I have an Azure Cloud Service that requires some warm up when an application pool comes online (typically 5-10 minutes). Because of this, I like to schedule an IIS\App Pool recycle during off hours. When my recycle takes place mid-day, I get users yelling at me (and I prefer to not get yelled at)
What I've been doing is remoting into the VM, add a cmd file to a local disk and create a scheduled task that runs the cmd file:
net stop "World Wide Web Publishing Service"
net start "World Wide Web Publishing Service"
My problem is, periodically PaaS services get "refreshed", so randomly, any code\files I manually publish to a cloud service VM disappear. I need to remote back into the machines and re-add my cmd and scheduled tasks.
I know cloud services allow you to run startup tasks and the like. Can I do something similar to startup tasks that would allow me to package this cmd file when I publish my app, but schedule these commands externally? If so.. how?
Startup tasks may execute any unattended app/installer you include in your .cspkg. You need to make sure the cmd file in question is bundled properly (e.g add configureSchedule.cmd to project, make sure it's copied to output directory).
Since you're attempting to set up scheduling, you'll likely need to run your cmd in elevated mode:
<Startup>
<Task commandLine="configureSchedule.cmd" executionContext="elevated" taskType="simple" >
<Environment>
<Variable name="MyVersionNumber" value="1.0.0.0" />
</Environment>
</Task>
</Startup>
The better solution is to change the AppPool settings to recycle at a specific time. Do this from a startup script like David Makogan mentioned.
Take a look here:
Set default app pool recycling via command line
Set the recycling time:
https://www.iis.net/configreference/system.applicationhost/applicationpools/add/recycling/periodicrestart
Be sure to uncheck the "regular time interval", otherwise there will be recycle events during the day.
Also, you are stopping the WWW service, a quicker way is to only recycle the application pool. That way a new application pool is started, while the old one handles the last request from users. So there is (almost) no connectivity loss
appcmd recycle apppool /apppool.name: Marketing
Related
I just stopped an Application Pool in IIS. When trying to start it, IIS complains that,
The service cannot accept control messages at this time. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80080425).
What gives? Whence did this error come?
Looking at the Event Viewer > System shows these warnings:
A worker process '1456' serving application pool 'MyAppPool' failed to stop a listener channel for protocol 'http' in the allotted time. The data field contains the error number.
A process serving application pool 'MyAppPool' suffered a fatal communication error with the Windows Process Activation Service. The process id was '10592'. The data field contains the error number.
A process serving application pool 'MyAppPool' exceeded time limits during shut down. The process id was '10516'.
This resolved itself after about 5-minutes, at which point we tried to restart the website, and received:
The World Wide Web Publish Service (W3SVC) is stopped. Web sites cannot be started unless the World Wide Web Publishing Service (W3SVC) is running.
So, we started the W3SVC service, and then we could start our website.
This helped me: just wait about a minute or two.
Wait a few minutes, then retry your operation.
Ref: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms833805.aspx
The error message could result due to the following reason:
The service associated with Credential Manager does not start.
Some files associated with the application have gone corrupt.
Please follow the steps mentioned below to resolve the issue:
Method 1:
Click on the “Start”
In the text box that reads “Search Program and Files” type “Services”
Right click on “Services” and select “Run as Administrator”
In the Services Window, look for Credential Manager Service and “Stop” it.
Restart the computer and “Start” the Credential Manager Service and set it to “Automatic”.
Restart the computer and it should work fine.
Method 2:
1. Run System File Checker. Refer to the link mentioned below for additional information:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833
In my case, the VS debugger was attached to the w3wp process. After detaching the debugger, I was able to restart the Application Pool
I stopped the IIS Worker Process (in task manager), and then started the IIS again.
It worked.
I killed related w3wp.exe (on a friends' advise) at task manager and it worked.
Note: Use at your own risk. Be careful picking which one to kill.
Restarting the machine worked for me but not every time.
If you are really stuck on this then follow below steps
Open Task Manager
A window will open. Click on Details tab.
Search for the process name you wanted to restart/stop.
Select process, right click on it, select End task option.
A confirmation dialog box will appear. Click on End process button.
Now try to restart your service from Services.msc window.
I forgot I had mine attached to Visual Studio debugger. Be sure to disconnect from there, and then wait a moment. Otherwise killing the process viewing the PID from the Worker Processes functionality of IIS manager will work too.
