IIS vs Windows Service?

Question

I have a C# application that needs to always be running. I originally planned on making this a windows service but I now have a requirement to make the application host a web admin console.

I haven't played with IIS in quite a few years so my question is this:

What would you recommend I use?

I've thought about making a windows service and embedding a web server such as Cassini but so far I'm not very happy with the open source web servers I've looked at.

Can IIS handle this? Do people use it for this type of scenario, and if so how?

Answer 1

This sounds like a job for two separate projects.

One is the original Windows Service. Windows Services are well suited for what you're doing.

The second is the Web Project that will be used to administer the Windows Service. This is the part that runs in IIS.