COM out of process server (EXE) instantiated 2 times

[sebdejonghe]

Hello.

I've just written a relatively simple COM application : an ATL COM Server (EXE) providing one COM object. I choosed EXE because I want an existing application (a Win32 server) to have a COM entry point.

First test :

I make a .VBS file that simply instantiate the component and call a method. It works very well. I can even add debug points on the running EXE server to trace the request.

Second test :

In fact, the client is more complicated, it's a DLL (it's an ISAPI extension, built with ATL Server Web Service wizard).

When the client make the SOAP request, the DLL correctly process it, forward it to the EXE COM Server. It looks like it's working correctly but I can't add debug points in my EXE server. After some investigation, it showed that the DLL was not forwarding the request to the running EXE server, it was instantiating another server process ! (as if it was an in process server).

I've got the idea it could be because the ISAPI DLL was running on an account (the IIS one) and the server on another (the current user, me). But after configuring the Web application so it uses my account I still have the same problem : in task manager I can see 2 server process with the same user name.

I'm not a COM Guru, so going short on ideas, anyone know what is happening?