We Keep Coding

How to defer a Azure Service Bus message?

Current I'm using Microsoft.Azure.ServiceBus.IQueueClient to RegisterMessageHandler, and then the message I receive is of type Microsoft.Azure.ServiceBus.Message.
According to the documentation:
Message deferral APIs The API is BrokeredMessage.Defer or
BrokeredMessage.DeferAsync in the .NET Framework client,
MessageReceiver.DeferAsync in the .NET Standard client, and
IMessageReceiver.defer or IMessageReceiver.deferAsync in the Java
client.
...but none of those libraries seam to relate to the classes I'm actually using. How do I defer? What classes and stuff do I have to use in order to be able to defer messages? All the samples above dont give enough code snippets to explain it.
Update as requested by #Gaurav
from your answer, I can see my message has that property:
message.ScheduledEnqueueTimeUtc = DateTime.UtcNow.AddHours(1);
but the queueClient also has this method:
queueClient.ScheduleMessageAsync(message, DateTime.UtcNow.AddHours(1));
I'm going to try 'scheduledMessageAsync' as I cant see how to communicate that I've set ScheduledEnqueueTimeUtc without calling the queueClient

Microsoft.Azure.ServiceBus.Message has a property called ScheduledEnqueueTimeUtc. Just set the value of this property to a date/time value in future when you want the message to appear in the queue. Message will be hidden till that time and will only appear in the queue at that date/time.
UPDATE
So I ran a test and confirmed that both ScheduledEnqueueTimeUtc and ScheduleMessageAsync works. I used version 4.1.1 for Microsoft.Azure.ServiceBus SDK.
Here's the code I wrote:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var connectionString = "my-connection-string";
var queueName = "test";
QueueClient queueClient = new QueueClient(connectionString, queueName);
Message msg1 = new Message()
{
Body = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("This message has ScheduledEnqueueTimeUtc property set. It will appear in queue after 2 minutes. Current date/time is: " + DateTime.Now),
ScheduledEnqueueTimeUtc = DateTime.UtcNow.AddMinutes(2)
};
queueClient.SendAsync(msg1).GetAwaiter().GetResult();
Message msg2 = new Message()
{
Body = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("This message is sent via ScheduleMessageAsync method. It will appear in queue after 2 minutes. Current date/time is: " + DateTime.Now)
};
queueClient.ScheduleMessageAsync(msg2, new DateTimeOffset(DateTime.UtcNow.AddMinutes(2))).GetAwaiter().GetResult();
Console.ReadLine();
}
And this is what I see when I fetch the messages in Peek-Lock mode:

Using the message deferral APIs like BrokeredMessage.Defer or BrokeredMessage.DeferAsync will defer the message.
Defering a message will change the state of the message from Active to Deferred. The message can be later retrieved based on the sequence number.
ScheduleMessageAsync() is used to schedule the delivery of message (sends a message at specified time). It cannot be used after receiving a message.

I've coded the solution I was looking for, here is the basic outline:
inside an asynchronous method (runs its own thread)
public async Task InitialiseAndRunMessageReceiver()
start an infinite loop that reads the message
receiver = new MessageReceiver(serviceBusConnectionString, serviceBusQueueName, ReceiveMode.PeekLock);
while (true) { var message = await receiver.ReceiveAsync(); ... more code... }
once you know you are about to start your long task, defer the message, but store the message.SystemProperties.SequenceNumber. this keeps it in the queue but prevents it from being re-delivered.
await receiver.DeferAsync(message.SystemProperties.LockToken);
and when you finally done ask for the message again using the message.SystemProperties.SequenceNumber, and complete the message as if it weren't deferred
var message = receiver.ReceiveDeferredMessageAsync(message.SystemProperties.SequenceNumber);
receiver.CompleteAsync(message.Result.SystemProperties.LockToken);
and your message will be removed from the queue.
much of my confusion was caused by the libraries being named similarly with overlapping lifespans.
Microsoft.Azure.ServiceBus.Core.MessageReceiver is the message receiver above

Old question, but what suited my situation was deleting the message and posting a copy using ScheduleMessageAsync (there is a copy method somewhere). Then the message would just come back at the desired time.

