The issue I have is that I'm using a third party dll for something (very expensive operation), it's not serializable, and it takes a minute to spin up each time. It's needed on each call of a WCF service and I can't keep it in memory (recyling), and I can't keep it in a cache (unserializable).
I was wondering what alternatives (if any) there are? I was originally thinking about using a Worker Role, but then I read that they are recycled too. Then I considered a Windows service, but I'm hoping there is something better suited.
I'd like to think I'm not the only one with this issue, and that someone else has already solved this issue! :)
Why are you unable to use Worker Roles or Web Roles to keep the data generated by yoru process in memory? Neither of the two roles "flushes" it's memory on a frequent basis. True, that it is not guaranteed that reboots do not happen, but those reboots are very rare and checking to see IF your statefull data is empty and then repopulating it when it is, shouldnt be a big deal and the logic would work on any server the same way, whether it is a Cloud Service or a dedicated VM.
Edit: Web roles or worker roles do not restart on any known cycle. However, by default IIS does recycle on a schedule. This timer can be changed or disabled via a startup script. Furthermore, no such recycling happens in worker roles. So, if you're running a worker role, the thing will stay in memory as long as you dont recycle the server yourself or a rare windows update happens
HTH