I have MVC project on Windows Azure. This project has WebRole with method OnStart. And I want to know what starts first Application_Start of Global.asax or WebRole's OnStart?
3 Answers
Pretty sure this is non-deteministic after SDK 1.3. Trying to time something from one to the other will just end in a race condition.
Prior to 1.3, the Hosted Worker Core (HWC) was hosted in the RoleEntryPoint, so there was a deterministic startup (OnStart, Application_OnStart, IIRC). However, with IIS hosting the web now, it is the IISConfigurator.exe that creates the app pool, etc, and eventually w3wp.exe hosts your web site. This is a different process than your RoleEntryPoint, so either one could start first.

- 6,858
- 1
- 20
- 20
I can't find any 100% complete references on this (about the best I've seen is http://blog.syntaxc4.net/?p=271), but I believe the sequence is:
- Any startup tasks are run
- WebRole OnStart method is called
- The WebRole Run() method is called - and at the same time IIS starts the websites - so at this point Application_Start will get called for the first time.

- 4,020
- 2
- 18
- 29

- 66,722
- 7
- 114
- 165
According to Microsoft's documentation, the Application_Start method is called after the OnStart method.

- 1,436
- 14
- 13