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
Related
[I'm posting this to record what I actually found out after hours of painful trial-and-error.]
I have a website that I need to be "always running" (because in this case it has a Hangfire job that's responsible for kicking off a scheduled task every 5 minutes), and by default, websites are only started up when the first request is received.
So, how can I ensure that the website is started automatically? And, how can I configure this via the TFS release management tool?
[This answer isn't specific to Hangfire, but see the Hangfire documentation's discussion of this issue for details of how it affects Hangfire, but note that the recommended work-around is somewhat involved, and much more complex than the solution below. See also a separate and quite comprehensive discussion on the Hangfire support forum that gives several alternative solutions.]
In IIS, each website is associated with an Application Pool (App Pool). You can configure your App Pool to start automatically via IIS Manager by changing the "Start Mode" to AlwaysRunning in "Advanced Settings" for the App Pool:
However, starting the App Pool doesn't start the website (or websites) associated with it. The website does not get loaded until the first request is received.
In IIS8 (or IIS7.5 with an extension), a new setting was added that allows us to work around this. You can ensure that the website gets sent a request as soon as the App Pool starts by setting "Preload Enabled" to True in "Advanced Settings" for the website:
The combination of these settings ensure that the website will automatically start up when IIS starts, and immediately after the App Pool is recycled, etc.
But, how can you get those settings applied automatically as part of a TFS release pipeline, rather than having to remember to set them manually?
In your release definition, you presumably have an "IIS Web App Management" task, which sets up the App Pool and the website. In the configuration panel for this step, there should be an "Advanced" box with an "Additional AppCmd.exe Commands" entry field. You can use AppCmd to apply the settings described above.
AppCmd has the most confusing command-line syntax I've yet seen outside of code-golf competitions, but here's the incantation that worked for me:
set config /section:applicationPools -[name='myAppPoolName'].startMode:AlwaysRunning
set app "mySiteName/" /preloadEnabled:true
Note that if you have configuration variables defined for your App Pool name and website name, then you can use those rather than hard-coding the name, such as:
set config /section:applicationPools -[name='$(appPoolName)'].startMode:AlwaysRunning
I hope this helps somebody... Thanks for listening :-)
I shall try not to be subjective so as not be closed.
This is my first foray into Azure and it really is NOT like my dedicated server on another hosting company. Suffice it to say, what takes me minutes to deploy a site via FTP, then to IIS to set it up, has taken me WEEKS!
I don't want to set up any of the "pre-packaged" Quickstart solutions. I simply want my INDEX.HTML file to DISPLAY.
I copied all the files via Filezilla to Azure, quite easily, but yet, when I go to the URL, I keep getting:
Your App Service app has been created
Go to your app's Quick Start guide in the Azure portal to get started or read our deployment documentation.
Everything is set up on Azure perfectly.
Here's what it looks like under the appSettings Tab:
**Virtual applications and directories**
/ site\wwwroot Application …
/wwwroot site\wwwroot\mynewsite Application …
The directory, site\wwwroot\mynewsite has an index.html but it will not display when I type in the URL.
I already built the site and the company I'm working for wants it on AZURE.
A dedicated server takes under 15 min. This has taken weeks.
UPDATE:
Thiago, thank you... so here's the file structure below...
Reveals EXACTLY what my directory looks like. Under /thingblugrow is where "the fake name" mynewsite exists. I thought it'd be easier to just show you what I really have.
So, /thingblugrow has an index.html file....
If your want to visit http://yoursitename.azurewebsites.net/mynewsite/index.html,
The appsetting we need config it as following in your case:
Virtual applications and directories
/ site\wwwroot Application …
/mynewsite site\wwwroot\thingblugrow Application …
You also can refer to another SO Thread to get more info about creating Virtual applications and directories
You're adding an extra level, so in your case you'll be able to see the index through:
http://yoursitename.azurewebsites.net/mynewsite/index.html
Just move all the content from "mynewsite" folder to the parent directory (wwwroot).
