Best Timer for using in a Windows service

Question

I need to create some windows service which will execute every N period of time  The question is  Which timer control should I use  System Timers Timer or System Threading Timer one  Does it influence on something     I am asking because I heard many evidences to non correct work of System Timers Timer in windows services  Thank you

User · Answer

Don t use a service for this   Create a normal application and create a scheduled task to run it  This is the commonly held best practice   Jon Galloway agrees with me   Or maybe its the other way around   Either way  the fact is that it is not best practices to create a windows service to perform an intermittent task run off a timer    quot If you re writing a Windows Service that runs a timer  you should re-evaluate your solution  quot     Jon Galloway  ASP NET MVC community program manager  author  part time superhero

User · Answer

I agree with previous comment that might be best to consider a different approach   My suggest would be write a console application and use the windows scheduler   This will    Reduce plumbing code that replicates scheduler behaviour Provide greater flexibility in terms of scheduling behaviour  e g  only run on weekends  with all scheduling logic abstracted from application code Utilise the command line arguments for parameters without having to setup configuration values in config files etc Far easier to debug test during development Allow a support user to execute by invoking the console application directly  e g  useful during support situations

User · Answer

Either one should work OK  In fact  System Threading Timer uses System Timers Timer internally   Having said that  it s easy to misuse System Timers Timer  If you don t store the Timer object in a variable somewhere  then it is liable to be garbage collected  If that happens  your timer will no longer fire  Call the Dispose method to stop the timer  or use the System Threading Timer class  which is a slightly nicer wrapper   What problems have you seen so far

User · Answer

I know this thread is a little old but it came in handy for a specific scenario I had and I thought it worth while to note that there is another reason why System Threading Timer might be a good approach   When you have to periodically execute a Job that might take a long time and you want to ensure that the entire waiting period is used between jobs or if you don t want the job to run again before the previous job has finished in the case where the  job takes longer than the timer period   You could use the following   using System  using System ServiceProcess  using System Threading       public partial class TimerExampleService   ServiceBase               private AutoResetEvent AutoEventInstance   get  set            private StatusChecker StatusCheckerInstance   get  set            private Timer StateTimer   get  set            public int TimerInterval   get  set             public CaseIndexingService                         InitializeComponent                TimerInterval   300000                     protected override void OnStart string   args                        AutoEventInstance   new AutoResetEvent false               StatusCheckerInstance   new StatusChecker                    Create the delegate that invokes methods for the timer              TimerCallback timerDelegate                   new TimerCallback StatusCheckerInstance CheckStatus                   Create a timer that signals the delegate to invoke                 1 CheckStatus immediately                  2 Wait until the job is finished                 3 then wait 5 minutes before executing again                  4 Repeat from point 2              Console WriteLine   0  Creating timer  n                   DateTime Now ToString  h mm ss fff                   Start Immediately but don t run again              StateTimer   new Timer timerDelegate  AutoEventInstance  0  Timeout Infinite               while  StateTimer    null                                  Wait until the job is done                 AutoEventInstance WaitOne                      Wait for 5 minutes before starting the job again                  StateTimer Change TimerInterval  Timeout Infinite                               If the Job somehow takes longer than 5 minutes to complete then it wont matter because we will always wait another 5 minutes before running again                     protected override void OnStop                         StateTimer Dispose                         class StatusChecker                        public StatusChecker                                               This method is called by the timer delegate              public void CheckStatus Object stateInfo                                AutoResetEvent autoEvent    AutoResetEvent stateInfo                  Console WriteLine   0  Start Checking status                        DateTime Now ToString  h mm ss fff                       This job takes time to run  For example purposes  I put a delay in here                  int milliseconds   5000                  Thread Sleep milliseconds                     Job is now done running and the timer can now be reset to wait for the next interval                 Console WriteLine   0  Done Checking status                        DateTime Now ToString  h mm ss fff                     autoEvent Set

User · Answer

I agree with previous comment that might be best to consider a different approach   My suggest would be write a console application and use the windows scheduler   This will    Reduce plumbing code that replicates scheduler behaviour Provide greater flexibility in terms of scheduling behaviour  e g  only run on weekends  with all scheduling logic abstracted from application code Utilise the command line arguments for parameters without having to setup configuration values in config files etc Far easier to debug test during development Allow a support user to execute by invoking the console application directly  e g  useful during support situations

User · Answer

As already stated both System Threading Timer and System Timers Timer will work  The big difference between the two is that System Threading Timer is a wrapper arround the other one       System Threading Timer will have more exception handling while   System Timers Timer will swallow all the exceptions    This gave me big problems in the past so I would always use  System Threading Timer  and still handle your exceptions very well

