Get messages from a queue only retrieves a single message - azure

I've created an azure service bus and a new logic-app using a manual trigger. I then add a "Get messages from a queue (peek-lock)" action to the app and set the maximum message count to "20".
I then create 5 new messages in my queue an manually and then trigger my new logic-app. When I then look at the execution of my app, I only see that ONE message was retrieved (and checked, that 4 messages are still in my queue).
Seems like the count of "20" is not being honored. I also checked the settings of my service-bus queue and the "Maximum Delivery Count" is set to "10". This should at least give me batches of 10 (instead of 20).
What am I missing?

It is not that simple to answer without more details. Still I hope this could help.
If you are using a WebJob, make sure associated AzureWebJobsStorage is created in Classical Mode, instead of Remote Mode. That would make your WebJob crash in less than 20 seconds... not reading all queue messages.
Does your logical-app involve a ServiceBusTrigger ? Then it seems like the first call to your method marked with correct trigger fails with exception, and that other messages are not read.
Let me know if I did misunderstood some details.

Related

Track Completed state for messages in Azure Service Bus

I have a request to implement a dashboard with the information about which message in Azure Service Bus queue was completed when (with some info about message parameters). Unfortunately we do not have an access to the reciever's code and cannot change the code to log the time of the message delivery. So, we need to subscribe somehow to a moment when reciever takes away the message.
I have already investigated Azure portal API in order to find something, but there is no such a possibility, I have tried to find something on stackoverflow and in Google, but no results.
There is 1 idea: use 2 queues and azure function between them. Put all messages to the first queue, azure function recieves a message, logs the info about the message and puts it to the second queue and waits until other services takes the message away from the second queue. Second queue will always have only 1 message and this way we will be able to understand what message was for sure delivered and when.
However what I do not like is the second message queue executes not the role of the real queue (it means something is wrong here and I need to use something else), performance of such a system can be not high enough...
Any help is appreciated (articles, videos, ideas). Thank you.

Azure Function and storage queue, what to do if function fails

I'm working out a scenario where a post a message to an Azure Storage Queue. For testing purposes I've developed a console app, where I get the message and I'm able to update it with a try count, and when the logic is done, I delete the message.
Now I'm trying to port my code to an Azure Function. One thing that seems to be very different is, when the Azure Function is called, the message is deleted from the queue.
I find it hard to find any documentation on this specific subject and I feel I'm missing something with regard to the concept of combining these two.
My questions:
Am I right, that when you trigger a function on a new queue item, the function takes the message and deletes it from the queue, even if the function fails?
If 1 is correct, how do you make sure that the message is retried and posted to a dead queue for later processing?
The runtime only deletes the queue message when your Function successfully processes it (i.e. no error has occurred). When the message is dequeued and passed to your function, it becomes invisible for a period of time (10 minutes). While your function is running this invisibility is maintained. If your function fails, the message is not deleted - it remains in the queue in an invisible state. After the visibilty timeout expires, the message will become visible in the queue again for reprocessing.
The details of how core WebJobs SDK queue processing works can be found here. On that page, see the section "How to handle poison messages" which addresses your question. Basically you'll get all the right behaviors for free - retry handling, poison message handling, etc. :)

