Question

What are pros and cons of having dedicated application pools over keeping web applications in one default app pool?

Answer 1

Pros:

• Applications are isolated from each other, unless IIS goes with it, an app pool locking will only take out applications in that pool
• Ability to run applications under different ASP.NET runtimes, one pool for 1.1 another for 2.0 if needed
• Ability to have different app pool settings for more or less critical applications. For example a corporate website in ASP.NET might want to have the shut down after __ minutes of inactivity bumped up, to prevent unloading because response is critical. Other sites might not need it.
• Can secure pools from each other in regards to file access, great for third party, or untrusted applications as they can run under a very restrictive user account.

Cons:

• Each application pool has its own bank of memory and its own process, therefore CAN use more resources
• Some find it hard to debug the application as you have multiple processes