Plugin DLL locked by w3wp.exe

Question

Dynamics CRM 2011 on premise.

I have a registered plugin DLL that is called when the case/incident entity is created.

An exception is raised when this happens. I am investigating this.

The plugin is on disk (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\Server\bin\assembly) and I have to update it manually when I want to change the code. (This situation was created before me and I won't change it now.)

Whenever the exception is raised, the DLL becomes locked and the only way I can find to overwrite it is to restart IIS.

How can I unlock the file without restarting IIS?

Responses to answers

Which application pool?

None of the pools list the location of the DLL in this list:

The DLL is in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\Server\bin\assembly

Answer 1

Recycle the App pool. When you recycle the app pool, it'll start up a new one right away, and let the old one finish up, eventually killing any threads that don't finish in a configured amount of time. That should allow you to not have to kill all of ISS. Just make sure you wait long enough for the w3wp worker process to die.

Answer 2

Just rename the dll which is currently in use and dump the new new dll there. It worked for me.