I have a Windows Service. On startup it checks whether any work has been assigned to it - and if none has, it just quits. The problem is that the recovery mechanism is set to Restart the Service.
This is what I want if the service legitimately crashes, but not if I quit the service programmatically on my own.
So far everything I've tried below has resulted in Windows automatically restarting the service:
Thread th;
protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
th = new Thread(new ThreadStart(StartMyService));
th.Start();
}
private void StartMyService()
{
if (WorkAvailable()) {
InitWork();
} else {
this.ExitCode = 0; // no errors
Stop();
}
}
protected override void OnStop()
{
// dispose of things
try
{
if (th != null && th.ThreadState == ThreadState.Running)
th.Abort();
}
catch { }
Environment.Exit(this.ExitCode);
}
I've tried different ExitCode values, but Windows always restarts the Service. I've also tried Environment.FailFast with same results. What am I missing?
Ignoring the issue of whether or not this is good design, the reason the OS is using the failure recovery action is because the service is failing.
When you call Stop the runtime marks the service as being in the process of stopping. It then calls the OnStop method. When the OnStop method returns it finishes cleanup and then exits the service. If this is the only service in the executable then the executable also exits. There is never a need to exit the process yourself.
When you call Environment.Exit (or Environment.FailFast) you cause the service executable to suddenly exit while the ServiceControlManager still has it listed as running, so the OS quite rightly considers the service to have failed.
Related
I'm trying to run some console app as windows service, I followed this question, and I made a few changes to make it fit to my app.
My main code looks like that:
public static class Program
{
public class Service : ServiceBase
{
public Service(string serviceName)
{
this.ServiceName = serviceName;
}
protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
Program.Start(args);
}
protected override void OnStop()
{
Program.Stop(this.ServiceName);
}
}
#endregion
static void Main(string[] args)
{
if (!Environment.UserInteractive)
// running as service
using (var service = new Service("TestService"))
ServiceBase.Run(service);
else
{
// running as console app
Start(args);
}
}
private static void Start(string[] args)
{
while(true)
{
//DO SOMTHING
}
}
private static void Stop(string serviceName)
{
//Writing to log that 'serviceName' stopped
}
}
I tried to run the following console app as a service, by using the following steps:
1) Use the command: sc create ServiceTestName123 binPath= "PATH TO THE EXE FILE IN THE PROJECT DEBUG FOLDER".
2) Use the command: sc start ServiceTestName123 "parameter1".
And I got an error:
"StartService FAILED 1053:
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion"
I read about the error in the internet and found out that I can try to solve this problem by running the start function with another thread, so I updated the OnStart function to the following function:
protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
Thread t = new Thread(() => Program.Start(args));
t.Start();
}
After trying to re-create the service (delete the old one and create the service again with the new OnStart function) and re-run it I got the same error.
By the way, when I ran this code as console app it worked properly.
Could someone please explaing me what am I doing wrong?
Thanks a lot.
I tried your exact steps and it worked for me. I will highlight a few key points that I came across
OnStart should definitely return in a timely fashion. i.e. the work should happen in a separate process/thread. I used your code for thread and it worked fine for me.
Make sure the executable is on a local drive which can be accessed from your "Local System" account without any permission issues.
Make sure when you create the service, you provide the absolute path and not relative path.
Make sure the sc create ... command responds back with [SC] CreateService SUCCESS
Check the service was created in the service control panel
Make sure you can start it from the service control panel before attempting it from command line
Also, open task manager or process explorer to make sure the service executable is running or not (irrespective of what status is returned by service control panel or scm start)
For debugging, I logged the information into a local temp file - again watch out for permissions issues with Local System account.
If for whatever reasons you have to delete the service, make sure that it indeed disappeared from the service control panel
To debug what's going on, you can attach the debugger at the very beggining of your program start up.
This way, you can check what your program is doing.
You can also check in the Windows ever viewer, the error that windows is throwing.
Put this line at the start trace of your program:
System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Launch()
I want to create a windows service that performs some really long and heavy work. The code is inside OnStart method like this:
protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
System.IO.File.WriteAllText(
#"C:\MMS\Logs\WinServiceLogs.txt",
DateTime.Now + "\t MMS Service started."