Azure Storage Queue - processing messages on poison queue

I've been using Azure Storage Queues to post messages too, then write the messages to a db table. However I've noticed that when an error occurs processing messages on the queue, the message is written to a poison queue.
Here is some background to the setup of my app:
Azure Web App -> Writes message to the queue
Azure function -> Queue trigger processes the message and writes the contents to a db
There was an issue with the db schema which caused the INSERTS to fail. Each message was retried 5 times, which I believe is the default for retrying queue messages, and after the 5th attempt the message was placed on the poison queue.
The db schema was subsequently fixed but now I've no way of processing the messages on the poison queue.
My question is can we recover messages written to the poison queue in order to process them and INSERT them into the db, and if so how?

For your particular problem, I would recommend solution mentioned in question part of this post: Azure: How to move messages from poison queue to back to main queue?
Please note that name of poison queue == $"{queueName}-poison"

In my current project I've created something what is called: "Support functions" in the FunctionApp. It exposes a special HTTP endpoint with Admin authorization level that can be executed at any time.
Please See the code below, which solves the problem of reprocessing messages from the poison queue:
public static class QueueOperations
{
[FunctionName("Support_ReprocessPoisonQueueMessages")]
public static async Task<IActionResult> Support_ReprocessPoisonQueueMessages([HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Admin, "put", Route = "support/reprocessQueueMessages/{queueName}")]HttpRequest req, ILogger log,
[Queue("{queueName}")] CloudQueue queue,
[Queue("{queueName}-poison")] CloudQueue poisonQueue, string queueName)
{
log.LogInformation("Support_ReprocessPoisonQueueMessages function processed a request.");
int.TryParse(req.Query["messageCount"], out var messageCountParameter);
var messageCount = messageCountParameter == 0 ? 10 : messageCountParameter;
var processedMessages = 0;
while (processedMessages < messageCount)
{
var message = await poisonQueue.GetMessageAsync();
if (message == null)
break;
var messageId = message.Id;
var popReceipt = message.PopReceipt;
await queue.AddMessageAsync(message); // a new Id and PopReceipt is assigned
await poisonQueue.DeleteMessageAsync(messageId, popReceipt);
processedMessages++;
}
return new OkObjectResult($"Reprocessed {processedMessages} messages from the {poisonQueue.Name} queue.");
}
}
Alternatively it may be a good idea to create a new message with the additional metadata (as information that the message has already been processed in the past with no success - then it may be send to the dead letter queue).

You have two options
Add another function that is triggered by messages added to the poison queue. You can try adding the contents to the db in this function. More details on this approach can be found here. Of course, if this function too fails to process the message you could check the dequeue count and post a notification that needs manual intervention.
Add an int 'dequeueCount' parameter to the function processing the queue and after say 5 retries log the failure instead of letting the message go the poison queue. For example you can send an email to notify that manual intervention is required.

You can use azure management studio(cerulean) and move the message from poison queue to actual queue. Highly recommended tool to access queues and blobs and do any production related activity also. https://www.cerebrata.com/products/cerulean
I am just user of the tool and no way affiliated, i recommended because it is very powerful, very useful and makes you very productive.
Click on move and message can be moved to the actual uploaded queue

Just point your Azure function to the poison queue and the items in that poison queue will be handled. More details here: https://briancaos.wordpress.com/2018/05/03/azure-functions-how-to-retry-messages-in-the-poison-queue/

Azure Storage Explorer(version above 1.15.0) has now added support to move messages from one queue to another. This makes it possible to move all, or a selected set of messages, from the poison queue back to the original queue.
https://github.com/microsoft/AzureStorageExplorer/issues/1064

