WF/WCF becomes "inactive" after being idle for a while

Question

Hi All,

I created a WF/WCF service, and noticed that it becomes "inactive" if it doesn't gets called for an hour or so. When this happens, it doesn't do anything when the client application calls it for the first time. 

But if I open the service's URL in a browser, or the client calls it the second time, it works again. This happens only to WF services, and all other "plain" WCF" services didn't have this issue. 

I was wondering if this has anything to do with my AppFabric or IIS settings. Could you please help me with this?

Thanks in advance!

Gary

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XIII

Answer 1

Do you have auto start enabled for your WF service - this might help you overcome what you are seeing? http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee677260.aspx 

The first hit to the service sounds like it is not responding at all, are you sure it is not just slow and reloading? What are your IIS recycle settings set to?

Thanks,

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If this answers your question, please use the "Answer" button to say so | Ben Cline

Answer 2

Thank you, Ben. I will change the auto-start settings of my services and see if the issue still happens.

My client application makes an asynchronous call to the WF/WCF service, and the first call always gets "ignored" if the service has been idle for a while (or after IIS restart) -- the expected result never gets generated, so it's not because the service is slow.

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XIII