How do I prevent IIS 8 from stopping idle ASP.NET applications?

I have an asp.net application running on Windows 2012 in IIS 8 that has a very time consuming application start process (essentially the code running in the Application_Start() event can take up to 2 minutes). Thus I'd like to minimize the number of times the application is started so that the user can avoid a long wait.

I've enabled Preload in the application settings, and I've set the Start Mode to AlwaysRunning in the application pool. Yet the application still ends after not being used for a while, resulting in a very long time for the first visit to the website after the application shuts down.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can prevent this?

Thanks

Solution 1:

In IIS 7, you had to set the idletimeout for the apppool to "0", I would guess it's something similar for IIS 8. Details here.

Solution 2:

I believe the AlwaysRunning option under Start Mode for the AppPool will accomplish the same thing.

http://weblogs.asp.net/britchie/archive/2010/09/08/death-to-windows-services-long-live-appfabric.aspx

Don't even think you need the appfabric on IIS8.