User · Answer

Both System Timers Timer and System Threading Timer will work for services   The timers you want to avoid are System Web UI Timer and System Windows Forms Timer  which are respectively for ASP applications and WinForms  Using those will cause the service to load an additional assembly which is not really needed for the type of application you are building   Use System Timers Timer like the following example  also  make sure that you use a class level variable to prevent garbage collection  as stated in Tim Robinson s answer    using System  using System Timers   public class Timer1       private static System Timers Timer aTimer       public static void Main                    Normally  the timer is declared at the class level             so that it stays in scope as long as it is needed             If the timer is declared in a long-running method               KeepAlive must be used to prevent the JIT compiler             from allowing aggressive garbage collection to occur             before the method ends   See end of method             System Timers Timer aTimer              Create a timer with a ten second interval          aTimer   new System Timers Timer 10000               Hook up the Elapsed event for the timer          aTimer Elapsed    new ElapsedEventHandler OnTimedEvent               Set the Interval to 2 seconds  2000 milliseconds           aTimer Interval   2000          aTimer Enabled   true           Console WriteLine  Press the Enter key to exit the program             Console ReadLine                If the timer is declared in a long-running method  use            KeepAlive to prevent garbage collection from occurring            before the method ends            GC KeepAlive aTimer                 Specify what you want to happen when the Elapsed event is         raised      private static void OnTimedEvent object source  ElapsedEventArgs e                Console WriteLine  The Elapsed event was raised at  0    e SignalTime               This code example produces output similar to the following   Press the Enter key to exit the program  The Elapsed event was raised at 5 20 2007 8 42 27 PM The Elapsed event was raised at 5 20 2007 8 42 29 PM The Elapsed event was raised at 5 20 2007 8 42 31 PM           If you choose System Threading Timer  you can use as follows   using System  using System Threading   class TimerExample       static void Main                 AutoResetEvent autoEvent       new AutoResetEvent false           StatusChecker  statusChecker   new StatusChecker 10               Create the delegate that invokes methods for the timer          TimerCallback timerDelegate                new TimerCallback statusChecker CheckStatus               Create a timer that signals the delegate to invoke             CheckStatus after one second  and every 1 4 second             thereafter          Console WriteLine   0  Creating timer  n                DateTime Now ToString  h mm ss fff             Timer stateTimer                    new Timer timerDelegate  autoEvent  1000  250               When autoEvent signals  change the period to every             1 2 second          autoEvent WaitOne 5000  false           stateTimer Change 0  500           Console WriteLine   nChanging period  n                When autoEvent signals the second time  dispose of             the timer          autoEvent WaitOne 5000  false           stateTimer Dispose            Console WriteLine   nDestroying timer              class StatusChecker       int invokeCount  maxCount       public StatusChecker int count                invokeCount    0          maxCount   count                This method is called by the timer delegate      public void CheckStatus Object stateInfo                AutoResetEvent autoEvent    AutoResetEvent stateInfo          Console WriteLine   0  Checking status  1 2                  DateTime Now ToString  h mm ss fff                    invokeCount  ToString              if invokeCount    maxCount                           Reset the counter and signal Main              invokeCount    0              autoEvent Set                        Both examples comes from the MSDN pages

User · Answer

Don t use a service for this   Create a normal application and create a scheduled task to run it  This is the commonly held best practice   Jon Galloway agrees with me   Or maybe its the other way around   Either way  the fact is that it is not best practices to create a windows service to perform an intermittent task run off a timer    quot If you re writing a Windows Service that runs a timer  you should re-evaluate your solution  quot     Jon Galloway  ASP NET MVC community program manager  author  part time superhero

User · Answer

I agree with previous comment that might be best to consider a different approach   My suggest would be write a console application and use the windows scheduler   This will    Reduce plumbing code that replicates scheduler behaviour Provide greater flexibility in terms of scheduling behaviour  e g  only run on weekends  with all scheduling logic abstracted from application code Utilise the command line arguments for parameters without having to setup configuration values in config files etc Far easier to debug test during development Allow a support user to execute by invoking the console application directly  e g  useful during support situations

