Application_Start in a web garden environment

Question

Running under IIS 7.5, I have a web garden. When IIS is restarted, does it only call Application_Start one time or is it one time for each web garden instance? I would like definitive proof.

Also, as I understand it, each web garden instance is an exact clone. That means that if I add something to HttpContext.Cache in one instance it may not be available to HttpContext.Cache in another instance, is that correct?

Answer 1

Each web garden instance is, to my knowledge, it's own process completely. That means the cache is not shared, Application_Start is not shared, etc. Pretend like it's running on a completely different server, and you should get a good understanding of exactly what will/won't happen.