How to use the MessageReceiver.Receive method by sequenceNumber on ServiceBus

I'm trying to resubmit a message from a deadletter queue.
I am can replay a message on a dead letter queue, thats fine.
The problem is when I want to now delete this from the deadletter queue.
Here is what I am trying to do:
var subscription = "mySubscription";
var topic = "myTopic";
var connectionString = "connectionStringOnAzure";
var messagingFactory = MessagingFactory.CreateFromConnectionString(connectionString);
var messageReceiver = messagingFactory.CreateMessageReceiver(SubscriptionClient.FormatDeadLetterPath(topic, subscription), ReceiveMode.ReceiveAndDelete);
long messageSequenceNumber = 835;
var brokeredMessage = messageReceiver.Receive(messageSequenceNumber); // this part fails
// mark message as complete to remove from the queue
brokeredMessage.Complete();
I get following error message:
Microsoft.ServiceBus.Messaging.MessageNotFoundException : Failed to lock one or more specified messages. The message does not exist..TrackingId:ae15edcc-06ac-4d2b-9059-009599cf5c4e_G5_B15,TimeStamp:8/13/2013 1:45:42 PM
However, instead of specifying a message sequence number and I just use the ReceiveBatch as shown below, it is fine.
// this works and does not throw any errors
var brokeredMessages = messageReceiver.ReceiveBatch(10);
Am I missing something? Or is there another way of reprocessing deadletters and removing them?

The deadletter queue is processed in sequence just like any other queue.
The Receive(seqNo) method is used in combination with Defer(), which puts the message into a different secondary Queue - the "deferral queue". The deferral queue exists for scenarios where you are getting messages out of the expected order (eg. in a state machine) and need a place to put the messages that arrived early. Those you can park with Defer() and make a note of that (probably even in session state) and then pull the messages once you're ready to do so. The Workflow Manager runtime used by SharePoint uses that feature, for instance.

After creating receiver you can politely start receiving all messages (without being picky) till you encounter message with your SequenceNumber, call Complete() on the message and stop iterating the queue. i.e
while (true)
{
BrokeredMessage message = receiver.Receive();
if (message.SequenceNumber == sequenceNumber)
{
message.Complete();
break;
}
}
Without completing message it remains in the queue and that's what you want (at least in .NET 4.5. Worth to note that if your Sequence Number is not found Receiver will loop the queue indefinitely.

MSMQ Receive() method timeout

My original question from a while ago is MSMQ Slow Queue Reading, however I have advanced from that and now think I know the problem a bit more clearer.
My code (well actually part of an open source library I am using) looks like this:
queue.Receive(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10), MessageQueueTransactionType.Automatic);
Which is using the Messaging.MessageQueue.Receive function and queue is a MessageQueue. The problem is as follows.
The above line of code will be called with the specified timeout (10 seconds). The Receive(...) function is a blocking function, and is supposed to block until a message arrives in the queue at which time it will return. If no message is received before the timeout is hit, it will return at the timeout. If a message is in the queue when the function is called, it will return that message immediately.
However, what is happening is the Receive(...) function is being called, seeing that there is no message in the queue, and hence waiting for a new message to come in. When a new message comes in (before the timeout), it isn't detecting this new message and continues waiting. The timeout is eventually hit, at which point the code continues and calls Receive(...) again, where it picks up the message and processes it.
Now, this problem only occurs after a number of days/weeks. I can make it work normally again by deleting & recreating the queue. It happens on different computers, and different queues. So it seems like something is building up, until some point when it breaks the triggering/notification ability that the Receive(...) function uses.
I've checked a lot of different things, and everything seems normal & isn't different from a queue that is working normally. There is plenty of disk space (13gig free) and RAM (about 350MB free out of 1GB from what I can tell). I have checked registry entries which all appear the same as other queues, and the performance monitor doesn't show anything out of the normal. I have also run the TMQ tool and can't see anything noticably wrong from that.
I am using Windows XP on all the machines and they all have service pack 3 installed. I am not sending a large amount of messages to the queues, at most it would be 1 every 2 seconds but generally a lot less frequent than that. The messages are only small too and nowhere near the 4MB limit.
The only thing I have just noticed is the p0000001.mq and r0000067.mq files in C:\WINDOWS\system32\msmq\storage are both 4,096KB however they are that size on other computers also which are not currently experiencing the problem. The problem does not happen to every queue on the computer at once, as I can recreate 1 problem queue on the computer and the other queues still experience the problem.
I am not very experienced with MSMQ so if you post possible things to check can you please explain how to check them or where I can find more details on what you are talking about.
Currently the situation is:
ComputerA - 4 queues normal
ComputerB - 2 queues experiencing problem, 1 queue normal
ComputerC - 2 queues experiencing problem
ComputerD - 1 queue normal
ComputerE - 2 queues normal
So I have a large number of computers/queues to compare and test against.