User · Answer

Both System Timers Timer and System Threading Timer will work for services   The timers you want to avoid are System Web UI Timer and System Windows Forms Timer  which are respectively for ASP applications and WinForms  Using those will cause the service to load an additional assembly which is not really needed for the type of application you are building   Use System Timers Timer like the following example  also  make sure that you use a class level variable to prevent garbage collection  as stated in Tim Robinson s answer    using System  using System Timers   public class Timer1       private static System Timers Timer aTimer       public static void Main                    Normally  the timer is declared at the class level             so that it stays in scope as long as it is needed             If the timer is declared in a long-running method               KeepAlive must be used to prevent the JIT compiler             from allowing aggressive garbage collection to occur             before the method ends   See end of method             System Timers Timer aTimer              Create a timer with a ten second interval          aTimer   new System Timers Timer 10000               Hook up the Elapsed event for the timer          aTimer Elapsed    new ElapsedEventHandler OnTimedEvent               Set the Interval to 2 seconds  2000 milliseconds           aTimer Interval   2000          aTimer Enabled   true           Console WriteLine  Press the Enter key to exit the program             Console ReadLine                If the timer is declared in a long-running method  use            KeepAlive to prevent garbage collection from occurring            before the method ends            GC KeepAlive aTimer                 Specify what you want to happen when the Elapsed event is         raised      private static void OnTimedEvent object source  ElapsedEventArgs e                Console WriteLine  The Elapsed event was raised at  0    e SignalTime               This code example produces output similar to the following   Press the Enter key to exit the program  The Elapsed event was raised at 5 20 2007 8 42 27 PM The Elapsed event was raised at 5 20 2007 8 42 29 PM The Elapsed event was raised at 5 20 2007 8 42 31 PM           If you choose System Threading Timer  you can use as follows   using System  using System Threading   class TimerExample       static void Main                 AutoResetEvent autoEvent       new AutoResetEvent false           StatusChecker  statusChecker   new StatusChecker 10               Create the delegate that invokes methods for the timer          TimerCallback timerDelegate                new TimerCallback statusChecker CheckStatus               Create a timer that signals the delegate to invoke             CheckStatus after one second  and every 1 4 second             thereafter          Console WriteLine   0  Creating timer  n                DateTime Now ToString  h mm ss fff             Timer stateTimer                    new Timer timerDelegate  autoEvent  1000  250               When autoEvent signals  change the period to every             1 2 second          autoEvent WaitOne 5000  false           stateTimer Change 0  500           Console WriteLine   nChanging period  n                When autoEvent signals the second time  dispose of             the timer          autoEvent WaitOne 5000  false           stateTimer Dispose            Console WriteLine   nDestroying timer              class StatusChecker       int invokeCount  maxCount       public StatusChecker int count                invokeCount    0          maxCount   count                This method is called by the timer delegate      public void CheckStatus Object stateInfo                AutoResetEvent autoEvent    AutoResetEvent stateInfo          Console WriteLine   0  Checking status  1 2                  DateTime Now ToString  h mm ss fff                    invokeCount  ToString              if invokeCount    maxCount                           Reset the counter and signal Main              invokeCount    0              autoEvent Set                        Both examples comes from the MSDN pages

User · Answer

I agree with previous comment that might be best to consider a different approach   My suggest would be write a console application and use the windows scheduler   This will    Reduce plumbing code that replicates scheduler behaviour Provide greater flexibility in terms of scheduling behaviour  e g  only run on weekends  with all scheduling logic abstracted from application code Utilise the command line arguments for parameters without having to setup configuration values in config files etc Far easier to debug test during development Allow a support user to execute by invoking the console application directly  e g  useful during support situations

User · Answer

I know this thread is a little old but it came in handy for a specific scenario I had and I thought it worth while to note that there is another reason why System Threading Timer might be a good approach   When you have to periodically execute a Job that might take a long time and you want to ensure that the entire waiting period is used between jobs or if you don t want the job to run again before the previous job has finished in the case where the  job takes longer than the timer period   You could use the following   using System  using System ServiceProcess  using System Threading       public partial class TimerExampleService   ServiceBase               private AutoResetEvent AutoEventInstance   get  set            private StatusChecker StatusCheckerInstance   get  set            private Timer StateTimer   get  set            public int TimerInterval   get  set             public CaseIndexingService                         InitializeComponent                TimerInterval   300000                     protected override void OnStart string   args                        AutoEventInstance   new AutoResetEvent false               StatusCheckerInstance   new StatusChecker                    Create the delegate that invokes methods for the timer              TimerCallback timerDelegate                   new TimerCallback StatusCheckerInstance CheckStatus                   Create a timer that signals the delegate to invoke                 1 CheckStatus immediately                  2 Wait until the job is finished                 3 then wait 5 minutes before executing again                  4 Repeat from point 2              Console WriteLine   0  Creating timer  n                   DateTime Now ToString  h mm ss fff                   Start Immediately but don t run again              StateTimer   new Timer timerDelegate  AutoEventInstance  0  Timeout Infinite               while  StateTimer    null                                  Wait until the job is done                 AutoEventInstance WaitOne                      Wait for 5 minutes before starting the job again                  StateTimer Change TimerInterval  Timeout Infinite                               If the Job somehow takes longer than 5 minutes to complete then it wont matter because we will always wait another 5 minutes before running again                     protected override void OnStop                         StateTimer Dispose                         class StatusChecker                        public StatusChecker                                               This method is called by the timer delegate              public void CheckStatus Object stateInfo                                AutoResetEvent autoEvent    AutoResetEvent stateInfo                  Console WriteLine   0  Start Checking status                        DateTime Now ToString  h mm ss fff                       This job takes time to run  For example purposes  I put a delay in here                  int milliseconds   5000                  Thread Sleep milliseconds                     Job is now done running and the timer can now be reset to wait for the next interval                 Console WriteLine   0  Done Checking status                        DateTime Now ToString  h mm ss fff                     autoEvent Set

