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Remoting exception serialization overview

  • Article

BinaryFormatter-based serialization isn't secure, so don't use BinaryFormatter for data processing. For more information on the security implications, see Deserialization risks in the use of BinaryFormatter and related types.

Azure Service Fabric used BinaryFormatter for serializing exceptions. Starting with ServiceFabric v9.0, data contract-based serialization for remoting exceptions is available as an opt-in feature. We recommend that you opt for DataContract remoting exception serialization by following the steps in this article.

Support for BinaryFormatter-based remoting exception serialization will be deprecated in the future.

Enable data contract serialization for remoting exceptions

Note

Data contract serialization for remoting exceptions is only available for remoting V2/V2_1 services.

To enable data contract serialization for remoting exceptions:

  1. Enable DataContract remoting exception serialization on the Service side by using FabricTransportRemotingListenerSettings.ExceptionSerializationTechnique while you create the remoting listener.

    • StatelessService

      protected override IEnumerable<ServiceInstanceListener> CreateServiceInstanceListeners()
{
    return new[]
    {
        new ServiceInstanceListener(serviceContext =>
            new FabricTransportServiceRemotingListener(
                serviceContext,
                this,
                new FabricTransportRemotingListenerSettings
                {
                    ExceptionSerializationTechnique = FabricTransportRemotingListenerSettings.ExceptionSerialization.Default,
                }),
             "ServiceEndpointV2")
    };
}

    • StatefulService

      protected override IEnumerable<ServiceReplicaListener> CreateServiceReplicaListeners()
{
    return new[]
    {
        new ServiceReplicaListener(serviceContext =>
            new FabricTransportServiceRemotingListener(
                serviceContext,
                this,
                new FabricTransportRemotingListenerSettings
                {
                    ExceptionSerializationTechnique = FabricTransportRemotingListenerSettings.ExceptionSerialization.Default,
                }),
            "ServiceEndpointV2")
    };
}

    • ActorService
      To enable DataContract remoting exception serialization on the actor service, override CreateServiceReplicaListeners() by extending ActorService.

      protected override IEnumerable<ServiceReplicaListener> CreateServiceReplicaListeners()
{
    return new List<ServiceReplicaListener>
    {
        new ServiceReplicaListener(_ =>
        {
            return new FabricTransportActorServiceRemotingListener(
                this,
                new FabricTransportRemotingListenerSettings
                {
                    ExceptionSerializationTechnique = FabricTransportRemotingListenerSettings.ExceptionSerialization.Default,
                });
        },
        "MyActorServiceEndpointV2")
    };
}

    If the original exception has multiple levels of inner exceptions, you can control the number of levels of inner exceptions to be serialized by setting FabricTransportRemotingListenerSettings.RemotingExceptionDepth.

  2. Enable DataContract remoting exception serialization on the Client by using FabricTransportRemotingSettings.ExceptionDeserializationTechnique while you create the client factory.

    • ServiceProxyFactory creation

      var serviceProxyFactory = new ServiceProxyFactory(
(callbackClient) =>
{
    return new FabricTransportServiceRemotingClientFactory(
        new FabricTransportRemotingSettings
        {
            ExceptionDeserializationTechnique = FabricTransportRemotingSettings.ExceptionDeserialization.Default,
        },
        callbackClient);
});

    • ActorProxyFactory

      var actorProxyFactory = new ActorProxyFactory(
(callbackClient) =>
{
    return new FabricTransportActorRemotingClientFactory(
        new FabricTransportRemotingSettings
        {
            ExceptionDeserializationTechnique = FabricTransportRemotingSettings.ExceptionDeserialization.Default,
        },
        callbackClient);
});

  3. DataContract remoting exception serialization converts an exception to the data transfer object (DTO) on the service side. The DTO is converted back to an exception on the client side. Users need to register ExceptionConvertor to convert the desired exceptions to DTO objects and vice versa.

    The framework implements convertors for the following list of exceptions. If user service code depends on exceptions outside the following list for retry implementation and exception handling, users need to implement and register convertors for such exceptions.

