Using Service Fabric Explorer

Using Service Fabric Explorer

Once your Service Fabric cluster is running — whether local or on Azure — you need a tool to monitor, manage, and troubleshoot your services. This tool is the powerful Service Fabric Explorer (SFX).

🛰️ What is Service Fabric Explorer (SFX)?

Service Fabric Explorer (SFX) is a web-based dashboard provided by Microsoft that allows you to:

• Monitor your cluster’s health and performance in real-time.
• Manage deployed applications and services.
• Scale out/in services manually.
• Trigger backups, upgrades, and repairs.
• Analyze failures, alerts, and system events.

Real-World Analogy:

Think of SFX like the "Control Tower" at an airport — monitoring every "plane" (service) taking off, landing, or requiring emergency handling.

🛠️ How to Access Service Fabric Explorer

For Local Cluster

• Open Service Fabric Local Cluster Manager (system tray).
• Right-click and select Manage Local Cluster.
• It will open SFX at: http://localhost:19080/Explorer

For Azure Cluster

• In Azure Portal, go to your Service Fabric Cluster resource.
• Click on Service Fabric Explorer under the "Cluster Management" section.
• This opens SFX URL: https://yourclustername.region.cloudapp.azure.com:19080/Explorer

🚀 Exploring the Service Fabric Explorer Dashboard

1. Cluster Map

Shows the nodes (VMs) in your cluster and their current health state (Healthy, Warning, Error).

2. Applications

• List of all deployed applications.
• You can expand each application to see services, partitions, and replicas.
• Deploy new applications directly from this interface.

3. Node Details

Shows resource usage per node: CPU %, Memory %, Disk usage, etc. Helps you identify overloaded or unhealthy nodes.

4. Health Reports

View live health events reported by the system and your own services. Useful for proactive monitoring and troubleshooting.

5. Upgrade and Backup Controls

Trigger upgrades, repairs, or take backups manually via SFX without writing scripts.

📈 Visual Overview (Text-Based Map)

[Cluster Summary]
    └── [Nodes]
        └── [Node Details] (CPU, Memory, Status)
    └── [Applications]
        └── [Services]
            └── [Partitions]
                └── [Replicas]
    └── [Health Events]
    └── [Upgrade and Backup Controls]
    

💡 Did You Know?

⚡ Common Beginner Mistakes and Solutions

• Problem: SFX shows "Cluster Not Reachable".
  Solution: Check if the local cluster or Azure cluster is actually running. Also, firewall might be blocking port 19080.
• Problem: Applications not appearing even after deployment.
  Solution: Verify that application packages are properly deployed and provisioned (Check "Applications" section).
• Problem: UI feels slow.
  Solution: For very large clusters, SFX may load slowly — prefer filtering views or use CLI for some operations.

🚨 Pro Tips

• Use filters and search features if you have hundreds of services.
• Monitor "System Services" section often — issues here can affect the entire cluster.
• Service Fabric Explorer is available even when nodes are failing — unless full cluster loss occurs!

✅ Self-Check Quiz

• Which port does Service Fabric Explorer use by default?
• How can you view resource usage for each node?
• What should you check if SFX says "Cluster Not Reachable"?