Auto-Start application / global.asax / wcf service when IIS7 starts automatically

Question

Thank you for your time :) I'm sorry if this has been asked before, I just really need clarification.

Environment: server 2008 R2 64bit

Basically what im attempting to do is create an autonomous application that will load even if the server reboots.

I went ahead and wrote a wcf service that will do the workload.

All I need is a trigger that will start one web method. It needs to fire even if the website isnt loaded (visited).

So far all ive found are registry edits, and possible a batch file. I really dont like the idea and I wish I could do something else.

I was hoping to find something in iis7 that would either call the global.asax file or AppInitialize() in the service.

The only way ive been able to get it to fire is if I visit the application myself.

Thanks for any help!

:)

Answer 1

You Windows Server version actually has IIS 7.5, so you are in luck. Check out the new Auto Start feature:

Auto-Start Feature

The auto-start feature of AppFabric is built on top of the auto-start feature of Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.5, which is included in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. In IIS, you can configure an application pool and all or some of its applications to automatically start when the IIS service starts.