Does a WCF Service that runs over tcp.net require IIS

Question

Hello,

I'm trying to deploy a WCF service that uses a netTcpBinding (and a mexTcpBinding for metadata) on a remote server (Win 2008 R2) without installing IIS.

Trouble is, everything I'm trying is telling me I need various IIS components installed on the remote box.
Is that really the case? It seems to me that, with a tcp.net connection, I should be fine without IIS.

Answer 1

A WCF service needs to be hosted somewhere. If you don't want to use IIS you need to write a host application which could be console or a Windows NT service application. If you choose to host your service in IIS, starting from IIS 7 you could use non HTTP bindings.

Answer 2

In general, it is not necessary to use IIS for a WCF service. Any WCF service can be self-hosted.

Answer 3

You don't need IIS, here's an MSDN article called How to: Host WCF in a Windows Service Using TCP

It seems to be fairly detailed and easy to follow.