);
this.RequestAdditionalTime(5*60*1000);
this.RunService();
}
this.RunService() sends a request to WCF service library hosted on IIS. It does some really long processes, ranging from 1-20 min, depending on the data it has to process. This service that I'm writing is supposed to be scheduled to run every day in the morning. So far, it runs and works fine, but when the time goes over a few seconds or min, it generates timeout exception. This causes the windows service to be in unstable state, and I can't stop or uninstall it without restarting the computer. Since, I'm trying to create an automated system, this is an issue.
I did do this.RequestAdditionalTime(), but I'm not sure whether it's doing what it's supposed to or not. I don't get the timeout error message, but now I don't know how to schedule it so it runs every day. If the exception occurs, then it won't run the next time. There were several articles and SO's I found, but there's something I'm missing and I can't understand it.
Should I create a thread? Some articles say I shouldn't put heavy programs in OnStart, where should I put the heavy codes then? Right now, when the service starts, it does this huge data processing which makes the Windows Service status to "Starting", and it stays there for long time until either the program crashes due to timeout, or completes successfully. How can I start the service, then set the status to Running while the code is running to do some data processing?
Your situation might be better suited for a scheduled task as Lloyd said in the comments above. But if you really want to use a Windows service, this is what you would need to add/update in your service code. This will allow your service to list as started and not timeout on you. You can adjust the timer length to suit your needs.
private Timer processingTimer;
public YourService()
{
InitializeComponent();
//Initialize timer
processingTimer = new Timer(60000); //Set to run every 60 seconds
processingTimer.Elapsed += processingTimer_Elapsed;
processingTimer.AutoReset = true;
processingTimer.Enabled = true;
}
private void processingTimer_Elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
//Check the time
if (timeCheck && haventRunToday)
//Run your code
//You should probably still run this as a separate thread
this.RunService();
}
protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
//Start the timer
processingTimer.Start();
}
protected override void OnStop()
{
//Check to make sure that your code isn't still running... (if separate thread)
//Stop the timer
processingTimer.Stop();
}
protected override void OnPause()
{
//Stop the timer
processingTimer.Stop();
}
protected override void OnContinue()
{
//Start the timer
processingTimer.Start();
}
I am building an application monitoring service to write to the event log so I can get an general Idea how often the computer is being used. I can install the service and when I try to run it I get this error:
"The Application Monitor service on local computer started and then stopped. Some services stop automatically if they have no work to do, for example, the performance logs and alerts service."
I've tried a while loop, mouse activity, and etc... but it keeps ending. any ideas on what I can do?
public ApplicationMonitor()
{
InitializeComponent();
if (!System.Diagnostics.EventLog.SourceExists("Activity Usage"))
{
System.Diagnostics.EventLog.CreateEventSource("Activity Usage", "Computer Log");
}
eventLog1.Source = "Activity Usage";
eventLog1.Log = "Computer Log";
}
protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
eventLog1.WriteEntry("In OnStart");
}
protected override void OnStop()
{
eventLog1.WriteEntry("In onStop.");
}
protected override void OnContinue()
{
eventLog1.WriteEntry("In OnContinue.");
}
Because there is no active thread.
You need to start your thread that does the polling in the "OnStart" method of your service. Otherwise when the OnStart method completes, there is no active thread in the application and the .Net CLR will close the app.
Even if the thread is simply doing a thread sleep every 30 seconds, it must be alive in order for the app to stay open.
First time posting long time reader.
I built a working filewatcher inside of a windows forms application functioning 100% properly before moving it to a windows Service and am now recieving two seperate issues. This file watcher reads a flatfile for line updates(lastwrite), deletes/recreates file(streamwriter), and finally parses through a strongly typed data set and then uploads to an SQL server.
(This is my first Windows Service)
Questions:
1. Does the double event trigger in filewatcher effect the service differently then a forms application?
2. Does anyone have an answer about why the thread will break if the class I am calling has no issue?
3. Are there any known issues with Windows Authentication through a windows service?
4. Does anyone have any strong debug methods for windows services?
Here is my code from the windows Service, thanks in advance and my apologies if there is a silly mistake in the code, again first time making a windows service.
