Workflow instance replication
I have a scenario that I'm not sure whether WWF was designed to support, or if it pushes the limits of what's possible.
I would like to be able to start a workflow instance associated with a work item on one server in organization A, send the work item to another server in org B with the passivated workflow attached, allow org B's server to continue executing the workflow and replicating changes to the workflow's state back to org A. The work item may bounce back and forth between server A and B. Only the currently "owning" server is allowed to execute the replicated workflow. Everyone else is only allowed to view its state.
There are actually an unlimited number of servers that may participate in this synchronization/replication process for each work item. Each server lives in a different organization.
Some issues that I can think of with this include upgrading to newer versions of WWF. Each organization is autonomous and would want to be able to upgrade on their own schedule. So far it appears that passivated workflows can only be resumed on the same version of WWF they were created by. Also, this plan falls apart if more than one server is allowed to be executing a given workflow instance at a time, otherwise you would have to "merge" workflow instances somehow. The same effect could be accomodated by non-owning servers coordinating their activity execution with the owning server who advances the workflow on their behalf.
Anything else major I'm overlooking with this scenario? Was WWF designed to enable this? Or is there a better way to accomplish the same thing?
Oran
