How to restarting server from an IIS process running on Azure?

Question

We're running a WCF service on Azure and we want to be able to restart the machine from code.

I've attempted the following methods:

Method 1 - Using Process.Start("shutdown.exe")

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/system.diagnostics.process.start

Problem with this method - IIS 7 has security by the application pool, and manually changing permissions/etc on Azure resets and can't be trusted.

I've attempted using icacls ( http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753525.aspx ) to give IIS permission to run shutdown.exe but unfortunately it seems that it doesn't work on files inside the system32 folder.

Method 2 - Calling RoleEnvironment.RequestRecycle

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.windowsazure.serviceruntime.roleenvironment.requestrecycle.aspx

We've used this function, it works well - however we require a full server restart and not just a role instance recycle.

Method 3 - Using Azure's REST API

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/gg441298.aspx

This so far looks the most promising method of achieving this, I was able to get this to work from my dev machine by generating a certificate, uploading it as a management certificate on the Azure portal, however, for the life of me I couldn't get the management certificate from the Azure instance itself.

---

So - If anyone can think of a way to make method 1 or 3 work is great, or if you can think of another option - it would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Another option would be to use Azure Powershell cmdlets( http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/install-configure-powershell/ ).

You can then run Restart-AzureVM ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn495199.aspx ) + many other other management commands

Answer 2

I ended up using Method 3 (Using Azure's Management Libraries), and I used the base64 encoded management certificate inside the Publish settings file (which can be downloaded here https://windows.azure.com/download/publishprofile.aspx ).

Inside there was the base64 string of the management certificate attached to my subscription.

Not the prettiest solution, but it works.