Multiple WCF service of the same service and contract type

Question

Is it possible to host 2 WCF services of the same type and contract on the same AppDomain?

In the configuration below, I am configuring a single service of type Service.SomeService that implements contract ISomeService. what I want to do is be able to host 2 services of this type, of course with different URIs.

<system.serviceModel>
<services>      
  <service name="Service.SomeService">
    <endpoint address="net.tcp://localhost:8000/SomeService"
              binding="netTcpBinding"
              contract="Service.ISomeService" />
  </service>
</services>       

I am also self hosting these services in a windows service.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Yes, a Windows Service can host Multiple WCF Services. Each WCF service must have a unique address however. When you add endpoints to a ServiceHost instance, you must specify a unique address for each end point, which means you must vary atleast one of the scheme (net.tcp, net.pipe, http, etc), domain, port or path.

Answer 2

So basically I should be able to do this by adding multiple endpoints to a service:

<services>      
  <service name="Service.SomeService">
    <endpoint address="net.tcp://localhost:8000/SomeService1"
              binding="netTcpBinding"
              contract="Service.ISomeService" />
    <endpoint address="net.tcp://localhost:8000/SomeService2"
              binding="netTcpBinding"
              contract="Service.ISomeService" />
  </service>

I appears that service type and contract in the configuration file should be unique. But is it possible to instead add 2 services of the same type and contract instead of adding 2 endpoints to the same service?

Answer 3

I appears that service type and contract in the configuration file should be unique.

Why? They don't have to be unique - no way. What has to be unique is the address (the complete one) for the service endpoint - of course, how else would WCF know where to send certain requests?

But is it possible to instead add 2 services of the same type and contract instead of adding 2 endpoints to the same service?

Sure, no problem:

<services>      
  <service name="Service.SomeService">
    <endpoint address="net.tcp://localhost:8000/SomeService1"
              binding="netTcpBinding"
              contract="Service.ISomeService" />
  </service>
  <service name="Service.SomeOtherService">
    <endpoint address="net.tcp://localhost:8000/SomeService2"
              binding="netTcpBinding"
              contract="Service.ISomeOtherService" />
  </service>
</services>