How to make a Windows service with parameters?

Question

I have written a Windows service, of which I want to have 1 instance running per customer. This is because the customers each have their own DB with identical schemas; the

Answer 1

You can pass parameters to your installer using installutil, for example ServiceName and DisplayName.

ProjectInstaller.cs

public partial class ProjectInstaller : Installer
{
    protected override void OnBeforeInstall(IDictionary savedState)
    {
        SetServiceName();
        base.OnBeforeInstall(savedState);
    }

    protected override void OnBeforeUninstall(IDictionary savedState)
    {
        SetServiceName();
        base.OnBeforeUninstall(savedState);
    }

    private string AppendParameter(string path, char parameter, string value)
    {
        if (!path.StartsWith("\""))
            path = $"\"{path}\"";

        if (value.Contains(" "))
            value = $"\"{value}\"";

        return $"{path} -{parameter}{value}";
    }

    private void SetServiceName()
    {
        if (Context.Parameters.ContainsKey("ServiceName"))
            serviceInstaller.ServiceName = Context.Parameters["ServiceName"];

        if (Context.Parameters.ContainsKey("DisplayName"))
            serviceInstaller.DisplayName = Context.Parameters["DisplayName"];

        Context.Parameters["assemblypath"] = AppendParameter(Context.Parameters["assemblypath"], 's', serviceInstaller.ServiceName);
    }
}

This will append a parameter to the path stored with the service, for example:

Before: "C:\Service.exe"

After: "C:\Service.exe" -s"Instance 1"

You can then read this parameter when you start the service and pass to your services constructor.

Program.cs

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    string serviceName = args.Single(x => x.StartsWith("-s")).Substring("-s".Length);

    ServiceBase service = new Service(serviceName);
    ServiceBase.Run(service);
}

Service.cs

public partial class Service : ServiceBase
{
    public Service(string serviceName)
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        ServiceName = serviceName;
    }
}

Usage

installutil /ServiceName="Instance 1" /DisplayName="Instance 1 Service" "C:\Service.exe"
installutil /ServiceName="Instance 2" /DisplayName="Instance 2 Service" "C:\Service.exe"