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

Have you tried the sc / service controller util? Type

sc create

at a command line, and it will give you the help entry. I think I've done this in the past for Subversion and used this article as a reference:

http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/subversion/trunk/notes/windows-service.txt

Answer 2

Just to improve perfect answer of @chris.house.00 this, you can consider following function to read from your app settings:

 public void GetServiceAndDisplayName(out string serviceNameVar, out string displayNameVar)
        {
            string configurationFilePath = Path.ChangeExtension(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location, "exe.config");
            XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
            doc.Load(configurationFilePath);

            XmlNode serviceName = doc.SelectSingleNode("//appSettings//add[@key='ServiceName']");
            XmlNode displayName = doc.SelectSingleNode("//appSettings//add[@key='DisplayName']");


            if (serviceName != null && (serviceName.Attributes != null && (serviceName.Attributes["value"] != null)))
            {
                serviceNameVar = serviceName.Attributes["value"].Value;
            }
            else
            {
                serviceNameVar = "Custom.Service.Name";
            }

            if (displayName != null && (displayName.Attributes != null && (displayName.Attributes["value"] != null)))
            {
                displayNameVar = displayName.Attributes["value"].Value;
            }
            else
            {
                displayNameVar = "Custom.Service.DisplayName";
            }
        }

Answer 3

  sc create [servicename] binpath= [path to your exe]

This solution worked for me.

Answer 4

You can run multiple versions of the same service by doing the following:

1) Copy the Service executable and config to its own folder.

2) Copy Install.Exe to the service executable folder (from .net framework folder)

3) Create a config file called Install.exe.config in the service executable folder with the following contents (unique service names):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <appSettings>
    <add key="ServiceName" value="The Service Name"/>
    <add key="DisplayName" value="The Service Display Name"/>
  </appSettings>
</configuration>

4) Create a batch file to install the service with the following contents:

REM Install
InstallUtil.exe YourService.exe
pause

5) While your there, create an uninstall batch file

REM Uninstall
InstallUtil.exe -u YourService.exe
pause

EDIT:

Note sure if I missed something, here is the ServiceInstaller Class (adjust as required):

using System.Configuration;

namespace Made4Print
{
    partial class ServiceInstaller
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Required designer variable.
        /// </summary>
        private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components = null;
        private System.ServiceProcess.ServiceInstaller FileProcessingServiceInstaller;
        private System.ServiceProcess.ServiceProcessInstaller FileProcessingServiceProcessInstaller;

        /// <summary> 
        /// Clean up any resources being used.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="disposing">true if managed resources should be disposed; otherwise, false.</param>
        protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
        {
            if (disposing && (components != null))
            {
                components.Dispose();
            }
            base.Dispose(disposing);
        }

        #region Component Designer generated code

        /// <summary>
        /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
        /// the contents of this method with the code editor.
        /// </summary>
        private void InitializeComponent()
        {
            this.FileProcessingServiceInstaller = new System.ServiceProcess.ServiceInstaller();
            this.FileProcessingServiceProcessInstaller = new System.ServiceProcess.ServiceProcessInstaller();
            // 
            // FileProcessingServiceInstaller
            // 
            this.FileProcessingServiceInstaller.ServiceName = ServiceName;
            this.FileProcessingServiceInstaller.DisplayName = DisplayName;
            // 
            // FileProcessingServiceProcessInstaller
            // 
            this.FileProcessingServiceProcessInstaller.Account = System.ServiceProcess.ServiceAccount.LocalSystem;
            this.FileProcessingServiceProcessInstaller.Password = null;
            this.FileProcessingServiceProcessInstaller.Username = null;
            // 
            // ServiceInstaller
            // 
            this.Installers.AddRange(new System.Configuration.Install.Installer[] { this.FileProcessingServiceInstaller, this.FileProcessingServiceProcessInstaller });
        }

        #endregion

        private string ServiceName
        {
            get
            {
                return (ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ServiceName"] == null ? "Made4PrintFileProcessingService" : ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ServiceName"].ToString());
            }
        }

        private string DisplayName
        {
            get
            {
                return (ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["DisplayName"] == null ? "Made4Print File Processing Service" : ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["DisplayName"].ToString());
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 5

The simplest approach is is based the service name on the dll name:

string sAssPath = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
string sAssName = System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(sAssPath);
if ((this.ServiceInstaller1.ServiceName != sAssName)) {
    this.ServiceInstaller1.ServiceName = sAssName;
    this.ServiceInstaller1.DisplayName = sAssName;
}

Answer 6

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