I have asp.net mvc intranet site that is deployed to IIS6. Site is used rarely so app pool tends to shutdown. When user click the page for the very first time 5-10 seconds are passed till page appears (app pool started and site is compiled). Situation repeats for the next page and so on. AFAIK IIS7 has option to disable App pool shutdown but IIS6 lacks it.
Nowadays i have special utility that pings site periodically (10 pages) in order to determine if pages are available and keeps site always ready for users this way.
Is it normal or may be I've missed something in IIS6 configuration? Do you use such pinger apps in production to notify support/admins if site is not available?
Thank you in advance!