Configure Idle Time-out Settings for an Application Pool (IIS 7)
Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista
One way to conserve system resources is to configure idle time-out settings for the worker processes in an application pool. When these settings are configured, a worker process will shut down after a specified period of inactivity. The default value for idle time-out is 20 minutes.
Idle time-out can be helpful in the following situations:
The server has a heavy processing load.
Specific worker processes are consistently idle.
No new processing space is available.
Prerequisites
For information about the levels at which you can perform this procedure, and the modules, handlers, and permissions that are required to perform this procedure, see Application Pools Feature Requirements (IIS 7).
Exceptions to Feature Requirements
- None
To configure idle time-out settings for an application pool
You can perform this procedure by using the user interface (UI), by running Appcmd.exe commands in a command-line window, by editing configuration files directly, or by writing WMI scripts.
User Interface
To use the UI
Open IIS Manager. For information about opening IIS Manager, see Open IIS Manager (IIS 7).
In the Connections pane, expand the server node and click Application Pools.
On the Application Pools page, select the application pool for which you want to specify idle time-out settings, and then click Advanced Settings in the Actions pane.
In the Idle Time-out (minutes) box, type a number of minutes, and then click OK.
Command Line
To configure the idle time-out value for an application pool, use the following syntax:
**appcmd set config /section:applicationPools /[name='string'].processModel.idleTimeout:**timeSpan
where string is the name of the application pool that you want to configure. The variable timeSpan is the period of time at which the worker process or processes in the application pool are considered idle. The format for timeSpan is d.hh:mm:ss where d is the optional number of days, and hh:mm:ss is the number of hours, minutes, and seconds at which to shut down the worker process. For example, to set the idle time-out value to 30 minutes for an application pool named Marketing, type the following at the command prompt, and then press ENTER:
appcmd set config /section:applicationPools /[name='Marketing'].processModel.idleTimeout:0.00:30:00
For more information about Appcmd.exe, see Appcmd.exe (IIS 7).
Configuration
The procedure in this topic affects the following configuration elements:
idleTimeout attribute of the <processModel> element under <add> under <applicationPools>
For more information about IIS 7 configuration, see IIS 7.0: IIS Settings Schema on MSDN.
WMI
Use the following WMI classes, methods, or properties to perform this procedure:
- ApplicationPool.ProcessModel.IdleTimeout property
For more information about WMI and IIS, see Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) in IIS 7. For more information about the classes, methods, or properties associated with this procedure, see the IIS WMI Provider Reference on the MSDN site.