FileMonitor m_FileMonitor;
public WindowsService()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
try
{
Thread myThread = new Thread(DoTheWork);
myThread.Start();
}
catch
{
}
}
void DoTheWork()
{
m_FileMonitor = new FileMonitor(Properties.Settings.Default.PathToFileToWatch, Properties.Settings.Default.PathToErrorLog);
}
protected override void OnStop()
{
// TODO: Add code here to perform any tear-down necessary to stop your service.
}
For debugging, make sure your project type is Windows Application, and then use this:
[DllImport("kernel32")]
static extern bool AllocConsole();
private static void Main(string[] args)
{
var service = new MyService();
var controller = ServiceController.GetServices().FirstOrDefault(c => c.ServiceName == service.ServiceName);
if (null != controller && controller.Status == ServiceControllerStatus.StartPending)
{
ServiceBase.Run(service);
}
else
{
if (AllocConsole())
{
service.OnStart(args);
Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit...");
Console.ReadKey();
service.OnStop();
}
else
{
throw new Win32Exception(Marshal.GetLastWin32Error());
}
}
}
If the code is running because the Windows Service was started, it will run as a Windows Service. Otherwise it will allocate a console, run the service, then wait for a key press before exiting the service. You could build on this for testing pause and continue.
For debugging:
You have to use the ServiceBase.Run method in Main() to execute as a windows service, but you can make a switch in the main method to run the same application as a normal console application (e.g. --standalone). I'm using this on all my services to make them easy to debug.
Regarding the other problems:
I'm not completely sure which problems you encounter and what you mean by "class break" and "double event trigger".
Windows services run under a special service account, which might or might not have permissions to watch the directory you are interested in. You can change the service account or give it permission for the directory if you need to.
Links:
Here is a link to a codeproject article who seems to have implemented a file watcher windows service. Maybe it helps:
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/18521/How-to-implement-a-simple-filewatcher-Windows-serv
I am using a netNamedPipeBinding to perform inter-process WCF communication from a windows app to a windows service.
Now my app is running well in all other accounts (after fighting off my fair share of WCF exceptions as anybody who has worked with WCF would know..) but this error is one that is proving to be quite resilient.
To paint a picture of my scenario: my windows service could be queued to do some work at any given time through a button pressed in the windows app and it then talks over the netNamedPipeBinding which is a binding that supports callbacks (two-way communication) if you are not familiar and initiates a request to perform this work, (in this case a file upload procedure) it also throws the callbacks (events) every few seconds ranging from file progress to transfer speed etc. etc. back to the windows app, so there is some fairly tight client-server integration; this is how I receive my progress of what's running in my windows service back into my windows app.
Now, all is great, the WCF gods are relatively happy with me right now apart from one nasty exception which I receive every time I shutdown the app prematurely (which is a perfectly valid scenario). Whilst a transfer is in progress, and callbacks are firing pretty heavily, I receive this error:
System.ServiceModel.ProtocolException:
The channel received an unexpected input message with Action
'http://tempuri.org/ITransferServiceContract/TransferSpeedChangedCallback'
while closing. You should only close your channel when you are not expecting
any more input messages.
Now I understand that error, but unfortunately I cannot guarantee to close my channel after never receiving any more input messsages, as the user may shutdown the app at any time therefore the work will still be continuing in the background of the windows service (kind of like how a virus scanner operates). The user should be able to start and close the win management tool app as much as they like with no interference.
Now the error, I receive immediately after performing my Unsubscribe() call which is the second last call before terminating the app and what I believe is the preferred way to disconnect a WCF client. All the unsubscribe does before closing the connection is simply removes the client id from an array which was stored locally on the win service wcf service (as this is an instance SHARED by both the win service and windows app as the win service can perform work at scheduled events by itself) and after the client id array removal I perform, what I hope (feel) should be a clean disconnection.
