R – In which process to Sharepoint 2007 Workflows run

mosssharepoint

If I update an Assembly that holds a workflow, I have to restart the appropriate Windows Process to pick up the new Assemblies.

For Web parts & stuff, this is just the IIS Application Pool in question (iisapp /r), and for Timer Jobs it is OWSTIMER.exe (net stop/start SPTimerV3)

But who runs the workflows? Are they ran within IIS' Application Pool and are restarted when I restart the Application Pool with iisapp /r? If yes, which AppPool to restart, if I have one for the Site (:80) and one for the Central Admin (:49173)?

Edit: Following the answers, I've managed to attach the debugger to the server, and at least Workflows that are Scope="Site" in the feature.xml indeed run in the w3wp.exe of the Application Pool. I have not tested farm-level workflows though.

Best Answer

The hierarchy is like this:

  • Application Pool
  • Web Application
  • Site Collection
  • Site

The workflows for a certain SharePoint web application run in the worker process set up for the application pool that is hosting that particular web application.

Central Administration has typically has its own AppPool, so in your case you need to restart the AppPool for the Site (:80).

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