    • All Service Fabric exceptions derived from System.Fabric.FabricException
    • SystemExceptions derived from System.SystemException
      • System.AccessViolationException
      • System.AppDomainUnloadedException
      • System.ArgumentException
      • System.ArithmeticException
      • System.ArrayTypeMismatchException
      • System.BadImageFormatException
      • System.CannotUnloadAppDomainException
      • System.Collections.Generic.KeyNotFoundException
      • System.ContextMarshalException
      • System.DataMisalignedException
      • System.ExecutionEngineException
      • System.FormatException
      • System.IndexOutOfRangeException
      • System.InsufficientExecutionStackException
      • System.InvalidCastException
      • System.InvalidOperationException
      • System.InvalidProgramException
      • System.IO.InternalBufferOverflowException
      • System.IO.InvalidDataException
      • System.IO.IOException
      • System.MemberAccessException
      • System.MulticastNotSupportedException
      • System.NotImplementedException
      • System.NotSupportedException
      • System.NullReferenceException
      • System.OperationCanceledException
      • System.OutOfMemoryException
      • System.RankException
      • System.Reflection.AmbiguousMatchException
      • System.Reflection.ReflectionTypeLoadException
      • System.Resources.MissingManifestResourceException
      • System.Resources.MissingSatelliteAssemblyException
      • System.Runtime.InteropServices.ExternalException
      • System.Runtime.InteropServices.InvalidComObjectException
      • System.Runtime.InteropServices.InvalidOleVariantTypeException
      • System.Runtime.InteropServices.MarshalDirectiveException
      • System.Runtime.InteropServices.SafeArrayRankMismatchException
      • System.Runtime.InteropServices.SafeArrayTypeMismatchException
      • System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException
      • System.StackOverflowException
      • System.Threading.AbandonedMutexException
      • System.Threading.SemaphoreFullException
      • System.Threading.SynchronizationLockException
      • System.Threading.ThreadInterruptedException
      • System.Threading.ThreadStateException
      • System.TimeoutException
      • System.TypeInitializationException
      • System.TypeLoadException
      • System.TypeUnloadedException
      • System.UnauthorizedAccessException
      • System.ArgumentNullException
      • System.IO.FileNotFoundException
      • System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException
      • System.ObjectDisposedException
      • System.AggregateException

Sample implementation of a service-side convertor for a custom exception

The following example is reference IExceptionConvertor implementation on the Service and Client side for a well-known exception type, CustomException.

  • CustomException

    class CustomException : Exception
{
    public CustomException(string message, string field1, string field2)
        : base(message)
    {
        this.Field1 = field1;
        this.Field2 = field2;
    }

    public CustomException(string message, Exception innerEx, string field1, string field2)
        : base(message, innerEx)
    {
        this.Field1 = field1;
        this.Field2 = field2;
    }

    public string Field1 { get; set; }

    public string Field2 { get; set; }
}

  • IExceptionConvertor implementation on the Service side:

    class CustomConvertorService : Microsoft.ServiceFabric.Services.Remoting.V2.Runtime.IExceptionConvertor
{
    public Exception[] GetInnerExceptions(Exception originalException)
    {
        return originalException.InnerException == null ? null : new Exception[] { originalException.InnerException };
    }

    public bool TryConvertToServiceException(Exception originalException, out ServiceException serviceException)
    {
        serviceException = null;
        if (originalException is CustomException customEx)
        {
            serviceException = new ServiceException(customEx.GetType().FullName, customEx.Message);
            serviceException.ActualExceptionStackTrace = originalException.StackTrace;
            serviceException.ActualExceptionData = new Dictionary<string, string>()
                {
                    { "Field1", customEx.Field1 },
                    { "Field2", customEx.Field2 },
                };

            return true;
        }

        return false;
    }
}

The actual exception observed during the execution of the remoting call is passed as input to TryConvertToServiceException. If the type of the exception is a well-known one, TryConvertToServiceException should convert the original exception to ServiceException and return it as an out parameter. A true value should be returned if the original exception type is a well-known one and the original exception is successfully converted to ServiceException. Otherwise, the value is false.

A list of inner exceptions at the current level should be returned by GetInnerExceptions().

  • IExceptionConvertor implementation on the Client side:

    class CustomConvertorClient : Microsoft.ServiceFabric.Services.Remoting.V2.Client.IExceptionConvertor
{
    public bool TryConvertFromServiceException(ServiceException serviceException, out Exception actualException)
    {
        return this.TryConvertFromServiceException(serviceException, (Exception)null, out actualException);
    }

    public bool TryConvertFromServiceException(ServiceException serviceException, Exception innerException, out Exception actualException)
    {
        actualException = null;
        if (serviceException.ActualExceptionType == typeof(CustomException).FullName)
        {
            actualException = new CustomException(
                serviceException.Message,
                innerException,
                serviceException.ActualExceptionData["Field1"],
                serviceException.ActualExceptionData["Field2"]);

            return true;
        }

        return false;
    }

    public bool TryConvertFromServiceException(ServiceException serviceException, Exception[] innerExceptions, out Exception actualException)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
}

ServiceException is passed as a parameter to TryConvertFromServiceException along with converted innerException[s]. If the actual exception type, ServiceException.ActualExceptionType, is a known one, the convertor should create an actual exception object from ServiceException and innerException[s].

