Automatically install Application Initialization in Azure Web Role (SDK v1.8, Windows Server 2012)

Question

I see Microsoft have released Application Initialization as part of IIS 8.0. Unfortunately it isn't enabled in the Web Role by default. (by that I mean, "Application Initialization" as a feature of the web server role is not enabled. I know the Web Role has IIS 8.)

Does anyone know how I can enable this from a start-up script? I've already a number of start-up scripts, but I'm not sure how to add a server role feature.

The module itself appears inside Server Manager under "Server Roles" -> "Web Server (IIS)" -> "Web Server" -> "Application Development" -> "Application Initialization".

It's a shame that this isn't enabled by default as it will be very useful.

thanks

Kris

Answer 1

First you'll need to install the feature using a startup task:

PKGMGR.EXE /iu:IIS-ApplicationInit

And then you'll need to configure your site in IIS (startMode and preloadEnabled):

public class WebRole : RoleEntryPoint
{
    public override void Run()
    {
        using (var serverManager = new ServerManager())
        {
            var mainSite = serverManager.Sites[RoleEnvironment.CurrentRoleInstance.Id + "_Web"];
            var mainApplication = mainSite.Applications["/"];
            mainApplication["preloadEnabled"] = true;

            var mainApplicationPool = serverManager.ApplicationPools[mainApplication.ApplicationPoolName];
            mainApplicationPool["startMode"] = "AlwaysRunning";

            serverManager.CommitChanges();
        }

        base.Run();
    }

    public override bool OnStart()
    {
        // For information on handling configuration changes
        // see the MSDN topic at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=166357.

        return base.OnStart();
    }
}

I wrote a blog post about this and you can find a sample application on GitHub.

Answer 2

The web role absolutely has IIS 8.0 installed. Id you change the web role to OSVersion=3, it will deploy your app to a Windows Server 2012 image with IIS 8.0.

If you mean the VM (Azure IaaS)? What I would do is start from Windows Server 2012, remote desktop in, install the core server as you want, sysprep it, capture the image. This way you have it for re-use in your Azure Image Gallery. Then you can spin up many VMs from this base image with IIS 8.0 already set up/installed etc.