Intermittent errors with HRESULT 800705b4

[MikeChristensen]

We're running into errors with our Docker images that are using ServiceMonitor.exe as an ENTRYPOINT. The last thing in the Docker logs is:

ERROR: Failed to stop or query status of service 'w3svc' error [800705b4]

Any ideas what would cause this? Is there a suggested work around?

[MikeChristensen]

Perhaps helpful: This seems to occur when you modify the contents of web.config right before you call ServiceMonitor.exe. It might be some race condition since it doesn't always happen.

[MikeChristensen]

If I tail the logs in Docker, here's what I see:

So basically we transform some web.config, which causes the app pool to recycle. We then start ServiceMonitor.exe, which can't query the status of w3svc and immediately exits, causing the container the exit. This creates an endless loop in Service Fabric, since it then tries to restart the container again.

Expected: ServiceMonitor.exe should handle recycling app pools correctly.

[MikeChristensen]

Another annoying thing is when ServiceMonitor.exe exits with this error, it still returns an EXIT code of 0 so we can't trap the error and retry with a script.

Expected: $LASTEXITCODE should non-zero when the program exits with an error.

[bariscaglar]

@MikeChristensen We'll look into this. Thanks for reporting. You can expect a response soon.

[pan-wang]

ServiceMonitor stops w3svc service first to update applicationhost config with the environmental variables first and then restart the service. When container starts, it also starts the all services. There could be a timing issue that entry program (stopping service) was executed before Service started. To work around it, you can reset w3svc start type to manual in docker file, i.e., sc config w3svc start=demand. This will even save container start time.

[MikeChristensen]

I've confirmed this workaround solves the issue. Basically, set the startup behavior to demand in the dockerfile, and set the entrypoint to transform the config files then run ServiceMonitor.exe (which will also start the service).

[DanOrsborne]

what does this actually mean?

Basically, set the startup behavior to demand in the dockerfile, and set the entrypoint to transform the config files then run ServiceMonitor.exe

What do we have to do to fix the issue?

[jhkimnew]

The first set means to add "RUN sc config w3svc start=demand" as the below example dockerfile and the second one to replace the last line ("ENTRYPOINT ["C:\ServiceMonitor.exe", "w3svc"]) with calling your own batch file which does the configuration job and put "c:\servicemonitor w3svc" at the end of the batch file.

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore/iis:latest

RUN powershell -Command Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server
RUN sc config w3svc start=demand
EXPOSE 80
ENTRYPOINT ["C:\\ServiceMonitor.exe", "w3svc"]

[DanOrsborne]

That's perfect! Thanks for the example

[DanOrsborne]

I'm getting the following error with this example:
A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument

Any ideas?

[DanOrsborne]

Fixed the postional parameter issue with the following:
RUN powershell -Command Set-Service -Name aspnet_state -StartupType 'Manual'

[DanOrsborne]

However I still have the ServiceMonitor issue - it keeps preventing a container starting and then just randomly recycles several times. I have other containers with the same setup that work fine for a bit and then will crash with the same error later down the line.

Someone suggested updating Service Monitor but again gave no instructions

[pan-wang]

Do you have the docker log for the error case?