AutoStart/Pre-warm features not working in IIS 7.5 / WCF service

Question

For testing the many headaches of IIS/WCF implementation from scratch, I built the HelloWorld service and client walked through (very nicely) here. I added endpoints for net.tcp, and the service is working properly end-to-end for both bindings under IIS 7.5 (on Windows 7) in its own ApplicationPool called HW.

What I'm trying to get working is the announced AutoStart and Preload (or "pre-warm caching") features. I've followed the instructions laid out here and here (quite similar to one another, but always good to have a second opinion) very closely. Which means I

1) Set the application pool startMode...

<applicationPools> 
     <!-- ... -->
     <add name="HW" managedRuntimeVersion="v4.0" startMode="AlwaysRunning" /> 
</applicationPools>

2) ...enabled serviceAutoStart and set a pointer to my serviceAutoStartProvider

<site name="HW" id="2">
    <application path="/" applicationPool="HW" serviceAutoStartEnabled="true" serviceAutoStartProvider="PreWarmMyCache" />
    <!-- ... -->
</site>

3) ...and named said provider, with the GetType().AssemblyQualifiedName of the class listed in its entirety below

<serviceAutoStartProviders> 
    <add name="PreWarmMyCache" type="MyWCFServices.Preloader, HelloWorldServer, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null" /> 
</serviceAutoStartProviders>

---

using System;

namespace MyWCFServices
{
    public class Preloader : System.Web.Hosting.IProcessHostPreloadClient
    {
        public void Preload(string[] parameters)
        {
            System.IO.StreamWriter sw = new System.IO.StreamWriter(@"C:\temp\PreloadTest.txt");
            sw.WriteLine("Preload executed {0:G}", DateTime.Now);
            sw.Close();
        }
    }
}

Alas, all this manual configuration, plus a couple iisreset calls, and I get nothing. No w3wp.exe process firing up in Task Manager (though I get it if I launch the HelloWorldClient), no text file, and above all, no satisfaction.

There is a frustratingly scant amount of discussion about this feature, either on SO or the wider web, and the few similar questions here got little attention, all of which rings an alarm bell or two. Perhaps needlessly though--any experts out there who have been down this very road a time or two care to chime in? (Happy to offer up the entire solution if you can suggest a good place to host it.)

---

EDIT: I tried resetting that path in the Preload method to the relative App_Data folder (another SO answer suggested that), didn't matter. Also, I learned the w3wp.exe process fires on a simple browse to the localhost. The process consumes an impressive 17MB of memory to serve up its single tiny OperationContract, while for the price offering zero Preload value. 17MB of ColdDeadCache.

Answer 1

This is a slightly different approach for your problem:

1. Use Windows Server AppFabric for service auto-start
2. Use WCF infrastructure to execute custom startup code

Re 1: The Appfabric AutoStart feature should just work out of the box (provided you're not using MVC's ServiceRoute to register your services, they MUST be specified either in the Web.config's serviceActivations section or using physical *.svc files.

Re 2: To inject custom startup code into the WCF pipeline you could use an attribute like this:

using System;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Description;

namespace WCF.Extensions
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Allows to specify a static activation method to be called one the ServiceHost for this service has been opened.
    /// </summary>
    [AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class, AllowMultiple = true, Inherited = false)]
    public class ServiceActivatorAttribute : Attribute, IServiceBehavior
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Initializes a new instance of the ServiceActivatorAttribute class.
        /// </summary>
        public ServiceActivatorAttribute(Type activatorType, string methodToCall)
        {
            if (activatorType == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("activatorType");
            if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(methodToCall)) throw new ArgumentNullException("methodToCall");

            ActivatorType = activatorType;
            MethodToCall = methodToCall;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// The class containing the activation method.
        /// </summary>
        public Type ActivatorType { get; private set; }

        /// <summary>
        /// The name of the activation method. Must be 'public static void' and with no parameters.
        /// </summary>
        public string MethodToCall { get; private set; }


        private System.Reflection.MethodInfo activationMethod;

        #region IServiceBehavior
        void IServiceBehavior.AddBindingParameters(ServiceDescription serviceDescription, ServiceHostBase serviceHostBase, System.Collections.ObjectModel.Collection<ServiceEndpoint> endpoints, System.ServiceModel.Channels.BindingParameterCollection bindingParameters)
        {
        }

        void IServiceBehavior.ApplyDispatchBehavior(ServiceDescription serviceDescription, ServiceHostBase serviceHostBase)
        {
            serviceHostBase.Opened += (sender, e) =>
                {
                    this.activationMethod.Invoke(null, null);
                };
        }

        void IServiceBehavior.Validate(ServiceDescription serviceDescription, ServiceHostBase serviceHostBase)
        {
            // Validation: can get method
            var method = ActivatorType.GetMethod(name: MethodToCall,
                             bindingAttr: System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Static | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Public,
                             callConvention: System.Reflection.CallingConventions.Standard,
                             types: Type.EmptyTypes,
                             binder: null,
                             modifiers: null);
            if (method == null)
                throw new ServiceActivationException("The specified activation method does not exist or does not have a valid signature (must be public static).");

            this.activationMethod = method;
        }
        #endregion
    }
}

..which can be used like this:

public static class ServiceActivation
{
    public static void OnServiceActivated()
    {
        // Your startup code here
    }
}

[ServiceActivator(typeof(ServiceActivation), "OnServiceActivated")]
public class YourService : IYourServiceContract
{

}

That's the exact approach we've been using for quite a while and on a large number of services. The extra benefit of using a WCF ServiceBehavior for custom startup code (as opposed to relying on the IIS infrastructure) is that it works in any hosting environment (incl. self-hosted) and can be more easily tested.

Answer 2

I know this sounds absurd but I faced the same issue (w3wp.exe not firing automatically after making the config changes) and it was because I hadn't run the text editor in Admin mode when I was editing the applicationHost.config file. Stupid mistake on my part.

In my defense I was using Notepad++ which told me it was saving when it actually wasn't.

Answer 3

I've done the same. it works...

In preload method I have some code copied from a nice white paper available here!

Preload method looks like...

 public void Preload(string[] parameters) 
 {     
        bool isServceActivated = false; 
        int attempts = 0; 
        while (!isServceActivated && (attempts <10)) 
        {
            Thread.Sleep(1 * 1000);
            try
            {
                string virtualPath = "/Test1/Service1.svc";
                ServiceHostingEnvironment.EnsureServiceAvailable(virtualPath);
                isServceActivated = true;
            }
            catch (Exception exception)
            {
                attempts++;
                //continue on these exceptions, otherwise fail fast 
                if (exception is EndpointNotFoundException ||
                    exception is ServiceActivationException || 
                    exception is ArgumentException) 
                {
                    //log 
                }
                else
                {
                    throw;
                }
            }
        }
   }

Answer 4

Maybe you are on a 64-bit system? There is a known "feature" in Windows where the save gets redirected to the 32 bit folder and thus no changes will be picked up

(I have converted my comment to an answer as answers might be easier to find)