Are web services truly multi-threaded

jwilder

We have gone live with a new website that is using NAV Business Web Services for part of the integration. 2 examples are a real time inventory looked and a real time order detail ooked. The inventory lookup returns the current available quantity for an item while the order detail look up returns all sorts of info about the order such as header,lines,tracking no's etc...

I am starting to question if web services allows more than one call at the same time. I have never seen more than one named user under sql process's that has to do with web services at a time. I was expecting that during any given moment there could be 5, 10 or even 20 people on the website doing something that would be calling web services. Wouldn't I see this under SQL processes or even as database connections in NAV?

How can I prove out that NAV Business Web Services are truly multi-thread? And by the way I have kept the MaxNoOfConcurrentCalls setting in config file set at 40.

vgvozdev

Try to create web service that runs long time and try call from different browsers...

create table - web call with integer primary key and Autoincrement = YES... and insert "start" record in the beginning of function and "end" record at the end... If it is parallel you should see starts one after another and if not you will always have Start, End combination.

jwilder

Great suggestion. I do not have access to the web code so I was looking more for a backend type solution that would probably involve sql server. I would literally like to see the mutliple process's logged in sql at the same time.

I have done similar tests to what you suggest in vb.net and it works as expected. I need to prove out that our current web integration (which uses Java) is working the same (meaning multi-threaded).

Any other thoughts?

jwilder

We have done a test with 6 people hitting web services every second. Also there was another automated process hitting web services many times per second.

Visually performance was great. During this time I monitored sql processes in sql actvity monitor. I filtered on processes called Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web. At a couple of points I saw 2 processes in there. This actually proves what I was looking for.

My final question is what licenses are required for Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web connections(this is the name of the Application processes shown in SQL). We have our SQL Server licensed per processor. In NAV we have we have the External Connector and 1 Web User license. Do people think this is what I need? What are Web User Licenses for (it is granule 2310) maybe the Role Tailored client?

jwilder

I believe the answer is granule 2510 External Connecter provides unlimited external connections. Micorsoft states: “The External Connector licenses access to Microsoft Dynamics NAV for an unlimited number of external users”. Someone browsing our website is considered an external user.

Also make sure your NAV SQL Server Database license is Per Processor which supports unlimited users. This is by far the biggest cost if you are planning on using business web services with your web site.

bbrown

Also the "External Connecter" only covers non-employees. If your employees (or contractors) are accessing NAV via Web Services they must be specifically licensed. The new licensing last month changed some of these details for NAV 2009.

jwilder

Makes sense. Brian I think what you are talking about would fall under granule 2310 Web Users. You need one for each employee/contractor.

What about the RTC, does that use normal classic client licenses or web user licenses?

bbrown

RTC uses the full service license as the classic client. Not sure what 2310 is.