Site published by WCF publishing wizard throws "Error in the application.."

Question

Hi, I'm running BizTalk 2013r2 and run into a problem with the publishing wizard.
I have used the BizTalk WCF publish wizard, following the the steps:
Metadata only endpoint (MEX), publish for receive location <I select existing WCF-BasicHttp receive location from my Biztalk app>
Publish schemas as a WCF service
Update the web service description tree view to give a single one-way web method
Give a target namespace (currently using http://tempuri.org/)
Enter location for website (http://localhost/BTS-Store6), select Overwrite existing location, Allow anonymous access
Generated service summary is below:
Summary of WCF service description
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<WcfServiceDescription xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" Name="BizTalkWcfService" TargetNamespace="http://tempuri.org/" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2006/01/Adapter/Wcf/Publishing">
  <LocationSettings Location="http://localhost/BTS-Store6" Overwrite="true" AuthAnonymous="true" />
  <ApplicationSettings CreateReceiveLocations="false" ApplicationName="" />
  <AdapterSettings AdapterName="" />
  <MetadataSettings EnableMetadata="false" MetadataOnly="true" ReceiveLocationName="RcvStore6POS_WCF" />
  <WcfServices>
    <WcfService Name="OnRamp">
      <WcfOperations>
        <WcfOperation Name="POSTransaction" Flow="OneWay">
          <WcfMessages>
            <WcfMessage Name="Request" Direction="Input">
              <WcfMessageType Category="XsdType" TypeName="BTS.GO.Store6.Schemas.BT.POSTranaction" AssemblyName="BTS.GO.Core.Store6.Schemas, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=0a9764041befeb8b"
AssemblyLocation="C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\BTS.GO.Core.Store6.Schemas\v4.0_1.0.0.0__0a9764041befeb8b\BTS.GO.Core.Store6.Schemas.dll" TargetNamespace="http://BTE.ESB.StoreInputModel.POSTransaction" RootName="POS"
IsAnyType="false" IsEnvelope="false" />
            </WcfMessage>
          </WcfMessages>
        </WcfOperation>
      </WcfOperations>
    </WcfService>
  </WcfServices>
</WcfServiceDescription>
Problem is, after publish the site, I can browse to the .svc, and use WCF storm to consume the WSD - all is good. However, after leaving it for about 30 minutes - when I next try to access the service the following error is thrown:
<<Eventxmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
  <Provider
Name="System.ServiceModel 4.0.0.0"/>
  <EventIDQualifiers="49154">3</EventID>
  <Level>2</Level>
  <Task>5</Task>
  <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
  <TimeCreated
SystemTime="2015-01-12T12:26:41.000000000Z"/>
  <EventRecordID>293995</EventRecordID>
  <Channel>Application</Channel>
  <Computer>xxx.xxx.local</Computer>
  <Security
UserID="S-1-5-21-1638455640-2704731959-1606034848-1010"/>
  </System>
<EventData>
  <Data>System.ServiceModel.Activation.HostedHttpRequestAsyncResult/11812267</Data>
  <Data>System.ServiceModel.ServiceActivationException: The service '/BTS-Store6/OnRamp.svc' cannot be activated due to an exception during compilation.
The exception message is: Error in the application.. ---> System.ApplicationException: Error in the application. at System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHRInternal(Int32 errorCode, IntPtr errorInfo) at System.Management.ManagementObjectCollection.ManagementObjectEnumerator.MoveNext()
at Microsoft.BizTalk.Adapter.Wcf.Metadata.ConfigurationInfo.GetReceiveLocation(String receiveLocationName) at Microsoft.BizTalk.Adapter.Wcf.Metadata.MexServiceHostFactory.CreateServiceHost(String constructorString, Uri[] baseAddresses) at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.HostingManager.CreateService(String
normalizedVirtualPath, EventTraceActivity eventTraceActivity) at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.HostingManager.ActivateService(ServiceActivationInfo serviceActivationInfo, EventTraceActivity eventTraceActivity) at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.HostingManager.EnsureServiceAvailable(String
normalizedVirtualPath, EventTraceActivity eventTraceActivity) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.Runtime.AsyncResult.End[TAsyncResult](IAsyncResult result) at System.ServiceModel.Activation.HostedHttpRequestAsyncResult.End(IAsyncResult result)</Data>
  <Data>w3wp</Data>
  <Data>21772</Data>
  </EventData>
  </Event>
With an exception message as vague as "Error in the application.."
I'm at a loss as to what may be causing this. I have tried this many times. Usually, but not always, after republishing the site from the wizard I am able to browse to the service. The later, with semmingly only elapsed time being a changing factor, it
fails.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

Hi Rob,
Coming to your error, it’s really strange. You can able to access/use your WCF service for a while and after sometime you get error. Few things which I would recheck are as follows:
Make sure it’s not due to your active directory. I would check if there are any issue with AD after an elapsed period of time to valid my app pool credentials.
In your Application-pool, under process model, try by increasing the “Idle Time-out (minutes)”. This time decides the amount of time worker process will remain idle before its shutdown.
I personally never required to change it from default value-20 mins, but looking at your issue, it’s worth trying this.
In your Application-pool, under CPU, Check the setting “Limit Action” to “KillW3WP”. Default is “NoAction”. “KillW3WP” setting potential could have impact like yours. If so change it to
“NoAction”.
 When you create a WCF service using wizard, I expect to have default values; check any setting at IIS level is having an impact.
Few things I would try:
Create a separate App pool for this WCF service and check the impact
Reapply the credentials of you app pool. Just simply go to the “Identity” section and reapply the same valid credentials. This could clear any cache related things to do
with the credentials/AD validation.
I understand you’re overwriting the service/virtual directory while creating the SCF service in Wizard. Try manually deleting the virtual directory folder and create the
WCF server as fresh using Wizard, without using the overwrite checkbox.
Hope the above suggest helps.
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