Normally, I use App_Offline.htm for taking the site offline. But occasionally, when I do that, the site just hangs (like in: browsers wait forever, server gives no response at all). This seems to happen on an updateable site when I change something, like a control and afterward, when it doesn't go quick enough (site hangs), I place App_Offline.htm in the root of the website.
In most cases, this immediately takes down my site. But occasionally it doesn't. In those cases, I cannot just stop the website (when I restart, the behavior continues). Stopping the application pool doesn't let me restart the same app pool. The only two solution so far is restarting the whole IIS web service.
I'd like to prevent this from happening. Is this a bug in IIS not "breaking all actions" when App_Offline.htm is found? I use IIS 7 with Windows 2008 SP2 64 bit.
IIS should not stop existing actions, only prevent new requests from going through: Will app_offline.htm stop current requests or just new requests?
It sounds like you are describing a scenario where you update a control, try to load a page, and IE is stuck loading. At this point you drop the app_offline.htm and expect to see that page immediately.
If you are making a completely separate/new request after putting app_offline.htm in place then you should see the page come up. However the existing request will not be affected as linked above.
If possible try deploying the app_offline.htm file prior to making the control change.