New MVC 4 Beta Web API is not serving requests when ran as a Windows Service - asp.net-mvc-4

Question

I'm trying to run a self hosted executable as a Windows service. I'm using the MVC 4 beta Web API. First I used Derik Whittaker's blog for setting up the basic console application and tested it with positive results.
I then used Einar Egilsson's blog to make it work as both a console application and a windows service. The application installed as a service just fine. I set the service logon to use my own for this basic testing; it failed to bind to the socket without this. When the service starts up I see all my trace logs as expected there are no fatal errors. The application appears to be running normally. When I test using fiddler using the same request for the console application I get a "HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error".
Using this same code when I turn off the service then launch using F5 in VS the application starts up just fine and serves the same request!? The log entries are identical within the same execution paths.
public partial class TestService : ServiceBase {
private static readonly Logger Logger = LogManager.GetCurrentClassLogger();
private HttpSelfHostServer _server;
static void Main(string[] args) {
Logger.Debug("Main Called");
var service = new TestService();
if (Environment.UserInteractive) {
Logger.Debug("Environment.UserInteractive == true");
Console.WriteLine("Press any key to stop program");
service.OnStart(args);
service.OnStop();
} else {
Logger.Debug("Environment.UserInteractive == false");
try {
Run(service);
} catch(Exception exception) {
Logger.Fatal(exception.Message, exception);
}
}
}
protected override void OnStart(string[] args) {
Logger.Debug("OnStart called");
var hostUri = string.Format("http://{0}:{1}", Environment.MachineName, ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Service.Port"]);
Logger.Debug("URL:" + hostUri);
var selfHostConfiguration = new HttpSelfHostConfiguration(hostUri);
selfHostConfiguration.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
name: "DefaultApiRoute",
routeTemplate: "endpoints/{controller}",
defaults: null
);
Logger.Debug("Routes registered");
try {
using (_server = new HttpSelfHostServer(selfHostConfiguration)) {
Logger.Debug("Hosting at " + hostUri + "/endpoints/{controller}");
_server.OpenAsync().Wait();
if (Environment.UserInteractive) { // *** I've tried this commented out as well
Console.ReadLine();
}
Logger.Debug("End of using");
}
} catch(Exception exception) {
Logger.Fatal(exception.Message, exception);
if(exception.InnerException != null) {
Logger.Fatal(exception.InnerException.Message, exception.InnerException);
}
}
}
protected override void OnStop() {
_server.Dispose();
}
}

Answer 1

It has been some time since you posted this but I wanted to input.
I don't know why this is, but the internal error comes from initializing the self host inside the onStart method. You must initialize it in the constructor of the service and then only call the _server.OpenAsync() in the onStart method.
Or at least that is what worked for me.

Answer 2

Use TopShelf. I just blogged about how to do that.

Answer 3

as i can see, you use _server.OpenAsync().Wait(); in OnStart method. This just makes your initialization code to freeze, all code after that line will not execute. To avoid this try to remove .Wait() from the OpenAsync().