The result of this, besides receiving an exception, is my app hangs, the UI is in total lock up, progress bars and everything mid way, with all signs pointing to having a race condition or WCF deadlock [sigh], but I am pretty thread-savvy now and I think this is a relatively isolated situation and reading the exception as-is, I don't think it's a 'thread' issue per-se, as it states more an issue of early disconnection which then spirals all my threads into mayhem, perhaps causing the lock up.
My Unsubscribe() approach on the client looks like this:
public void Unsubscribe()
{
try
{
// Close existing connections
if (channel != null &&
channel.State == CommunicationState.Opened)
{
proxy.Unsubscribe();
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
// This is where we receive the 'System.ServiceModel.ProtocolException'.
}
finally
{
Dispose();
}
}
And my Dispose() method, which should perform the clean disconnect:
public void Dispose()
{
// Dispose object
if (channel != null)
{
try
{
// Close existing connections
Close();
// Attempt dispose object
((IDisposable)channel).Dispose();
}
catch (CommunicationException)
{
channel.Abort();
}
catch (TimeoutException)
{
channel.Abort();
}
catch (Exception)
{
channel.Abort();
throw;
}
}
}
And the WCF service Subscription() counterpart and class attributes (for reference) on the windows service server (nothing tricky here and my exception occurs client side):
[ServiceBehavior(InstanceContextMode = InstanceContextMode.Single,
ConcurrencyMode = ConcurrencyMode.Multiple)]
public class TransferService : LoggableBase, ITransferServiceContract
{
public void Unsubscribe()
{
if (clients.ContainsKey(clientName))
{
lock (syncObj)
{
clients.Remove(clientName);
}
}
#if DEBUG
Console.WriteLine(" + {0} disconnected.", clientName);
#endif
}
...
}
Interface of:
[ServiceContract(
CallbackContract = typeof(ITransferServiceCallbackContract),
SessionMode = SessionMode.Required)]
public interface ITransferServiceContract
{
[OperationContract(IsInitiating = true)]
bool Subscribe();
[OperationContract(IsOneWay = true)]
void Unsubscribe();
...
}
Interface of callback contract, it doesn't do anything very exciting, just calls events via delegates etc. The reason I included this is to show you my attributes. I did alleviate one set of deadlocks already by including UseSynchronizationContext = false:
[CallbackBehavior(UseSynchronizationContext = false,
ConcurrencyMode = ConcurrencyMode.Multiple)]
public class TransferServiceCallback : ITransferServiceCallbackContract
{ ... }
Really hope somebody can help me! Thanks a lot =:)
OH my gosh, I found the issue.
That exception had nothing to do with the underyling app hang, that was just a precautionary exception which you can safely catch.
You would not believe it, I spent about 6 hours on and off on this bug, it turned out to be the channel.Close() locking up waiting for pending WCF requests to complete (which never would complete until the transfer has finished! which defeats the purpose!)
I just went brute-force breakpointing line after line, my issue was if I was too slow..... it would never hang, because somehow the channel would be available to close (even before the transfer had finished) so I had to breakpoint F5 and then quickly step to catch the hang, and that's the line it ended on. I now simply apply a timeout value to the Close() operation and catch it with a TimeoutException and then hard abort the channel if it cannot shut down in a timely fashion!
See the fix code:
private void Close()
{
if (channel != null &&
channel.State == CommunicationState.Opened)
{
// If cannot cleanly close down the app in 3 seconds,
// channel is locked due to channel heavily in use
// through callbacks or the like.
// Throw TimeoutException
channel.Close(new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0, 3));
}
}
public void Dispose()
{
// Dispose object
if (channel != null)
{
try
{
// Close existing connections
// *****************************
// This is the close operation where we perform
//the channel close and timeout check and catch the exception.
Close();
// Attempt dispose object
((IDisposable)channel).Dispose();
}
catch (CommunicationException)
{
channel.Abort();
}
catch (TimeoutException)
{
channel.Abort();
}
catch (Exception)
{
channel.Abort();
throw;
}
}
}
I am so happy to have this bug finally over and done with! My app is now shutting down cleanly after a 3 second timeout regardless of the current WCF service state, I hope I could have helped someone else who ever finds themselves suffering a similar issue.
Graham