How often ASP.NET typically recycles its applications (AppDomains)

Question

I initialize static state of my web applications in Applications_Start method (Global.asax). At that time I write a message to log. Suddenly I've realized that this method was called every 10 minutes.

Is it corrected behavior? I expected ASP.NET to keep its applications at least for several hours.

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 29 '12 at 18:34

1

Your expectation is incorrect. This is set in the application pool setting in IIS configuration. I think the default is 20 minutes. This can be changed to 0 if the application pool should not be recycled.

answered Nov 29 '12 at 18:34

kubal5003

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maybe after inactivity this is correct, but I think it is much longer if the site is getting hit. – Mike Ohlsen Nov 29 '12 at 18:38
29 hours is the default. http://www.iis.net/configreference/system.applicationhost/applicationpools/add/recycling/periodicrestart – Mike Ohlsen Nov 29 '12 at 18:45
We're talking about two different things. I meant the inactivity recycle time not forced pool recycle after a fixed amount of time. – kubal5003 Nov 29 '12 at 19:16
OK, I got it. But my site was not inactive :) – Alex Kofman Nov 29 '12 at 19:30
Is it deployed on shared hosting or is it on vps or your server? – kubal5003 Nov 29 '12 at 20:41

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:56

This is not typical. Something is causing it to restart and it should not be doing so this frequently. Check out How to find out why an ASP.NET web application is being restarted question to see how you can log details on why it restarted.

Since you are writing out log files, maybe you are writing them to a location that is be monitored for recompilation, which will cause a appdomain restart. Check out the post What causes an application pool in IIS to recycle?

Check out this article on iis.net to see the default for recycleing. It is 29 hours, so unless this setting has been changed for you, something else is causing it, not the automatic recycle.

How often ASP.NET typically recycles its applications (AppDomains)

2 Answers2