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Orleans (software framework)
open-in-new
<h2 id="overview">Overview</h2> <p>Orleans was originally created by the <i>eXtreme Computing Group</i> at <a href="/facts/Microsoft_Research/04A5LpMI">Microsoft Research</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> and introduced the <i>virtual actor model</i> as a new approach to building <a href="/facts/Distributed_systems/o5nyhqTF">distributed systems</a> for <a href="/facts/Cloud_computing/guhg0FGV">the cloud</a>. Orleans scales from a single <a href="/facts/On-premise/yGJvghTK">on-premises</a> server to <a href="/facts/High_availability/y3J8GnEo">highly-available</a> and globally distributed applications in the cloud.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> </p><p>The virtual actor model is based on the <a href="/facts/Actor_model/MJ49opnU">actor model</a> but has several differences:<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> </p> <ol><li>A virtual actor always exists, it cannot be explicitly created or destroyed.</li> <li>Virtual actors are automatically instantiated. If a server hosting an actor crashes, the next message sent to the actor causes it to be reinstantiated automatically.</li> <li>The server that an actor is on is transparent to the application code.</li> <li>Orleans can automatically create multiple instances of the same stateless actor.</li></ol> <p>Starting with <a href="/facts/Cloud_service/guhg0FGV">cloud services</a> for the <a href="/facts/Halo_franchise/78c5by3J">Halo franchise</a>, the framework has been used by a number of cloud services at Microsoft<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> and other companies since 2011.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> The core Orleans technology was transferred to <a href="/facts/343_Industries/oWgafT2T">343 Industries</a> and is available as <a href="/facts/Open_source/7X9rCdz4">open source</a> since January 2015.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> The source code is licensed under <a href="/facts/MIT_License/8llAQtlk">MIT License</a> and hosted on <a href="/facts/GitHub/n1hNCsc3">GitHub</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> </p><p>Orleans runs on <a href="/facts/Microsoft_Windows/bwhAhuSL">Microsoft Windows</a>, <a href="/facts/Linux/9FvCKSTq">Linux</a>, and <a href="/facts/MacOS/Y93vVpTm">macOS</a> and is compatible with .NET Standard 2.0 and above.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="features">Features</h2> <p>Some Orleans features include:<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a> </p> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Persistence_(computer_science)/frF0o2q2">Persistence</a></li> <li>Distributed <a href="/facts/ACID/XdHkYzHN">ACID</a> transactions<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a></li> <li>Streams</li> <li>Timers & Reminders</li> <li><a href="/facts/Fault_tolerance/rasrYlJk">Fault tolerance</a></li></ul> <h2 id="related-implementations">Related implementations</h2> <p>The <a href="/facts/Electronic_Arts/fy7Ppdem">Electronic Arts</a> <a href="/facts/BioWare/UnC42kYl">BioWare</a> division created Project <i>Orbit</i>. It is a <a href="/facts/Java_(programming_language)/9ScgFyAL">Java</a> implementation of virtual actors that was heavily inspired by the Orleans project.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul> <li>Free and open-source software portal</li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Distributed_computing/o5nyhqTF">Distributed computing</a></li></ul> <h2 id="further-reading">Further reading</h2> <ul><li>Bykov, Sergey; Geller, Alan; Kliot, Gabriel; Larus, Jim; Pandya, Ravi; Thelin, Jorgen (2011). "Orleans: Cloud Computing for Everyone" (Document). <a href="/facts/Association_for_Computing_Machinery/abI2atlP">Association for Computing Machinery</a>.</li> <li>Bernstein, Philip A.; Bykov, Sergey; Geller, Alan; Kliot, Gabriel; Thelin, Jorgen (2014). <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Orleans-MSR-TR-2014-41.pdf">"Orleans: Distributed Virtual Actors for Programmability and Scalability"</a> (PDF). <a href="/facts/Microsoft_Research/04A5LpMI">Microsoft Research</a>.