As you may know, IIS 6+ can share port 80 with other HTTP applications running in different processes.
However my self-hosted WCF service seems to take IIS offline. When the WCF service is running, all HTTP requests go to the service. When I stop the service, all HTTP requests go to IIS. This is despite the fact that the two applications are using very unique URI paths. What's the deal? How do I get them to play together nicely?
EDIT:
My WCF service uses a custom binding with an HttpTransportBindingElement
Sorry if this belongs on serverfault. I'm not sure if it's a configuration issue or code issue.
After a lot more experimentation, I've come to a conclusion.
It looks like the problem is caused when the endpoint base address of the WCF service is the same as the base address of IIS. In other words if an endpoint exists at http://localhost/, it will take over and handle all incoming HTTP requests.
So even if your WCF subpaths are different from IIS, the base endpoint address has to be something other than http://localhost/.
Related
I'm working on a wcf hosted inside a windows service. It works like a charm but now I need to reserve a specific hostname for this wcf just as IIS does.
To be more clear, my hosted wcf runs on a windows server machine which response to multiple dns name, but I need to let the wcf reachable only from one of these dns. If I was using IIS it would be achievable by setting a specific hostname within the http-bindings settings, but unfortunately, I can't manage my wcf like that.
To your knowledge, is there any way to reserve a specific hostname for a hosted wcf outside IIS?
Thanks in advance!
yes, you could do it by register the http endpoint at kernel level(http.sys) using the following commands
cmd: ***netsh http add urlacl url=http://fqdn:port/urlpath user=serviceaccount***
Then only on that specific dns/hostname, your http service will listen.
I have an external (public) website developed in Silverlight. The Silverlight app currently calls http based wcf services hosted in IIS.
I am now having to call a wcf service with net.tcp binding hosted in a different app server. I have the net.tcp wcf service hosted in a windows service on port range 4502-4530 and with an interface to expose clientaccesspolicy.xml file as part of the service. I am able to invoke this service from my Silverlight app in the web server. I want the SL app to make direct call to net.tcp, rather than routing the call to it from another http based service.
Question is will this work without any issues when exposed over internet.
Client browser --> IIS webserver with Silverlight website --> App Server with wcf service on net.tcp.
I am assuming in this case, from XAP SL would try to make direct call to the app server service using net.tcp ?
The communication between the web server and app server could be opened up for ports 4502-4535. But I am wondering what about the client. Does this setup require the ports to be available even in the clients machine (with browser)?
Any insight is much helpful.
Thanks.
Take a look at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2425652; there is sample code included as well! If you setup clientaccesspolicy.xml correctly; it should work as long as clients can access your TCP server.
If your clients are behind some firewall which is blocking your server's ports; they may face connectivity issues!
What are the pros and cons of hosting a WCF service in IIS versus using a Windows service?
FYI - I have googled but it's surprisingly hard to find relevant answers.
We've just implemented a big WCF service, and did it as a self-hosted windows service. The reason we did it that way was our architects wanted the extra control you get from hosting your own and taking IIS out of the equation. Basically, when you go the self-hosted route,
you process each request
you configure your own endpoints
you configure your certs
you control the exception handling
etc.
Our WCF service is industrial scale with rev proxies, load balancing and about 50 methods attached to the endpoints. And we use multiple encryption protocols depending on the types of devices connecting.
However, if I was doing a smaller WCF web service with just a single server, a single endpoint and a few method calls, I'd probably use IIS to manage the endpoint and implement the SSL letting the UI do the configuration work that would otherwise have to be done in code. It's just easier from what I've seen.
Long story short, if you host it, you control everything in code. If you're interested in a quicker delivery, I'd start with IIS.
situation:
my website (which contains the WCF service) is hosted in IISExpres port number 58366 (http://localhost:58366/myapp)
I have a winforms client which connects to the wcf service using BasicHttpBinding
I want to debug my wcf calls using fiddler, but can't seem find how to redirect wcf calls through fiddler.
IISExpress idiotically binds to the hostname "localhost", not just to the port, so conventional workarounds as with adding a dot to the hostname don't work. Solution seems to be here. Note the last part of the selected answer: Use "localhost.fiddler" and Fiddler will emit "localhost" when proxying.
Rick Strahl has a good article on this here: http://www.west-wind.com/weblog/posts/2009/Jan/14/Monitoring-HTTP-Output-with-Fiddler-in-NET-HTTP-Clients-and-WCF-Proxies
Pretty sure a winforms app will usually pick up the default system proxy as set by fiddler. Are you operating on localhost? Try connecting to your machine name.
I am currently working on a silverlight client, making use of a web server, and an application server.
Most of the users sit within our firewall, so they do not have any problems accessing the WCF service running on the application server (through a Service.svc file).
However, some users will sit outside of our firewall, and only have access to the web server, and not to the application server (Where the WCF service is).
I am hoping someone could tell me if there is a way for the client to use the WCF service on the application server, through the web server, without rewriting the WCF service on the web server, and only relaying the calls through that server.
I hope this is a clear enough description of what I need.
Thanks
Sounds like what you want is a router service. Unfortunately, there's nothing built-in into WCF to do that (at least until .NET 4.0 with its RoutingService.).
You can certainly build it yourself, either by building a specific, one-off routing service (i.e. you implement the same contract and manually forward each operation to the service inside the firewall), or by building a generic, reusable routing service.
If you choose the second option, a couple of articles might help get you started.
Rather than have your Silverlight clients accessing the application server directly, route all the requests through a proxy service on the web server.
An example of this is the "Cross Domain Proxy" pattern.