How would I create a remote admin console for a WCF Service using telnet/raw?

Question

I have a WCF service currently using a TCP endpoint. Rather than create a separate console client app to administer the server I want the ability to telnet into the server or even just connect using a raw connection using putty and execute ascii commands straight on the server.

Any ideas how I would go about doing this? Not an expert on WCF so would appreciate any help. Thanks

Answer 1

I doubt you could do that - WCF will always have to use its defined endpoints - TCP, HTTP - whatever. I am not aware of any telnet binding or raw connection, as you mention it.

From my perspective, why not create a service contract for admin purposes and just hit that with HTTP and/or TCP from a console app? Seems easier than trying to "bolt on" something that's not really been thought of.

Marc

Answer 2

I don't think WCF support custom command processing out of box and it will be quite a bit of hoop jumping to get that to work. I would suggest

1. Host the WCF service inside a windows service rather than IIS
2. Create a socket listener inside the windows service listening on the port of your choice
3. Write some code to process your command when data arrives the socket

Answer 3

To administer my WCF apps, I host in IIS, and have a subfolder in the application virtual directory with Admin aspx pages. The folder is protected from unauthorized access using ASP.NET roles.

The Admin folder includes application-independent pages (e.g. managing logging, view log files) and where appropriate application-specific pages.

Since the ASP.NET pages execute within the same AppDomain as the hosted WCF services, the sky's the limit as far as adding functionality for instrumentation and dynamic configuration.