Microsoft Orleans Grain Persistence using PostgreSQL

I didn’t found the documentation really clear on the steps involved when using Grain Persistence in combination with PostgreSQL.

So here is my attempt to describe the process:

• Add a reference to the following NuGet packages:
• Microsoft.Orleans.OrleansSQLUtils
• Microsoft.Orleans.Persistence.AdoNet
• Npgsql
• Update the cluster configuration to add the storage:

• Invariant should be set to ‘npgsql’
• ConnectionString should be set to the connection to the PostgreSQL instance you want to use
• UseJsonFormat should be set to true as PostgreSQL has good Json support.
• Let your grain inherit from Grain<> and specify a state object:

• Add a StorageProvider attribute on top of your Grain and set the name to the storage name you used inside the cluster config
• In our example we had set this to ‘OrleansStorage’:

• Execute the PostgreSQL-Main.sql and PostgreSQL-Persistence.sql scripts inside the OrleansAdoNetContent/PostgreSQL folder to create the necessary database objects
• Now you are good to go!