Any particular reason you aren't using an event handler to listen to the queues? The System.Messaging library allows you to attach a handler to a queue instead of, if I understand what you are doing correctly, looping Receive every 10 seconds. Try something like this:
class MSMQListener
{
public void StartListening(string queuePath)
{
MessageQueue msQueue = new MessageQueue(queuePath);
msQueue.ReceiveCompleted += QueueMessageReceived;
msQueue.BeginReceive();
}
private void QueueMessageReceived(object source, ReceiveCompletedEventArgs args)
{
MessageQueue msQueue = (MessageQueue)source;
//once a message is received, stop receiving
Message msMessage = null;
msMessage = msQueue.EndReceive(args.AsyncResult);
//do something with the message
//begin receiving again
msQueue.BeginReceive();
}
}

We are also using NServiceBus and had a similar problem inside our network.
Basically, MSMQ is using UDP with two-phase commits. After a message is received, it has to be acknowledged. Until it is acknowledged, it cannot be received on the client side as the receive transaction hasn't been finalized.
This was caused by different things in different times for us:
once, this was due to the Distributed Transaction Coordinator unable to communicate between machines as firewall misconfiguration
another time, we were using cloned virtual machines without sysprep which made internal MSMQ ids non-unique and made it receive a message to one machine and ack to another. Eventually, MSMQ figures things out but it takes quite a while.

Try this
public Message Receive( TimeSpan timeout, Cursor cursor )
overloaded function.
To get a cursor for a MessageQueue, call the CreateCursor method for that queue.
A Cursor is used with such methods as Peek(TimeSpan, Cursor, PeekAction) and Receive(TimeSpan, Cursor) when you need to read messages that are not at the front of the queue. This includes reading messages synchronously or asynchronously. Cursors do not need to be used to read only the first message in a queue.
When reading messages within a transaction, Message Queuing does not roll back cursor movement if the transaction is aborted. For example, suppose there is a queue with two messages, A1 and A2. If you remove message A1 while in a transaction, Message Queuing moves the cursor to message A2. However, if the transaction is aborted for any reason, message A1 is inserted back into the queue but the cursor remains pointing at message A2.
To close the cursor, call Close.

If you want to use something completely synchronous and without event you can test this method
public object Receive(string path, int millisecondsTimeout)
{
var mq = new System.Messaging.MessageQueue(path);
var asyncResult = mq.BeginReceive();
var handles = new System.Threading.WaitHandle[] { asyncResult.AsyncWaitHandle };
var index = System.Threading.WaitHandle.WaitAny(handles, millisecondsTimeout);
if (index == 258) // Timeout
{
mq.Close();
return null;
}
var result = mq.EndReceive(asyncResult);
return result;
}

clear Message Queue in C#

I use the Message Queue to send messages from one application to the other one (this has to work only on one particular machine)
I create the queue like this on the receiver side:
string queueName = ".\\private$\\WZMSGQ";
if (MessageQueue.Exists(queueName))
msgQueue = new MessageQueue(queueName);
else
msgQueue = MessageQueue.Create(queueName, false);
and after this I start the sender application, where I create the queue like that:
msgQueue = new MessageQueue(".\\private$\\WZMSGQ");
in the receiver Application I then retrieve new messages:
Message[] messages = msgQueue.GetAllMessages();
foreach (Message msg in messages){
doSomething();
}
Now I'd like to do two things:
I would like to clear the message queue when instantiating the new MessageQueue instance on the receiver machine such that all old messages are gone.
I'd like to delete the message queue when the program ends, such that it does not exist anymore if I start the application the next time
How can I do that?

MessageQueue.Purge and MessageQueue.Delete seem to be what you want, unless I have misread the question.