Clever way to put azure MVC app into maintenance mode

Does anybody have any quick and clever ways to flip an MVC app running on Windows Azure into a "maintenace mode"

I don't have a huge need for this because I use the azure staging environment a lot but occasionally I do have the need to make sure there are no users in the production instance of the application (mainly database updates).

I开发者_JS百科'd like to be able to do this on the fly without uploading new code or swapping deployment slots. Any suggestions?

The friendliest way to do it is on login. When a user authenticates, check a maintenance mode flag in the database and don't let them log in. Let active users continue to use the application until they log out or their session times out. Keep an activity log so you can know when all users have expired.

Of course this means it will take time from when you put the app into maintenance mode and when it is effectively ready, but it's not nice to boot out an active user.

If the usage pattern of your app makes it so this methodology will not ensure no activity in a reasonable time, you can add a timeout on top of this. Check the same maintenance flag for a request every so often. Doesn't have to be every request but every five minutes or so. If necessary you can also cache the maintenance mode value locally for a reasonable period of time (a few minutes).

I would use routing for this. Have the flag be inspected during routing configuration. If it is on, route to "Maintenance" screens

I would suggest adding a Global Action Filter that respects you maintenance mode Flag.