The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for automatically re-starting services. Embodiments of the invention can be used to re-start a service when it is determined that the service stopped during the processing pending work. A container manager durably tracks a service's status (busy/idle and alive/dead) and tracks transitions between statuses. Accordingly, when a busy service is deemed dead (due to any event), the container manager can automatically re-start the service. Upon re-start the service can check for pending work and start executing its pending work.