</li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="http://dotnet.github.io/orleans/">Official website</a></li> <li><a href="https://github.com/dotnet/orleans">GitHub - dotnet/orleans: Orleans is a cross-platform framework for building distributed applications with .NET</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/orleans-virtual-actors/?from=https%3A%2F%2Fresearch.microsoft.com%2Fprojects%2Forleans%2F">Orleans - Virtual Actors - Microsoft Research</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.codeproject.com/articles/1113227/microsoft-orleans-a-worked-example">Microsoft Orleans - a worked example - CodeProject</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Microsoft's Orleans Distributed App Framework Is Now Cross Platform - The New Stack <a href="https://thenewstack.io/microsofts-orleans-distributed-app-framework-is-now-cross-platform/" target="_blank">https://thenewstack.io/microsofts-orleans-distributed-app-framework-is-now-cross-platform/</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Open-Source Cloud Framework By Microsoft - HPC ASIA <a href="http://hpc-asia.com/open-source-cloud-framework-microsoft/" target="_blank">http://hpc-asia.com/open-source-cloud-framework-microsoft/</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Microsoft's Orleans Distributed App Framework Is Now Cross Platform - The New Stack <a href="https://thenewstack.io/microsofts-orleans-distributed-app-framework-is-now-cross-platform/" target="_blank">https://thenewstack.io/microsofts-orleans-distributed-app-framework-is-now-cross-platform/</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Microsoft to release Project Orleans as open source | Computerworld <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2859286/microsoft-to-release-project-orleans-as-open-source.html" target="_blank">https://www.computerworld.com/article/2859286/microsoft-to-release-project-orleans-as-open-source.html</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Bernstein, Philip A.; Bykov, Sergey; Geller, Alan; Kliot, Gabriel; Thelin, Jorgen (2014). "Orleans: Distributed Virtual Actors for Programmability and Scalability" (PDF). Microsoft Research. <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Orleans-MSR-TR-2014-41.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Orleans-MSR-TR-2014-41.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Orleans at Microsoft | .NET Conf 2020 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhgYlvGLv9c" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhgYlvGLv9c</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Microsoft opens early adopter program for its 'Orleans' cloud framework | ZDNet <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-opens-early-adopter-program-for-its-orleans-cloud-framework/" target="_blank">https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-opens-early-adopter-program-for-its-orleans-cloud-framework/</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Microsoft to make Halo 4 gaming cloud engine Project Orleans open source - SiliconANGLE <a href="https://siliconangle.com/2014/12/17/microsoft-to-make-halo-4-gaming-cloud-engine-project-orleans-open-source/" target="_blank">https://siliconangle.com/2014/12/17/microsoft-to-make-halo-4-gaming-cloud-engine-project-orleans-open-source/</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>"Dotnet/Orleans". GitHub. 17 February 2022. <a href="https://github.com/dotnet/orleans/blob/master/LICENSE" target="_blank">https://github.com/dotnet/orleans/blob/master/LICENSE</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>"Orleans benefits". learn.microsoft.com. 3 July 2024. <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/orleans/benefits" target="_blank">https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/orleans/benefits</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>"Introduction | Microsoft Orleans Documentation". Archived from the original on 2020-08-06. Retrieved 2019-11-01. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200806010016/http://dotnet.github.io/orleans/Documentation/index.html" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20200806010016/http://dotnet.github.io/orleans/Documentation/index.html</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>Resurrecting Middle-Tier Distributed Transactions | Microsoft Research <a href="http://sites.computer.org/debull/A19june/p3.pdf" target="_blank">http://sites.computer.org/debull/A19june/p3.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>Distributed Transactions are dead, long live distributed transactions! | Reactive Summit 2018 <a href="https://www.reactivesummit.org/2018/schedule/distributed-transactions-are-dead-long-live-distributed-transactions" target="_blank">https://www.reactivesummit.org/2018/schedule/distributed-transactions-are-dead-long-live-distributed-transactions</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>"Home · orbit-legacy/Orbit1 Wiki". GitHub. <a href="https://github.com/orbit/orbit-legacy/wiki" target="_blank">https://github.com/orbit/orbit-legacy/wiki</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>Gamasutra: Creating scalable backends for games using open source Orleans framework <a href="https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AshkanSaeediMazdeh/20151008/255588/Creating_scalable_backends_for_games_using_open_source_Orleans_framework.php" target="_blank">https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AshkanSaeediMazdeh/20151008/255588/Creating_scalable_backends_for_games_using_open_source_Orleans_framework.php</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>