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I have a confusion over differences between using app service alone and app service with web jobs.

I have a computation intense task (2-20 min) that must be triggered manually (user asks for it from time to time). Right now everything happens in one app service. I'm thinking to extract this heavy process to a webjob in another app service. This new app service will be empty (no api served) but host this web job, which I'll trigger from first app service.

I'm bothered that second app service will be empty. Can I use second app service to do the work without using webjobs (just WebApi project)? Or I should stick to webjobs? What would be pros and cons of these two approaches?

Dmitry
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  • i think you are looking for the word microweb services look into it might help you @Dmitry – saurabh kamble Sep 14 '17 at 07:57
  • There's nothing wrong with this idea, but you could also check out Azure Functions. Depends a bit on what you mean with 'compute intensive', but it might be a nice fit. Though, if you already have WebJobs, it might be easier to stick with this. – Jan_V Sep 14 '17 at 08:22
  • I read about azure functions - they won't work because they have limitation on they duration - no more than 5min – Dmitry Sep 14 '17 at 08:58

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In my opinion, we shouldn't compare the web api and web jobs. Because this two things is used for different environment.

The webjobs feature:

  • Web Jobs can be configured to be manually triggered or run on a schedule.

  • Web Jobs can be configured to be Continuously running (aka running constantly, all the time)

  • Web Jobs can be setup to be Triggered based on events in other Azure Services, such as a new messaged added to a Storage Queue or Service Buss Queue or Topic
  • Web Jobs can be long running
  • Web Jobs can be short running
  • Web Jobs can be implemented in any language as either a command-line executable or script

Azure Web Jobs can be implemented to fill any background processing need.

So if you want to work with background processing and don't want to return the response to any other application. I suggest you could choose webjobs.

The web api is easy to build HTTP services for the customer to get the response.

So this is used to interact with others. So If you want to get the result and used in any other place. You could choose web api.

The web api feature:

  • Attribute Routing
  • CORS - Cross Origin Resource Sharing
  • OWIN (Open Web Interface for .NET) self hosting
  • Web API OData ...

All in all, if the computation will not interact with others(return the result to customer), I suggest you could choose web jobs.

Brando Zhang
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  • That's all fine and good, but why is a "Web Job" found in the Azure Portal under "App Services"? The implication is that a Web Job is a component of an App Service. Why can't we just have stand-alone Web Jobs? Why do they need to be associated with an App Service? – Quark Soup Apr 03 '22 at 22:44