Requeue or delete messages in Azure Storage Queues via WebJobs

I was hoping if someone can clarify a few things regarding Azure Storage Queues and their interaction with WebJobs:
To perform recurring background tasks (i.e. add to queue once, then repeat at set intervals), is there a way to update the same message delivered in the QueueTrigger function so that its lease (visibility) can be extended as a way to requeue and avoid expiry?
With the above-mentioned pattern for recurring background jobs, I'm also trying to figure out a way to delete/expire a job 'on demand'. Since this doesn't seem possible outside the context of WebJobs, I was thinking of maybe storing the messageId and popReceipt for the message(s) to be deleted in Table storage as persistent cache, and then upon delivery of message in the QueueTrigger function do a Table lookup to perform a DeleteMessage, so that the message is not repeated any more.
Any suggestions or tips are appreciated. Cheers :)
Azure Storage Queues are used to store messages that may be consumed by your Azure Webjob, WorkerRole, etc. The Azure Webjobs SDK provides an easy way to interact with Azure Storage (that includes Queues, Table Storage, Blobs, and Service Bus). That being said, you can also have an Azure Webjob that does not use the Webjobs SDK and does not interact with Azure Storage. In fact, I do run a Webjob that interacts with a SQL Azure database.
I'll briefly explain how the Webjobs SDK interact with Azure Queues. Once a message arrives to a queue (or is made 'visible', more on this later) the function in the Webjob is triggered (assuming you're running in continuous mode). If that function returns with no error, the message is deleted. If something goes wrong, the message goes back to the queue to be processed again. You can handle the failed message accordingly. Here is an example on how to do this.
The SDK will call a function up to 5 times to process a queue message. If the fifth try fails, the message is moved to a poison queue. The maximum number of retries is configurable.
Regarding visibility, when you add a message to the queue, there is a visibility timeout property. By default is zero. Therefore, if you want to process a message in the future you can do it (up to 7 days in the future) by setting this property to a desired value.
Optional. If specified, the request must be made using an x-ms-version of 2011-08-18 or newer. If not specified, the default value is 0. Specifies the new visibility timeout value, in seconds, relative to server time. The new value must be larger than or equal to 0, and cannot be larger than 7 days. The visibility timeout of a message cannot be set to a value later than the expiry time. visibilitytimeout should be set to a value smaller than the time-to-live value.
Now the suggestions for your app.
I would just add a message to the queue for every task that you want to accomplish. The message will obviously have the pertinent information for processing. If you need to schedule several tasks, you can run a Scheduled Webjob (on a schedule of your choice) that adds messages to the queue. Then your continuous Webjob will pick up that message and process it.
Add a GUID to each message that goes to the queue. Store that GUID in some other domain of your application (a database). So when you dequeue the message for processing, the first thing you do is check against your database if the message needs to be processed. If you need to cancel the execution of a message, instead of deleting it from the queue, just update the GUID in your database.
There's more info here.
Hope this helps,
As for the first part of the question, you can use the Update Message operation to extend the visibility timeout of a message.
The Update Message operation can be used to continually extend the
invisibility of a queue message. This functionality can be useful if
you want a worker role to “lease” a queue message. For example, if a
worker role calls Get Messages and recognizes that it needs more time
to process a message, it can continually extend the message’s
invisibility until it is processed. If the worker role were to fail
during processing, eventually the message would become visible again
and another worker role could process it.
You can check the REST API documentation here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/hh452234.aspx
For the second part of your question, there are really multiple ways and your method of storing the id/popReceipt as a lookup is a possible option, you can actually have a Web Job dedicated to receive messages on a different queue (e.g plz-delete-msg) and you send a message containing the "messageId" and this Web Job can use Get Message operation then Delete it. (you can make the job generic by passing the queue name!)
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/dd179474.aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/dd179347.aspx

Azure ServiceBus PeekBatch method returns wrong number of records

I have an Azure queue (ServiceBus Topic Subscription DeadLetter queue) with ~900 messages. I would like to list them for debug purposes. I call PeekBatch method with parameter messageCount set to 100. I expect to get 100 messages but I only receive 69. Why is that???
I ran into a similar issue recently where the reported Active Message Count number was higher than the actual number of messages that could be read. After some investigation, I contacted Microsoft's Azure support team. Here's what they told me:
After researching I see that there is bug about this where the count is not showing correct value. The bug is active so it’s not resolved. Product group is tracking it but I don’t have any ETA on it.
Although in my case it's the Active Message Count that was off, this could very well be the same issue.
I found a way (that only works some of the times - I don't know why) to correct the message count. Use Service Bus Explorer, select the topic that is displaying the issue, hit Update (without having changed any of the settings) and then hit Refresh.
I also had the same issue, when I tried to peek messages from queue which is enabled partitioning. if I use PeekBatch method with passing message count as parameter, I can read only some of the messages even the actual message count was higher than that.
Partition queue - Partitioned queue consists of multiple fragments handled by different message brokers. when a message is sent to the partitioned queue, Service Bus assigns the message to one of the fragments. When a client wants to receive a message from a queue, Service Bus checks all fragments for messages. if it finds any, it picks one and passes to the receiver.
So, When we try to get messages using PeekBatch() method, it checks the fragments for messages and picks the messages from the fragment which it found at first, even if it is not matched with the given message count.

Temporarily hiding a message in azure service bus queue/topic

I have a scenario where some of the messages depend no the completion of another messages to be completed. So there is a precondition for a set of messages to be processed that another message should be processed first. The precondition message is a long running process which can take up to 30 minutes to process.
What I would like is to hide a message for lets say 5 minutes from all the subscribers when I sense that precondition is not complete and then after 5 minutes it is available again and hidden for next 5 minutes if cant be processed and so on.
I can see that I can use sessions and defer could be solution but I do not want to go that way. Since that will require to maintain a storage to keep the defered messages in a non queue storage.
Another way could be that I do a peak lock on the message and then leave it alone and let the lock expire so that in due time it will reappear in the queue.
Is there a better way of doing this?
There are a couple ways to achieve this. When you get a message to can choose to Defer it. This will remove it from the active queue and you will have to later ask for this message specifically with a MessageId. For your scenario it may be possible to use Scheduled messages (see below) but that will involve receiving the message and then scheduling another one using the following:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/microsoft.servicebus.messaging.brokeredmessage.scheduledenqueuetimeutc.aspx

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