one or two users but if this is an API used by lots of people, you will quickly find out that it won't scale.

Upvotes: 1

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