Is it OK to slowly give back data from a webserver in this way?

Question

This is a method from my MVC controller:

public async Task RecorderInfo()
{
    Stream stream = Response.OutputStream;

    for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
    {
        byte[] data = new byte[100];
        await stream.WriteAsync(data, 0, data.Length); // Send data to the client.
        await Task.Delay(10000); // Wait for some event.
    }
}

It is plainly that I want to give data back to the HTTP client whenever I want to, so, there are questions regarding this approach:

1. Is it safe to hold the web response for so long? Aren't some thread pools going to run out of free threads when several requests will be made to this action?
2. Are there any pitfalls I might come into?
3. How would you do this, what would be your way to discretely notify the HTTP listener of some event or send him some data?

Answer 1

I think the more conventional approach is to poll the server using javascript. This approach is also used and called a long poll.

This document will be helpful if you are hosting in IIS. I would like to point out it recommends against long running tasks.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/tmarq/archive/2010/04/14/performing-asynchronous-work-or-tasks-in-asp-net-applications.aspx

"In case you're curious, the IIS thread pool has a maximum thread count of 256. This thread pool is designed in such a way that it does not handle long running tasks well. "

If you have many requests your thread pool will fill up quickly.