Orleans Dashboard

Orleans Dashboard

Use Microsoft’s Orleans Dashboard package with functional F# actors. The repository contains a runnable ASP.NET Core silo with CounterActor and CartActor.

Install

dotnet add package Microsoft.Orleans.Dashboard

Keep the Dashboard package on the same Orleans version selected by the application. Orleans Dashboard is a preview feature in Orleans 10, so re-run the smoke check when updating Orleans even inside the supported range.

Configure the silo

open Orleans.FSharp.Runtime

let config =
    siloConfig {
        useLocalhostClustering
        addMemoryStorage "Default"
        addDashboardWithOptions
            1000   // counter update interval in milliseconds (minimum 1000)
            100    // retained history points
            false  // keep the live trace endpoint visible
    }

addDashboard uses package defaults. addDashboardWithOptions configures CounterUpdateIntervalMs, HistoryLength, and HideTrace without taking a compile-time dependency from Orleans.FSharp.Runtime on the optional Dashboard package.

Register functional definitions as usual:

builder.UseOrleans(fun siloBuilder ->
    SiloConfig.applyToSiloBuilder config siloBuilder
    siloBuilder.AddFunctionalGrain(counterDefinition) |> ignore
    siloBuilder.AddFunctionalGrain(cartDefinition) |> ignore)
|> ignore

Map the web endpoint

open Orleans.Dashboard

app.UseRouting() |> ignore
app.UseEndpoints(fun endpoints ->
    endpoints.MapOrleansDashboard("/dashboard") |> ignore)
|> ignore

Open /dashboard/ after the host starts. The package must be present before Orleans builds its application manifest; the siloConfig Dashboard operations preload it at configuration time for that reason.

What functional actors look like

The runnable example was exercised against the Dashboard Grains page. This is the exact current display:

Application actor brand	Dashboard activation type	Dashboard category
CounterActor	FunctionalGrainMarker<Dashboard+CounterActor>	System Grain
CartActor	FunctionalGrainMarker<Dashboard+CartActor>	System Grain

The actor brand is therefore visible, but the logical contract strings dashboard.counter and dashboard.cart are not the row labels. Dashboard currently reports the manifest implementation marker. The System Grain category is also Dashboard’s current presentation of that marker; it does not change the actor’s application behavior.

Functional API-record fields share the runtime’s dispatch operation, so do not expect increment, value, add, and count to appear as four independently generated grain methods in the method profiler.

Run the example

dotnet run --project examples/dashboard/Dashboard.fsproj

Then:

1. Open http://127.0.0.1:5080/exercise to activate both actors.
2. Open http://127.0.0.1:5080/dashboard/#/grains.

An automated registration, activation, and Dashboard HTTP smoke check is also available:

dotnet run --project examples/dashboard/Dashboard.fsproj -- --verify-silo

See the complete example source.

Protect it in production

Do not expose the Dashboard anonymously on a public endpoint. Apply ASP.NET Core authentication and authorization to the mapped endpoint, or put it behind an authenticated operations network.

endpoints
    .MapOrleansDashboard("/dashboard")
    .RequireAuthorization()
|> ignore

For package status and platform-specific details, see the official Orleans Dashboard documentation.

Next steps

• Silo Configuration
• Functional Grain Runtime
• Security