Singleton orchestrators in Durable Functions (Azure Functions)

For background jobs, you often need to ensure that only one instance of a particular orchestrator runs at a time. You can ensure this kind of singleton behavior in Durable Functions by assigning a specific instance ID to an orchestrator when creating it.

Singleton example

The following example shows an HTTP-trigger function that creates a singleton background job orchestration. The code ensures that only one instance exists for a specified instance ID.

[FunctionName("HttpStartSingle")]
public static async Task<HttpResponseMessage> RunSingle(
    [HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Function, methods: "post", Route = "orchestrators/{functionName}/{instanceId}")] HttpRequestMessage req,
    [DurableClient] IDurableOrchestrationClient starter,
    string functionName,
    string instanceId,
    ILogger log)
{
    // Check if an instance with the specified ID already exists or an existing one stopped running(completed/failed/terminated).
    var existingInstance = await starter.GetStatusAsync(instanceId);
    if (existingInstance == null 
    || existingInstance.RuntimeStatus == OrchestrationRuntimeStatus.Completed 
    || existingInstance.RuntimeStatus == OrchestrationRuntimeStatus.Failed 
    || existingInstance.RuntimeStatus == OrchestrationRuntimeStatus.Terminated)
    {
        // An instance with the specified ID doesn't exist or an existing one stopped running, create one.
        dynamic eventData = await req.Content.ReadAsAsync<object>();
        await starter.StartNewAsync(functionName, instanceId, eventData);
        log.LogInformation($"Started orchestration with ID = '{instanceId}'.");
        return starter.CreateCheckStatusResponse(req, instanceId);
    }
    else
    {
        // An instance with the specified ID exists or an existing one still running, don't create one.
        return new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.Conflict)
        {
            Content = new StringContent($"An instance with ID '{instanceId}' already exists."),
        };
    }
}

Note

The previous C# code is for Durable Functions 2.x. For Durable Functions 1.x, you must use OrchestrationClient attribute instead of the DurableClient attribute, and you must use the DurableOrchestrationClient parameter type instead of IDurableOrchestrationClient. For more information about the differences between versions, see the Durable Functions versions article.

By default, instance IDs are randomly generated GUIDs. In the previous example, however, the instance ID is passed in route data from the URL. The code then fetches the orchestration instance metadata to check if an instance having the specified ID is already running. If no such instance is running, a new instance is created with that ID.

Note

There is a potential race condition in this sample. If two instances of HttpStartSingle execute concurrently, both function calls will report success, but only one orchestration instance will actually start. Depending on your requirements, this may have undesirable side effects.

The implementation details of the orchestrator function don't actually matter. It could be a regular orchestrator function that starts and completes, or it could be one that runs forever (that is, an Eternal Orchestration). The important point is that there is only ever one instance running at a time.

Next steps