  • IExceptionConvertor registration on the Service side:

    To register convertors, CreateServiceInstanceListeners must be overridden and the list of IExceptionConvertor classes must be passed while you create the RemotingListener instance.

    • StatelessService

      protected override IEnumerable<ServiceInstanceListener> CreateServiceInstanceListeners()
{
    return new[]
    {
        new ServiceInstanceListener(serviceContext =>
            new FabricTransportServiceRemotingListener(
                serviceContext,
                this,
                new FabricTransportRemotingListenerSettings
                {
                    ExceptionSerializationTechnique = FabricTransportRemotingListenerSettings.ExceptionSerialization.Default,
                },
                exceptionConvertors: new[]
                {
                    new CustomConvertorService(),
                }),
             "ServiceEndpointV2")
    };
}

    • StatefulService

      protected override IEnumerable<ServiceReplicaListener> CreateServiceReplicaListeners()
{
    return new[]
    {
        new ServiceReplicaListener(serviceContext =>
            new FabricTransportServiceRemotingListener(
                serviceContext,
                this,
                new FabricTransportRemotingListenerSettings
                {
                    ExceptionSerializationTechnique = FabricTransportRemotingListenerSettings.ExceptionSerialization.Default,
                },
                exceptionConvertors: new []
                {
                    new CustomConvertorService(),
                }),
            "ServiceEndpointV2")
    };
}

    • ActorService

      protected override IEnumerable<ServiceReplicaListener> CreateServiceReplicaListeners()
{
    return new List<ServiceReplicaListener>
    {
        new ServiceReplicaListener(_ =>
        {
            return new FabricTransportActorServiceRemotingListener(
                this,
                new FabricTransportRemotingListenerSettings
                {
                    ExceptionSerializationTechnique = FabricTransportRemotingListenerSettings.ExceptionSerialization.Default,
                },
                exceptionConvertors: new[]
                {
                    new CustomConvertorService(),
                });
        },
        "MyActorServiceEndpointV2")
    };
}

  • IExceptionConvertor registration on the Client side:

    To register convertors, the list of IExceptionConvertor classes must be passed while you create the ClientFactory instance.

    • ServiceProxyFactory creation

      var serviceProxyFactory = new ServiceProxyFactory(
(callbackClient) =>
{
   return new FabricTransportServiceRemotingClientFactory(
       new FabricTransportRemotingSettings
       {
           ExceptionDeserializationTechnique = FabricTransportRemotingSettings.ExceptionDeserialization.Default,
       },
       callbackClient,
       exceptionConvertors: new[]
       {
           new CustomConvertorClient(),
       });
});

    • ActorProxyFactory creation

      var actorProxyFactory = new ActorProxyFactory(
(callbackClient) =>
{
    return new FabricTransportActorRemotingClientFactory(
        new FabricTransportRemotingSettings
        {
            ExceptionDeserializationTechnique = FabricTransportRemotingSettings.ExceptionDeserialization.Default,
        },
        callbackClient,
        exceptionConvertors: new[]
        {
            new CustomConvertorClient(),
        });
});

Note

If the framework finds the convertor for the exception, the converted (actual) exception is wrapped inside AggregateException and is thrown at the remoting API (proxy). If the framework fails to find the convertor, then ServiceException, which contains all the details of the actual exception, is wrapped inside AggregateException and is thrown.

Upgrade an existing service to enable data contract serialization for remoting exceptions

Existing services must follow the following order (Service first) to upgrade. Failure to follow this order could result in misbehavior in retry logic and exception handling.

  1. Implement the Service side ExceptionConvertor classes for the desired exceptions, if any. Update the remoting listener registration logic with ExceptionSerializationTechnique and the list of IExceptionConvertorclasses. Upgrade the existing service to apply the exception serialization changes.

  2. Implement the Client side ExceptionConvertor classes for the desired exceptions, if any. Update the ProxyFactory creation logic with ExceptionSerializationTechnique and the list of IExceptionConvertor classes. Upgrade the existing client to apply the exception serialization changes.

Next steps