Application Pools

[Gordon Smith]

I plan to install multiple Web applications installed on a single Web
server. Should I create each Web site in its own Application pool?

I'd appreciate any recommendations, guidelines or links to articles.

[Rick Strahl [MVP]]

Hi Gordon,

That really depends on your needs. I tend to go with sticking multiple apps
into a single Application Pool to minimize resource usage as each pool needs
to host the .NET runtime, compilers etc. so unless there's a specific need I
wouldn't use separate pools. You can always move them later if the need
arises.

Good reasons to use Application Pools:

* You need isolated security
Each app may require different permissions or allow access for specific
users.
This is typi8cally the case in hosted scenarios. Remember Application
Pools are
essentially IIS worker process EXE instances with their own security
settings
and process environment and configuration settings for lifetime management
and crash protection (ie. the AppPool pinging and process counters to
decide
when to restart the process etc.)

* You are worried about process isolation
Again this is a security issue. If you have multiple apps running in a
single
AppDomain there's potential that htese apps can access each other's memory
or corrupt each other. Applications still run in their own AppDomains, so
this
isn't a huge issue, but still if you are security sensitive and dealing
with multiple
business entities it might make sense to isolate.

* Multiple processors
In some instances when multiple processors are present it's more efficient
to
run with separate AppDomains. You can achieve this same efficiency with
Web Gardens for a single app, so again this isn't a big reason.
Overall, the main question to ask is if you need process isolation,
primarily for security.If you don't there's no big need to use separate
AppDomains.

+++ Rick ---

--

Rick Strahl
West Wind Technologies
http://www.west-wind.com/
http://www.west-wind.com/weblog/
http://www.west-wind.com/wwThreads/
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"Gordon Smith" <[e-mail]> wrote in message
news:e7**************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

I plan to install multiple Web applications installed on a single Web
server. Should I create each Web site in its own Application pool?

I'd appreciate any recommendations, guidelines or links to articles.