WCF Multi-layer Services Development with Entity Framework Fourth Edition

Attaching the debugger to a running WCF service process

Another common scenario while debugging is when attaching the debugger to a running WCF service. Suppose HelloWorldService is hosted and running outside Visual Studio, either in IIS or in a managed application such as HostCmdLineApp. In this case, the client application is also running outside of Visual Studio. At a certain point, you might want to start debugging the running WCF service. In this case, we can attach the debugger to the running WCF service process and start debugging it.

Note

Even if the WCF service is hosted inside Visual Studio, like with the HostExpressServer website, in certain environments, you might still not be able to step inside the service directly from the client ...