I am writing a software for a company in c# which is intended to run on windows platform.
One of my requirements is to allow the user to schedule back ups.
That is, the user will set a time where the database will be backed up automatically by the computer.
On the linux platform I would have use crons but I am a bit lost on the windows platform. I do not want the software itself to be actually opened for the back up to run. I want it to be carried out even if the software itself is not running.
My best bet is to use windows scheduler or create a custom service which will run at start up.
Can anyone point me to how to actually achieve this? Any constructive suggestions are welcomed.
Thanks.
For info the Windows "AT" command is somewhat similar to cron. You can get help from the command line thus:
AT /?
I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for a db backup. Either create a Windows scheduled task, or to backup a SQL Server database, use SQL server's built in scheduler.
Another alternative would be to create a windows service to handle the task. Then you could write any code needed (e.g. Backup / Email logs, etc) quickly and easily, and it would work w/o your application running.
There are ways to accomplish the same task with Task Scheduler built into windows, but just an alternative that I would prefer.
Related
I need to create an application that will run on a server and be able to be configured to run commands at certain times. For instance, there will be a web interface allowing a user to set an engage time and a disengage time. Once those values have been saved by the user I need for the server to be able to fire off those commands precisely at the time specified each day.
I would also need to be able to set single use non recurring events that would occur... maybe 10 minutes from the time an event was triggered and have a command fired off when that 10 minute timer goes off.
I've already got a class library written that has the engage and disengage commands exposed. I would hope to be able to integrate this into whatever solution I end up with and simply be able to make calls directly to the class. Alternatively I could also compile the class library into an executable and have commands issued to it via command line. I'm hoping to not have to do the latter.
I've never written anything like this before. I've peeked a bit at Windows Services, but there is a lot of chatter out there saying that it isn't necessarily the best option. Can someone please guide me in the right direction please?
A windows service is not a bad idea, its perfect for this kind of application. Unless you end up using standard windows scheduled tasks as the trigger for your command, you need some sort of process that is always running to contain your scheduler. A windows service is an excellent candidate for this.
Using a windows service in conjunction with Quartz.NET and some sort of persistence layer so you can store your schedules (in case you need to restart the service or it crashes etc) would be a good way to go.
Alternatively, you could write an application that just adds and removes windows scheduled tasks, but considering you have existing class libraries, using Quartz.NET will fit in well with your existing libraries.
easiest solution:
make a console exe and run under scheduled task in windows.
Let web page to accept user input and modify a configuration file.
I need to write a program in .NET which runs every few hours and does some task. It does not require user interaction but it needs a configuration file like App.config where I can put that configuration information.
So should I write console program in C# ( like php or perl script) and schedule it in task manager ( like crontab) or write a Windows Service or something else?
If you want scheduling capabilities and that schedule needs to be very configurable, a windows scheduled task does that pretty well. You would write that as a console app.
However, I would suggest a service for most things. Here is a great tutorial that talks about how to create windows services. Its much easier than you think.
http://www.switchonthecode.com/tutorials/creating-a-simple-windows-service-in-csharp
My suggestion would be to go for the console app and use the task manager.
It saves you from having to implement a custom timer
It gives you elaborate control over timing
It saves you from having to implement an UI
It gives you automation options, like piping in- and output at the command line
Depending on the complexity of your task the best option would be to create an application which can be run via a task scheduler. If you need to run something every few hours a windows service would also work, but remember if you create a windows service then you will have to use a timer control within your application which might hang up without giving any clues. There are lots of examples for both the concepts and instead of using windows service you can use Window Communication Foundation (WCF).
Let me give a back ground for everybody before I go to my problem. My company hosts website for many clients, my company also contracts some of the work to another company.
So when we first set up a website with all the informations to our clients, we pass that information to the other company we contracted and three of us have the same data. Problem is once the site is up and running, our clients will change some data and when ever they do that we should be able to update our contracted company.
The way we transfer data to the contracted company is by using a web service (httppost, xml data). Now my question is what it the best way to write a program which sends updated data to the contracted company everytime our clients change some data.
