Installing multiple instances of the same windows service on a server

Question

So we\'ve produced a windows service to feed data to our client application and everything is going great. The client has come up with a fun configuration request that requ

Answer 1

Another quick way to specify a custom value for ServiceName and DisplayName is using installutil command line parameters.

1. In your ProjectInstaller class override virtual methods Install(IDictionary stateSaver) and Uninstall(IDictionary savedState)

   public override void Install(System.Collections.IDictionary stateSaver)
   {
       GetCustomServiceName();
       base.Install(stateSaver);
   }
   
   public override void Uninstall(System.Collections.IDictionary savedState)
   {
       GetCustomServiceName();
       base.Uninstall(savedState);
   }
   
   //Retrieve custom service name from installutil command line parameters
   private void GetCustomServiceName()
   {
       string customServiceName = Context.Parameters["servicename"];
       if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(customServiceName))
       {
           serviceInstaller1.ServiceName = customServiceName;
           serviceInstaller1.DisplayName = customServiceName;
       }
   }
   

2. Build your project

3. Install the service with installutil adding your custom name using /servicename parameter:

   installutil.exe /servicename="CustomServiceName" "c:\pathToService\SrvcExecutable.exe"
   

Please note that if you do not specify /servicename in the command line the service will be installed with ServiceName and DisplayName values specified in ProjectInstaller properties/config