phenix-passenger-configuration-service-host
IIS-hosted WCF service implementing the passenger configuration contract with hardcoded company-GUID rules for whether full payment or an emergency contact is required.
Health score
0 to 100 across seven weighted factors; nothing is hidden. Green is 75 and above, amber 50 to 74, red below 50. How scoring works.
Facts
| Languages | csharp |
| Frameworks | WCF |
| Runtimes | .NET Framework 4.6.2 |
| Tests / CI | some / CI in place |
| Last commit | 2019-07-15 |
| Owner | Owner unknown (mapping to be curated) |
| Domain | Selling and quoting (system generated; curate in repo-owners.json to override) |
| Product area | Phenix |
| Hosted | On-prem Deployed to our own machines
|
| Releases | 2 release pipeline(s): phenix-passenger-configuration-service-host develop; phenix-passenger-configuration-service-host release |
| Integration | wcf |
| Source | Open in Azure DevOps |
Risk flags
Each flag links to its glossary definition.
Dependencies in context
Entanglement
kernel Bound into the core by 2 mechanism(s).
- Pinning dependency: phenix-passenger-configuration-service-contract
- Speaks WCF (host)
Detaches when its pinning dependencies are cut or multi-targeted (phenix-passenger-configuration-service-contract); and when its WCF surface gains a modern interface or its WCF calls move to one.
Depends on / used by
Capability duplication
Part of the Feature flags family (review): Hardcoded toggle maps
Migration playbooks
Generated from this repo's assessment data: what is feasible, what blocks it, and the steps in order. Ratings: green means actionable now, amber means sequence other work first, red means blocked, grey means not applicable.
ZDD adoption
A long roadTechnically eligible one day, but the blockers are structural: hosted WCF or SOAP contracts that cannot run two versions at once, or heavy legacy coupling. Sequence the modernisation work first. Hosts WCF or SOAP endpoints: strict serialization contracts cannot safely run two versions at once (the shared-enum trap). End-of-life runtime compounds the work.
- Adopt the four-stage discipline from the ZDD engineering standard: pre-deployment compatibility, deployment, feature activation behind a flag, post-release cleanup.
- Raise automated test coverage first: ZDD trades the end-of-sprint manual gate for continuous automated confidence, so the tests are the entry ticket.
- Make every change dual-version safe: backwards-compatible APIs (new major version for breaking wire changes), expand and contract for any schema change, and consumers tolerant of unknown fields.
- Wrap behaviour changes in feature flags so code deploys dark and release becomes a business decision, not a deployment event.
- Route deployments through the Workflow Engine's automated drain, deploy, health-check, return cycle (the path proven by the first automated production run in mid-2026).
- Verify with area-scoped regression rather than the whole-platform cycle, and watch error rates after rollout with automated rollback on alert.
SQL Server exit
Not applicableNo SQL Server dependency is recorded for this repo. Nothing to migrate.
Containerisation
Feasible after replatformingAppropriate eventually, but not from here: the legacy runtime and the hosted WCF surface both have to go first, and that work is already in this repo's recommended actions.
- .NET Framework only runs on Windows; practical (Linux) containers need modern .NET
- Hosts WCF or SOAP endpoints, which have no home on modern .NET; consumers need a modern interface first
- Replatform to modern .NET first (see the recommended actions), replacing the hosted WCF/SOAP surface with REST, gRPC or messaging so consumers can follow. Containerising then becomes routine.
- Add a Dockerfile and make the app read all configuration from environment variables and the secrets manager, never from machine-local files.
- Log to stdout and expose a health check endpoint so ECS can supervise it.
- Adopt the shared ci.yml pipeline template with the container parameters (awsRegion, containerAfterBuild, ecsTerraformRepo), which is exactly how the estate's existing AWS services deploy.
- Define the service in the Terraform repo, deploy to a non-production environment, then shift traffic and disarm the deployment-group release pipeline.
Recommended actions
Replatform phenix-passenger-configuration-service-host to modern .NET
Runs on .NET Framework 4.6.2, out of mainstream support. Blocked until stage 2 cuts: phenix-passenger-configuration-service-contract.
Impact: Reduces the end-of-life runtime count
proposedAssessment notes
phenix-passenger-configuration-service-host
Purpose
The host half of the passenger configuration WCF service. A single .svc class implements IPassengerConfigurationServiceContract: IsFullPaymentRequired returns true only for the TC Limited company GUID, and IsPhenixBookingEmergencyContactRequired returns true for the TC Netherlands and TC Belgium GUIDs. Five company GUIDs (UK, NL, BE, CA, AU) are hardcoded as static properties — there is no data store, configuration, or admin surface; changing a rule means a code change and release.
Tech stack
C# .NET Framework 4.6.2, classic (non-SDK) csproj with packages.config, WCF .svc hosting under IIS. The only package reference is the contract NuGet TC.Phenix.Passenger.Configuration.ServiceContract 1.0.0. XDT Web.config transforms for production and training set the New Relic app name.
Deployment
Included with 2 releases. Classic build pipelines phenix-passenger-configuration-service-host develop and release with same-named release pipelines — no YAML in the repo. Runs as part of the Phenix Services IIS estate (New Relic app "Passenger Configuration Service, Phenix Services").
Dependencies
Internal: phenix-passenger-configuration-service-contract (the WCF interface package). External: New Relic APM only.
Data stores
None — all behaviour is hardcoded in the service class.
Integration points
Inbound WCF (basicHttp via IIS .svc endpoint). No outbound calls.
Code health
One MSTest test file covering the two methods — proportionate to the code, which is a handful of GUID comparisons. No README. Dormant since 2019-07-15. Classic csproj/packages.config format.
Modernisation risks
A whole IIS-hosted WCF service (plus a contract package and four pipelines across the two repos) exists to answer two boolean questions from hardcoded GUIDs. It is unsupportable from modern .NET clients without WCF tooling. The pragmatic fix is to move these flags into an existing company-configuration or feature service and retire both repos; the hardcoded company list is also a silent risk if new companies are onboarded. Medium priority — trivial size, but pure legacy.