I've setup a UNC share for IIS shared config using a specific AD service account and set to FULL CONTROL. I've also exported the config from one IIS server and set-up an additional IIS server to point to the share. When I open the applicationhost.config for example on the UNC share and remove an application pool, I can see the entry also remove in both IIS servers.
So I know:
1) I can export to the share with the specific service account
2) Both IIS servers can read the config when I edit manually
3) However when I remove an app pool from one of the IIS servers through the manager I get the above error.
I've tried using the process monitor utility to see what account is being used to write to the config and it seems it is my own AD user account rather than the shared service account. I know IIS Manager has my username e.g. ROOT\MYNAME logged on, but I wouldn't have thought it would use this to write changes to the shared config. Surely it would use the service account?
Does anyone know how to prevent this error? Why does the shared config and tied service account not come into play when making changes on one of the servers?
So, IMHO, this error is a red herring. I was publishing to a server and got a message saying I was out of space. So, I logged in, realized there was a bit of cruft in extra apps published in IIS, we didn't need. I right clicked and tried to remove one. I got the same error as you.
Having done some manual changes to applicationHost, I thought it "might be me" but it seemed very odd that editing this file would cause such a thing. However, I had recently learned that windows does some funky 32 vs 64bit machinations with this file (google it).
Deciding I had better things to do, I asked our IT to add space to the VM and guess what? I am no able to remove these apps. My guess is that I was at the end of the line on space and the backend management of these special files was not completing and throwing this not-so-helpful exception.
I'm not a 100% about this. For full disclosure, I will add that updates had been applied recently, but I'm pretty confident that this is a possible solution.
I'm brand new to Azure. I'm trying to get a Cloud Service running with 3 web roles.
Last night I created the .cspkg and .cscfg files, exported the certificates and uploaded everything to Azure manager. The manager said my Cloud Service was successful, however for the last 10 hours when I click on "Cloud Services" in the manager it shows my service, but it says "Creating" with wait gif under "SERVICE STATUS".
Is it really still creating? Or did it fail? Is it possible to view more detailed information about the creation process and/or any log files?
Thanks,
Something "bad" has happened. Service Spin up time should be at most a few minutes.
I've seen it take up to 10-15 minutes depending on the hosting center and the number of scaled instances that need to come up but 10 hrs something has definitely gone wrong.
I would delete the service and start again. If you experience the same problem, have a look in your service start up code and make sure that there's no exceptions/infinite loops, other problems in there that might be causing problems.
It may miss any assembly references. If you included any assembly references(packages that are not part of .net) then please ensure that its copy to local attribute is set to true.
So I figured out that by adding the ResetWebServer="FALSE" attribute to the solution manifest prevents SharePoint from recycling any app pools.
However, when upgrading a solution that originally did not specify ResetWebServer="FALSE" or when retracting a solution that does specify ResetWebServer="FALSE", the application pools are still being recycled. Is there a way to prevent any auto-recycling of app pools?
This does not seem possible given the document on MSDN (see below), note that I included Deploying a Solution over Upgrading a solution as underneath it is effectively doing a file replacement. I believe the restart/recycling is necessary as a result of how IIS functions. An option to explore if you wanted to manage when this occurs is to ensure that all deployments are done via timer jobs and execute when their impact will be minimized.
Deploying a solution
Initially, manifest and feature manifests are parsed to find assembly and _layouts files, which are copied to the appropriate locations. All other files contained within a feature directory are copied to the feature directory. After solution files are copied to the target computers, a configuration reset is scheduled for all front-end Web servers; the reset then deploys the files and restarts Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS).
Retracting a solution
On each front-end Web server, the following occurs:
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) is disabled.
Files are removed from the system.
IIS is re-enabled and Windows SharePoint Services is reloaded when
a user browses to a page.
You might also take a look at the "-local" switch. Didn't try it yet but it seemed that it allowed deployment server per server when you are in a load balanced situation.
Might be a good lead.