Building Resilient .NET Applications with Resilience

 

Building Resilient .NET Applications with Resilience Pipelines

In modern software development, applications must be resilient to failures, network issues, and unexpected downtimes. The Resilience Pipelines introduced in .NET offer a structured way to implement fault tolerance and improve system stability. This article explores the concept of resilience pipelines, their benefits, and how to implement them using the Polly resilience library in .NET.

What Are Resilience Pipelines?

A resilience pipeline is a structured approach to handling transient failures in distributed systems. It consists of multiple resilience strategies, such as:

  • Retry: Automatically retrying failed requests.
  • Circuit Breaker: Preventing excessive failures by stopping requests for a period.
  • Timeouts: Limiting the time a request can take before failing.
  • Fallbacks: Providing alternative responses in case of failure.

These strategies are combined into a pipeline to ensure robust failure handling in .NET applications.

Why Use Resilience Pipelines in .NET?

Using resilience pipelines offers several advantages:

✅ Improved Fault Tolerance – Handles network failures, API timeouts, and database issues gracefully.
✅ Better User Experience – Reduces downtime and enhances system responsiveness.
✅ Efficient Resource Utilization – Prevents unnecessary retries and system overload.
✅ Modularity & Maintainability – Provides a clean and structured way to implement resilience patterns.

Implementing Resilience Pipelines with Polly

Polly is the go-to library for implementing resilience strategies in .NET. In .NET 8, Polly has been integrated natively, making it easier to define resilience pipelines.

Step 1: Install Polly

If you're using .NET 8, Polly is already integrated. For earlier versions, install it using:

dotnet add package Polly

Step 2: Define a Resilience Pipeline

Here's how to create a resilience pipeline using Polly in .NET 8:

using Polly;
using Polly.Retry;
using Polly.Timeout;
using Polly.CircuitBreaker;
using Polly.Fallback;

var resiliencePipeline = new ResiliencePipelineBuilder<HttpResponseMessage>()
    .AddRetry(new RetryStrategyOptions<HttpResponseMessage>
    {
        MaxRetryAttempts = 3,
        Delay = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2),
        OnRetry = (outcome, retryCount) => 
            Console.WriteLine($"Retry {retryCount}: {outcome.Exception?.Message}")
    })
    .AddTimeout(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5)) // Set a timeout of 5 seconds
    .AddCircuitBreaker(new CircuitBreakerStrategyOptions<HttpResponseMessage>
    {
        FailureThreshold = 0.5,  // Circuit trips when 50% of requests fail
        BreakDuration = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10),
        SamplingDuration = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30),
        MinimumThroughput = 5
    })
    .AddFallback(new FallbackStrategyOptions<HttpResponseMessage>
    {
        FallbackAction = _ => Task.FromResult(new HttpResponseMessage(System.Net.HttpStatusCode.ServiceUnavailable))
    })
    .Build();

Step 3: Use the Resilience Pipeline in HTTP Requests

Now, you can use the pipeline when making HTTP calls:

using System;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

var httpClient = new HttpClient();
var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "https://api.example.com/data");

var response = await resiliencePipeline.ExecuteAsync(() => httpClient.SendAsync(request));

if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Request successful!");
}
else
{
    Console.WriteLine("Request failed, fallback response used.");
}

Key Takeaways

  • .NET resilience pipelines provide a structured way to handle failures using Polly.
  • Strategies like retry, circuit breaker, timeout, and fallback can be combined.
  • .NET 8 has built-in support for Polly, simplifying resilience management.
  • Using resilience pipelines improves application reliability and user experience.

By leveraging resilience pipelines, .NET developers can build more robust, failure-resistant applications, ensuring smoother operations in distributed environments.

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