Handing Web Role Exception - This request operation sent to net.pipe://localhost/iisconfigurator did not receive a reply within the configured timeout (00:01:00).

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ERROR
MESSAGE:

This
request operation sent to net.pipe://localhost/iisconfigurator did not receive
a reply within the configured timeout (00:01:00). The time allotted to
this operation may have been a portion of a longer timeout. This may be
because the service is still processing the operation or because the service
was unable to send a reply message. Please consider increasing the operation
timeout (by casting the channel/proxy to IContextChannel and setting the
OperationTimeout property) and ensure that the service is able to connect to
the client.

 

EXCEPTION
DETAILS:

System.TimeoutException was unhandled

Message=This request operation sent to net.pipe://localhost/iisconfigurator
did not receive a reply within the configured timeout (00:01:00). The
time allotted to this operation may have been a portion of a longer
timeout. This may be because the service is still processing the operation
or because the service was unable to send a reply message. Please
consider increasing the operation timeout (by casting the channel/proxy to
IContextChannel and setting the OperationTimeout property) and ensure that the
service is able to connect to the client.

   Source=mscorlib
  StackTrace:
    Server stack trace:
       at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DuplexChannelBinder.Request(Message message, TimeSpan timeout)
       at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.Call(String action, Boolean oneway, ProxyOperationRuntime operation, Object[] ins, Object[] outs, TimeSpan timeout)
       at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.InvokeService(IMethodCallMessage methodCall, ProxyOperationRuntime operation)
       at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.Invoke(IMessage message)
    Exception rethrown at [0]:
       at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.HandleReturnMessage(IMessage reqMsg, IMessage retMsg)
       at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.PrivateInvoke(MessageData& msgData, Int32 type)
       at IConfigurator.Deploy(String roleId, WebAppModel webAppModelPath, String roleRootDirectory, String sitesDestinationRootDirectory, String diagnosticsRootDirectory, String roleGuid, Dictionary`2 globalEnvironment)
       at Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Hosts.WaIISHost.Program.Main(String[] args)
  InnerException:

 

 

Root cause & problem
description:

 

1. WaAppAgent.exe starts the Full IIS web role by starting
WaIISHost.exe process which loads the Web Role DLL

 2. Due to role being a full IIS host web role, IISconfigurator.exe
process also starts along with WaIISHost.exe

 3. IISconfigurator.exe looks the service definition file and finds
<Sites> section along with PhysicalDirecotry if set, as below:

 

   <Sites>
      <Site name="Web" PhysicalDirectory="appdir">
        <Bindings>
          <Binding name="Endpoint1" endpointName="Endpoint1" />
        </Bindings>
      </Site>
    </Sites>

 

4. Now IISconfigurator.exe starts checking each file in
PhysicalDirecotry for security setup and *if the overall process is taking more
than 60 seconds*, it exceeds the default timeout is set for 60 seconds.

 5. This timeout cause the WaWebHost.exe to terminate.

 6. After 2 minutes, WaAppAgent.exe process restarts the
WaIISHost.exe and everything happens again from step 1-5.

 

If
you are getting this exception, the main issue here is that you have so many
files in the Physical directory to be taken care by IISConfigurator.exe, which
exceed the 60 seconds default time. In
my test scenario in small VM IISConfigurator.exe took about 90 seconds to
process 19000+ files in physical folder. I also found the threshold is about
~15000 files to be processed by IISConfigurator.exe in 60 seconds time. I don’t
expect thousands of static files in virtual directories specific to web role.
The cloud architecture is designed to move static content out of Windows Azure VM
so if you have really thousands (15000+) of files in your web site, it is the
time to move static content outside the web role. 

 

Solution(s):

To
solve this problem there are two workarounds as below:

 

1.
Running Legacy HWC Web Role:

 If you don’t have to use
functionalities provided by full IIS role i.e. Multiple web sites, Virtual
Directories etc, you can remove the <Sites> section in your Service Definition
file as below:

 

     <!--<Sites>
      <Site name="Web">
        <Bindings>
          <Binding name="Endpoint1" endpointName="Endpoint1" />
        </Bindings>
      </Site>
    </Sites>-->

After that, you can repackage the solution and redeploy
it. 

 

2.
If you must need Full IIS Role then you can use the following workaround:

a) Please copy all the
files (or most of the files) in your virtual directories folder into ZIP files.

b) When the Role starts
expand the ZIP file in OnStart() function

c)
IISConfigurator.exe runs before role start so having thousands
of files in ZIP will not cause the total time to exceed 60 seconds, and there
will be not exception