Part 28 - Advantages and disadvantages of hosting a wcf service in a windows service

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Part 25 - Self hosting a wcf service in winforms application
Part 26 - What is a windows service
Part 27 - Hosting a wcf service in a windows service



In this video we will discuss, advantages and disadvantages of hosting a wcf service in a windows service. This is continuation to Part 27. Please watch Part 27, before proceeding.



Advantages of hosting a wcf service in a windows service
1. The Windows Service can be configured to start automatically when the system starts without having the need for any user to logon on the machine. This means that, the WCF service that the windows service hosts also starts automatically.

2. The Windows Service can be configured to automatically restart and recover when failures occur.

3. Supports all bindings and transport protocols

Disadvantages of hosting a wcf service in a windows service
1. Involves writing custom code to create a windows service.

2. Windows service that hosts the wcf service must be deployed to the production server.

3. Difficult to debug the wcf service, as we need to attach the process within which the windows service is running.