We have a WCF service hosted in IIS (meaning it's configured only via web.config) which uses AppFabric auto-start.
The service has a local endpoint that is pointed to a local service bus 1.0 queue/subscription.
Typically it is necessary to browse to the service in order for the first message to be received. Like the service has to be woken up. Normally when this type issue happens with a wcf service, the auto-start feature of AppFabric is suspect, but it's on and working fine.
This same service also has a second endpoint that listens to an Azure hosted queue/subscription.
Both endpoints use the NetMessagingBinding.
The service's 2nd endpoint will receive the first message sent via the Azure queue/topic (as expected) without have to browse to the service to wake it up.
So it's acting as if auto-start is not working, and yet all indications are that auto-start is working (other services are started, there are no error messages emitted by AppFabric, 2nd endpoint of the service works normally).
This happens regardless of whether the service listens to a queue or listens to a subscription and we have it pointed at both during testing.
Messages aren't lost, they remain in the queue/subscription until the service is woken up.