How to start HostedService in MVC Core app without http request

When you run this using Visual Studio, you are likely using IIS Express, which isn't going to run your ASP.NET Core project until the first request is made (that's really just how IIS works by default). This applies when using the InProcess hosting-model that's new with ASP.NET Core 2.2, which I expect you must be using in order to see this issue. See this GitHub issue for more.

You can prove this theory by removing the AspNetCoreHostingModel XML element from the .csproj file that you're using to host the ASP.NET Core application (which will switch it back to the OutOfProcess mode). It looks like there's a "Hosting Model" option under "Debug" in the project properties dialog of VS2017 that you can change to "Out Of Process" if you don't want to edit the .csproj directly.

If you want the hosting-model to be out-of-process only for a production site, you could use a Web.config transform, for example. If you want it to be out-of-process both during development and in production, just changing the property I called out above will be enough as this gets converted automatically into a Web.config property. If you would prefer to use the in-process model, enabling preload in the IIS application is a good option (described here).

Background services start when your application starts, then it's up to you to synchronize with it.

You can implement a background service by using the BackgroundService class from the namespace Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting(Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting.Abstractions assembly):

First the declare the interface of your service (in this case it is empty, not nice, but clean):

public interface IMyService : IHostedService
{
}

Then, declare your service. The following snippet declares a service that at startup waist for 5 seconds, and then executes a task every 2 minutes and half:

internal sealed class MyService : BackgroundService, IMyService
{
    private const int InitialDelay = 5 * 1000;  //5 seconds;
    private const int Delay = (5 * 60 * 1000) / 2; // 2.5 minutes

    private readonly ILogger<MyService> m_Logger;

    public MyService(ILogger<MyService> logger, IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
    {
        if (logger == null)
            throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(logger));
        if (serviceProvider == null)
            throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(serviceProvider));

        this.m_Logger = logger;
        this.m_ServiceProvider = serviceProvider;
    }

    protected override async Task ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken stoppingToken)
    {
        try
        {
            m_Logger.LogDebug($"MyService is starting.");

            stoppingToken.Register(() => m_Logger.LogDebug($"MyService background task is stopping because cancelled."));

            if (!stoppingToken.IsCancellationRequested)
            {
                m_Logger.LogDebug($"MyService is waiting to be scheduled.");
                await Task.Delay(InitialDelay, stoppingToken);
            }

            m_Logger.LogDebug($"MyService is working.");

            while (!stoppingToken.IsCancellationRequested)
            {
                await DoSomethingAsync();

                await Task.Delay(Delay);
            }

            m_Logger.LogDebug($"MyService background task is stopping.");
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            m_Logger.LogDebug("MyService encountered a fatal error while w task is stopping: {Exception}.", ex.ToString());
        }
    }

    private async Task DoSomethingAsync()
    {
         // do something here
         await Task.Delay(1000);
    }
}

As you can see, it's up to you to keep the background service "alive". Finally, you have to register it in your Startup.cs at the end of your ConfigureServices method:

services.AddSingleton<Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting.IHostedService, MyService>();

This is sufficient to have the service started. keep in mind that your application could be actually started at a later time if hosted in IIS: your application is (re)started everytime your assembly is recycled. Instead, using Kestrel, provides a single instance application which will not be recycled.

For those using .Net Core 2.1 or lower, the Background class is not available, but you can get the definition from github (I post what I used in the past as the github repository can be moved):

//borrowed from .NET Core 2.1 (we are currently targeting 2.0.3)
// Copyright (c) .NET Foundation. Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
/// <summary>
/// Base class for implementing a long running <see cref="IHostedService"/>.
/// </summary>
public abstract class BackgroundService : IHostedService, IDisposable
{
    private Task _executingTask;

    private readonly CancellationTokenSource _stoppingCts =
                                                   new CancellationTokenSource();

    protected abstract Task ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken);

    public virtual Task StartAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        // Store the task we're executing
        _executingTask = ExecuteAsync(_stoppingCts.Token);

        // If the task is completed then return it,
        // this will bubble cancellation and failure to the caller
        if (_executingTask.IsCompleted)
        {
            return _executingTask;
        }

        // Otherwise it's running
        return Task.CompletedTask;
    }

    public virtual async Task StopAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        // Stop called without start
        if (_executingTask == null)
        {
            return;
        }

        try
        {
            // Signal cancellation to the executing method
            _stoppingCts.Cancel();
        }
        finally
        {
            // Wait until the task completes or the stop token triggers
            await Task.WhenAny(_executingTask, Task.Delay(Timeout.Infinite,
                                                          cancellationToken));
        }
    }

    public virtual void Dispose()
    {
        _stoppingCts.Cancel();
    }
}