Restarting the IIS windows service (World Wide Web Publishing Service) and then starting the application pool has worked for me. However, as the top answer suggests it may have just been the waiting that caused it to subsequently work.
I had this issue recently,
Problem statement:
Mine was a windows service that I run locally by attaching VS debugger. When I stop debugging and try to restart/stop the service (under services.msc) I used to get the mentioned error.
Solution:
Open up Task manager.
Search for the service (based on the exe name and not service name, for those that are different).
Kill the service.
On doing the above the service is stopped.
Being impatient, I created a new App Pool with the same settings and used that.
I kept having this problem whenever I tried to start an app pool more than once. Rather than rebooting, I simply run the Application Information Service. (Note: This service is set to run manually on my system, which may be the reason for the problem.) From its description, it seems obvious that it is somehow involved:
Facilitates the running of interactive applications with additional administrative privileges. If this service is stopped, users will be unable to launch applications with the additional administrative privileges they may require to perform desired user tasks.
Presumably, IIS manager (as well as most other processes running as an administrator) does not maintain admin privileges throughout the life of the process, but instead request admin rights from the Application Information service on a case-by-case basis.
Source: social.technech.microsoft.com
I've created a start-up task for an Azure website that does the following:
Creates an AppPool
Converts a Virtual Directory into a Virtual Application
I've created a powershell script that carries out these tasks.
I've set up the startup element in the Service Definition
<Startup>
<Task commandLine="MyStartup.cmd" executionContext="elevated" taskType="simple">
</Task>
</Startup>
All good so far.
However, I've found out, rather late, that:
IIS may not be fully configured during the startup task stage in the
startup process, so role-specific data may not be available.
I take this to mean that the website may not exist on IIS when the powershell script is run. I've tested the script and sure enough it fails because it can't find the virtual directory on IIS.
My question is: Is there a way to ensure the powershell script is run after the website is created on IIS?
Please note, I don't really want to use Microsoft.WindowsAzure.ServiceRuntime.RoleEntryPoint.OnStart if possible.
Thanks in advance.
I followed on from #kwill's suggestion and created the following:
Powershell:
while(!($myWeb = Get-Website -name "*MyWeb*")){
Write-Host "Website not installed. Waiting 30 seconds..."
Start-Sleep 30
}
# Proceed with installation
and configuration
<Task commandLine="MyBackground.cmd" executionContext="elevated" taskType="background">
</Task>
This works.
Check out the role architecture diagram at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kwill/archive/2011/05/05/windows-azure-role-architecture.aspx. You can see that the startup tasks are executed before IISConfigurator creates the application pool for your website. This means that the only place you can make modifications to the apppool is in OnStart.
I haven't tried this, but you could create a background type startup task which will let the rest of the startup process (ie. running IISConfigurator) proceed while your startup task is still running, and then within that startup just loop until the virtual directory is detected.
I 've found out that Azure websites (trial version) doesn't autostart my node sever process (it starts only when I load the url in the web browser); and that when there are no requests in a while, the process is killed.
I mean, when I git push my server, I would like it to start running immediately and continuously.
I read (here, for example) that this might have to do with the way iisnode manages azure websites, and that I can't do anything to change it. Is this the actual way Azure websites work? Is there any way I can deal with this?
Thanks in advance,
Bruno.
You've find the answer. There is no other answer.
The process termination because of inactivity comes from IIS - there is Idle Timeout setting. Which to my knowledge is not configurable in Azure Web Sites (at least not Free tier). Check out also this SO question and its answer to get better understanding on why you can't change this timeout on the FREE and STANDARD tiers.
And here is an interesting workaround to avoid this idle timeout. Actually if you use technique, you will also have kind-of "auto start", in terms that when your scheduler hits your site after a new deployment, it will "boot up".
This can get a little complicated, but if you don't want to use their 5-min ping service, you can keep these always on by doing the following:
Create an app setting on your website configuration tab within the portal:
WEBSITE_PRIVATE_EXTENSIONS and give it a value of 1
Create a text file named applicationhost.xdt and populate it with:
<?xml version="1.0"?><configuration xmlns:xdt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/XML-Document-Transform"><system.applicationHost><applicationPools><add name="DefaultAppPool" managedRuntimeVersion="v4.5" startMode="AlwaysRunning"><processModel identityType="ApplicationPoolIdentity" /></add></applicationPools></system.applicationHost></configuration>
ftp into your website and create a folder on the root directory called Site Extensions. (there should now be 3 folders in your root: LogFiles, site, & SiteExtensions)
Create another folder within 'Site Extensions', named ASPLimits
Upload the applicationhost.xdt into the ASPLimits folder
Restart your website using the portal
I have two Sites within my WebRole and have defined a Startup task.
