Question

How do we host a WCF service in IIS?

Answer 1

IIS hosting: if we are hosting a WCF Service in IIS (version 5 or 6), only the HTTP option is available as the transport protocol. In later versions of Internet Information Services (IIS), we can use any other protocol (TCP/IP, MSMQ, NamedPipes and so on.) as transport protocol.

If we host our service under IIS then we have all the features of IIS like process recycling, ideal shutdown etc. Visual Studio provides two different ways to host our WCF service in a local IIS in all are familiar with Publishing Wizard. Here we will discuss the second way using Visual Studio only in a simple manner to host our WCF service in local IIS. To host the WCF services follow the steps below.

The updated configuration for System.ServiceModel in the web.config will be as follows:

1. <system.serviceModel>  
2.     <behaviors>  
3.         <serviceBehaviors>  
4.             <behavior name=”StudentServiceBehavior”>  
5.                 <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled=”true”/>  
6.                 <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults=”false”/> </behavior>  
7.         </serviceBehaviors>  
8.     </behaviors>  
9.     <services>  
10.         <service behaviorConfiguration=”StudentServiceBehavior” name=”StudentService.StudentService”>  
11.             <endpoint address=”http://localhost/StudentIISHost/MyStudentHost.svc” binding=”wsHttpBinding” contract=”StudentService.IStudentService”>  
12.                 <identity>  
13.                     <dns value=”localhost”/> </identity>  
14.             </endpoint>  
15.             <endpoint address=”mex” binding=”mexHttpBinding” contract=”IMetadataExchange”/> </service>  
16.     </services>  
17. </system.serviceModel>