IIS7 is based on WAS, but Is there any differences between hosting in WAS and hosting on IIS7?
Is there a limitation in using IIS7 or advantage in using WAS?
WAS is a process activation mechanism not a separate hosting environment. Using IIS7 or higher with WAS enabled will allow you to host applications that use non-http bindings such as TCP and MSMQ bindings. The advantage is that you don't have top create your own host to expose these type of endpoints and you can take advantage of IIS application management features and administration.
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In terms of running endpoints that use the netTcpBinding, is my best option via IIS / enabling WAS?
Another option would be to host the TCP endpoints within a Windows Service.
Whats the big sell to utilise IIS/WAS for exposing TCP endpoints in WCF?
Cheers for any wisdom.
Andrew
Hosting TCP endpoints in a Windows Service or by using WAS which is part of IIS 7 is an example of managed hosting.
It really depends on whether you need managed hosting or prefer more control and want to "self host" your WCF service in a console app for example.
Here's a decent MSDN doc with some good info about hosting:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms730158.aspx
We have a client server application.
My application need to be changed to work via WCF service in order to receive/send data to the database (security demands).
I also need another service which be hosted at the client side and will connect the client to the WCF service on the server side connect with Https.
The WCF service on the server is in PerSession mode.
Most of my work with the server is insert / select queries.
So my design is:
Client ->windows service ->WCF server service(iis7) ->database.
This windows service act as client and as server at the same time.
Act as server: for the Client application.
Act as client for the WCF service which located at the server.
The application needs to support XP and forward operating systems with .net 4.
The windows service will need to connect the WCF service on demand only (when the client application is launched).
I need to decide in which way to implement the client windows service.
I prefer to implement it with WCF hosted service with TCP/IP, but it feels like over kill to do so.
Should I use other IPC implementations? And if so which one?
So, what is the best way to implement this Windows service?
Thanks
I do not fully understand the point why a windows service should be used on the client side in order to communicate with the WCF service. But the question was not about architectural patterns...
So, for inter-process communication I would use NetNamedPipeBinding.
You can find more information on how to decide which binding to use here.
Using a WCF service for inter-process communication does not feel overkill to me at all. Actually WCF services are quite lightweight except the host initialization process, which should not happen frequently in case of a windows service I guess. WCF provides reliability and extensibility in exchange for this tiny inconvenience.
[EDITED]
I just reread you post, and I would like to clarify some details about the hosting. You can host a WCF service in a Windows Service, which is explained here, but not the other way around. Sorry, if I misunderstood your question. And yes, TCP/IP for inter-process communication is definitely an overkill, but NetNamedPipeBinding uses shared memory according to this article, so it should be the fastest way.
I am fairly new to hosting web applications and web services. Though I was successful in hosting a web application, I am running into road block after road block when trying to host a WCF service with net.tcp binding.
My scenario is as follows, I have a hosted web application that needs to communicate with a hosted WCF service with net.tcp binding through IIS 7.5. As stated the web application is hosted fine and I can browse the web site. However, the web application makes services calls to the WCF service and I am getting the 'TCP error code 10061' message which I believe is due to my hosted WCF service not running. I think this is not running because I attempt to 'telnet localhost 808' to see if the WCF service is running and it is not. I've run through numerous online guides and I still have had no luck. I believe I may be doing something fundamentally wrong with me being a noob and all. I am able to host the service through VS2010 and run the web application and it works fine so I believe my bindings are correct. I've also enabled tcp protocols on both websites in IIS Manager.
So I guess my real question is what are the IIS Manager steps needed to host a WCF service with net.tcp binding? It appears to me that it is not possible to host a net.tcp service through IIS Manager by simply creating a website because IIS Manager wants to bind to an http port.
Here are some things to check:
Ensure the Net.Tcp Listener Adapter windows service is running
Ensure netTcp is listed as an enabled protocol for your website (In IIS Manager, go to Advanced settings for your site)
Ensure netTcp is listed as an enabled protocol for application (directory) that is hosting your services (In IIS Manager, go to the directory hosting your services and select Advanced Settings)
Ensure your IIS site has a binding for net.tcp, with the correct port number listed.
EDIT:
See the following MSDN page for enabling/using non-HTTP bindings in .Net 4 + IIS 7/7.5:
Configuring the Windows Process Activation Service for Use with Windows Communication Foundation
And I discovered that for me it didn't work to use localhost... You should use 127.0.0.1 or the name of your computer.
I plan to start developing with WCF this weekend. Before i get too far along, I'd like to know what I need from my web host? What does our server need to run to enable WCF? Is it standard ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 stuff? Does the host need to do anything to our IIS configuration?
I'm currently hosting our ASP.NET apps, company website, etc. with a third party hosting service. Due to our size, cost, etc. we are using a shared hosting plan and have somewhat limited access to chanign IIS. I'm hoping we don't have any problems that would limit our ability to use WCF.
If you want to host your WCF service in IIS, you need IIS6 (Win Server 2003) or preferably IIS7 (Win Server 2008), the .NET 3.0 (or preferably: .NET 3.5 SP1) framework, and the ability to create virtual directories in IIS (so yes, you need at least some degree of IIS configurability).
That's it! :-)
Marc
You have several options:
You can host in IIS6+ using ASP.NET: simplest, offers integration with ASP.NET runtime (can be disabled to reduce overhead if not needed, imposes requirements on endpoint URLs, restricted to HTTP[S] as transport, all the benefits of IIS worker process management
You can host in IIS7+ using Windows Activation Services (WAS): more advanced, complete control over endpoint URL, can use any transport (TCPIP, HTTP[S], MSMQ, NamedPipes), all the benefits of IIS worker process management
You can host in a custom Windows Service: all the power of WAS except worker process management and you must write your own windows service and you have
For more information, check out this section of the MSDN documentation.
How to host WCF services locally instead of http binding.. I mean the services should be hosted within the .NET environment and not by using http or netTCP.. Could you please help me with the configuration for the same?
What are you trying to achieve here that can't be performed by using http or tcp settings for the local machine for both ends of the WCF contract? WCF isn't just between machines, you can also set it to communicate between different processes on the same machine.
I think you are confusing between hosting a WCF service and a WCF binding. A WCF service can be hosted in many different applications such as standalone executables, windows services, a web server such as IIS, ...
Once you've found an appropriate host for the service you have to decide what binding to use. A binding is used to specify the transport, encoding, and protocol details required for clients and services to communicate with each other.
Note that choosing a host could further limit the choice of bindings available. For example if you decide to host your service in IIS you could only use HTTP/S as transport and NetTcp is not available (in IIS7 it is available through WAS).
How to confgiure NetNamedPipeBinding.
How to: Host a WCF Service in a Managed Windows Service.