The first line works fine, it creates a new App pool for me:
%WINDIR%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe add apppool /name:"VCPool" /managedRuntimeVersion:"v4.0" /managedPipelineMode:"Integrated"
Now I would like to change my second to this new created AppPool, but adding another line right after, doesn't help.
%WINDIR%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set app "WebRole_IN_0_VC/" /applicationPool:"VCPool"
It seems the second site is somehow not yet ready.
How can I delay my task by 30 seconds or delay appcmd.exe slightly?
Unless there is a way to create dependencies for this startup task that it shall only be executed when that second site is up and running?
Any help would be highly appreciated,
Many Thanks,
Is there a way to delay this execution by 30 seconds to make sure the second site is up and can be changed?
Update:
Thanks for the hints. I have made further investigation into this matter. I have found OnStart() event.
1) But since I am using silverlight and simply wrap the existing Web project in the Cloud Roles project, I wouldn't have a WebRole.cs as such. Can I just add it to my Silverlight Web project and use it there? Or is it recommended creating a WebRole project from scratch and make it to replace the Silverlight Web project alltogether?
2) Regarding the <Runtime/> tag in the service definition, do I simply add it like this? Would it have any security implications when the webrole runs elevated?
<WebRole name="WebRole" enableNativeCodeExecution="true" vmsize="ExtraSmall">
<Runtime executionContext="elevated"/>
<Sites>
<Site name="WebRole" physicalDirectory="./WebRole">
...
</Sites>
</WebRole>
3) Last but not least how do I run a cmd file or in fact this line
%WINDIR%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set site /site.name:"WebRole_IN_0_VC" /[Path='/'].applicationPool:"ASP.NET v4.0" >>Log.txt
in the OnStart() method?
Can you explore using PowerShell scripts for performing these tasks. PowerShell has a way to sleep thread. Something like
Batch file
%WINDIR%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe add apppool /name:"VCPool" /managedRuntimeVersion:"v4.0" /managedPipelineMode:"Integrated"
powershell -command "Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted" 2>> err.out
powershell .\sleep.ps1 2>> err.out
%WINDIR%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set app "WebRole_IN_0_VC/" /applicationPool:"VCPool"
I have not tried but it should work. See this post to know about Powershell integration.
The site, as you have discovered, is created after the 'Task' section runs. Instead, run your code from the 'OnStart' event. The site will have been created by that point. You may need to update your Service Definition file to run your role 'elevated' This can be done by adding this tag:
<Runtime executionContext="elevated"/>
Edited
To answer your further questions:
1) Whatever project you have, you should just be able to add the RoleEntryPoint class. You may have to do this manually.
2) Adding the runtime tag won't add any significant risk to your deployment.
3) Create a cmd file to put your command in (i.e. OnStart.cmd) and use some code like this:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("OnStart.cmd")
More information on starting a process here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/53ezey2s.aspx
For those interested ... I just blogged about how to execute AppCmd startup tasks on Windows Azure configure IIS websites - including finding the site by web role name, and executing it delayed so that the site config is already created by Azure's IISConfigurator.exe.
More here: http://mvolo.com/configure-iis-websites-windows-azure-startup-tasks-appcmd/.
Thanks,
Mike
I've got a WF feature which I've been deploying into my development/test environment fairly frequently, and as such have run into an issue where the assembly seems to be cached by the SharePoint Timer service (SPTimerV3), and then an out-of-date version is used after the workflow rehydrates following a Delay Activity.
To fix this, I've tried adding a "NET STOP SPTimerV3" and "NET START SPTimerV3" to my batch file after the STSADM commands to install the .WSP . It works to restart the timer service, and I no longer have the caching problem, however restarting the timer this way seems to kill my SP App Pools in IIS fairly regularly.
Has anyone found a good way to restart the timer in a WSP deployment batch file without adverse affects? Do I need to restart another dependent service, or restart the App Pools each time as well?
you need to restart IIS as well. IISRESET /noforce should do the trick.