.NET Core 3 - IIS - Application Initialization doesn't work

Question

I've been following the IHostedService documentation in order to run a background task using the .NET Core MVC framework.

I would like the service to start automatically in IIS, however, it doesn't work.

I have done the following:

• Installed Application Initialization feature on the Windows Server
• Set "Preload" to true on the Web Site
• On the AppPool, set "AlwaysRunning"
• On the AppPool, set "Idle Timeout" to 0
• On the AppPool, ensured it was running under "No Managed Code"
• In the ApplicationInitialization configuration, set the following flags:
• doAppInitAfterRestart = True
• skipManagedModules = False
• Added an initializationPage key, = "/start" (a blank MVC call just to start the app)

Oddly, these steps work on fresh Windows Server installation, but not on the server I want to use.

On the problematic server, I can see the w3wp process try to start the dotnet process (via Procmon), but it doesn't actually run any dotnet core code until I send a real HTTP request from a browser.

I have read many GitHub threads that say this should work regardless of the exact IIS version - what else could be going on?

Answer 1

For the Set "Preload" to true on the Web Site to work you need also to activate anonymous authentication on the web site