1) Write a windows service having a timer inside my code where every 30min or so connects to the database and find all changes and send it to the contracted company
2) Write the same code as #1 (with out the timer in it) but this time make it a simple program and let windows scheduler wake it every 30min
3) Any other suggestion you may have
Techenologies available for me are VS 2008, SQLServer 2005
Scheduled task is the way to go. Jon wrote up a good summary of why services are not well suited for this sort of thing: http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2005/10/24/428303.aspx
A service is easy to create and install and is more "professional" feeling so why not go that way? Using a non-service EXE would also work of course and would be slightly easier to get running (permissions, etc.) but I think the difference in setup between the two is nearly negligible.
One possible solution would be to add a timestamp column to your data tables.
Once this is done, you can have one entry in each table that has the last collected time by your contracted company. They can pull all records since that last time and update their records accordingly.
A Windows Service is more self contained, and you can easily configure it to start up automatically when the OS is starting up. You might also need to create additional configuration options, as well as some way to trigger the synchronization immediately.
It will also give you more room to grow your functionality for the service in the future.
A standalone app should be easier to develop though, however you are reliant on the windows scheduler to execute the task always. My experience has been that it is easier to mess up things with the windows scheduler and have it not run, for example in cases where you reboot the OS but no user has logged in.
If you want a more professional approach go with the service, even though it might mean a little bit more work.
A windows service makes more sense in this case. Think about what happens after your server is restarted:
With a Windows Application you need to have someone restart the application, or manually copy a shortcut to the startup folder to make sure the application gets launched
OR,
With a Windows Service you set it to start automatically and forget about it. When the machine reboots your service starts up and continues processing.
One more consideration, what happens when there is an error? A Windows application would likely show an error dialog and wait for input before continuing; whereas a service would log the error in the event log and carry on.
Here's an interesting problem. I have an ETL script written in c# that I have been running manually on a somewhat regular basis. It is used to update my web app's database.
I want to automate the ETL process AND create an interface for the web app admins to manually start the ETL process.
I could have sql server kick off the ETL process on a schedule and implement a button or something on a web page that will do the same thing, but I don't want to put my code in 2 different places because I don't want to update it in 2 places when it changes. But I don't know how to make my web app tell SQL server to manually start a scheduled process. Can this be done?
OR
I could somehow implement the scheduling in the web app itself, but by now most people are familiar with the problems that are faced when trying that (app may not be running at certain times, must wait on request to start a process (without some trickery)). Also, since the ETL process takes a while, I don't want to make some poor end user wait on a response, so it would definitely have to use a new thread.
What else could I do? What would you do?
You mentioned you are using SQL Server. What version is it? Is SQL Server Integration Services (which is the full-blown ETL tool for the platform) an option for you? If you want scheduled Extraction, Transformation and Load jobs, SSIS is a great tool on the Microsoft platform and is included in most SQL Server licenses.
Or, check out Quartz.
Is it possible to run a windows form application or a console application under system account? Like asp.net application can run under system account by changing machine config file :
<processModel userName="machine" password="AutoGenerate" />
This is to give more privileges to the program ...
It sounds like you're attacking the symptom rather than the problem. What exactly does your program need to do that requires additional permissions? Maybe there's a different way of accomplishing that task without requiring any kind of elevation.
Yes. You can run any app under the system account. One technique is to launch it as a scheduled task, or by using the "at" command line utility.
Unfortunately, however, since Windows Vista, applications run in this way can't interact with the user, since they run in a different session.
This means that running a WinForms (or any kind of GUI, really) application in this way is kinda pointless. Similarly for a console app, if you want to see the output.
If it's for a one-off, you can probably live with it. Otherwise, you should be looking at creating a Windows Service, which can be configured to run under any user account (including SYSTEM). If you want to interact with it, you'll need to implement a separate app that talks to it through (e.g.) .NET remoting.
Can't you do that by launching it from a scheduled task in Windows?
That depends on what your goal is. If you want it to run under the system account and let a user interact with it, you can't do that. If you absolutely need to do this your best bet it to create a service that handles the operations that require additional priveleges and runs as System, and the connect to that service from a GUI running as user. However, if you go this route, realize that you're creating a hole in the security boundary between what a standard user can do and what System can do so be sure you protect the connection between the GUI and the service and limit the scope of the service to only what you absolutely need it to do.
As lassevk mentions if you just need to do this once or occasionally you can use runas to run in another security context but still have an interactive GUI / console.
On the other hand, if you just want it to run unattended at a certain time, you should be able to use the task scheduler like Martin suggests.