User · Answer

Either one should work OK  In fact  System Threading Timer uses System Timers Timer internally   Having said that  it s easy to misuse System Timers Timer  If you don t store the Timer object in a variable somewhere  then it is liable to be garbage collected  If that happens  your timer will no longer fire  Call the Dispose method to stop the timer  or use the System Threading Timer class  which is a slightly nicer wrapper   What problems have you seen so far

User · Answer

Don t use a service for this   Create a normal application and create a scheduled task to run it  This is the commonly held best practice   Jon Galloway agrees with me   Or maybe its the other way around   Either way  the fact is that it is not best practices to create a windows service to perform an intermittent task run off a timer    quot If you re writing a Windows Service that runs a timer  you should re-evaluate your solution  quot     Jon Galloway  ASP NET MVC community program manager  author  part time superhero

User · Answer

Both System Timers Timer and System Threading Timer will work for services   The timers you want to avoid are System Web UI Timer and System Windows Forms Timer  which are respectively for ASP applications and WinForms  Using those will cause the service to load an additional assembly which is not really needed for the type of application you are building   Use System Timers Timer like the following example  also  make sure that you use a class level variable to prevent garbage collection  as stated in Tim Robinson s answer    using System  using System Timers   public class Timer1       private static System Timers Timer aTimer       public static void Main                    Normally  the timer is declared at the class level             so that it stays in scope as long as it is needed             If the timer is declared in a long-running method               KeepAlive must be used to prevent the JIT compiler             from allowing aggressive garbage collection to occur             before the method ends   See end of method             System Timers Timer aTimer              Create a timer with a ten second interval          aTimer   new System Timers Timer 10000               Hook up the Elapsed event for the timer          aTimer Elapsed    new ElapsedEventHandler OnTimedEvent               Set the Interval to 2 seconds  2000 milliseconds           aTimer Interval   2000          aTimer Enabled   true           Console WriteLine  Press the Enter key to exit the program             Console ReadLine                If the timer is declared in a long-running method  use            KeepAlive to prevent garbage collection from occurring            before the method ends            GC KeepAlive aTimer                 Specify what you want to happen when the Elapsed event is         raised      private static void OnTimedEvent object source  ElapsedEventArgs e                Console WriteLine  The Elapsed event was raised at  0    e SignalTime               This code example produces output similar to the following   Press the Enter key to exit the program  The Elapsed event was raised at 5 20 2007 8 42 27 PM The Elapsed event was raised at 5 20 2007 8 42 29 PM The Elapsed event was raised at 5 20 2007 8 42 31 PM           If you choose System Threading Timer  you can use as follows   using System  using System Threading   class TimerExample       static void Main                 AutoResetEvent autoEvent       new AutoResetEvent false           StatusChecker  statusChecker   new StatusChecker 10               Create the delegate that invokes methods for the timer          TimerCallback timerDelegate                new TimerCallback statusChecker CheckStatus               Create a timer that signals the delegate to invoke             CheckStatus after one second  and every 1 4 second             thereafter          Console WriteLine   0  Creating timer  n                DateTime Now ToString  h mm ss fff             Timer stateTimer                    new Timer timerDelegate  autoEvent  1000  250               When autoEvent signals  change the period to every             1 2 second          autoEvent WaitOne 5000  false           stateTimer Change 0  500           Console WriteLine   nChanging period  n                When autoEvent signals the second time  dispose of             the timer          autoEvent WaitOne 5000  false           stateTimer Dispose            Console WriteLine   nDestroying timer              class StatusChecker       int invokeCount  maxCount       public StatusChecker int count                invokeCount    0          maxCount   count                This method is called by the timer delegate      public void CheckStatus Object stateInfo                AutoResetEvent autoEvent    AutoResetEvent stateInfo          Console WriteLine   0  Checking status  1 2                  DateTime Now ToString  h mm ss fff                    invokeCount  ToString              if invokeCount    maxCount                           Reset the counter and signal Main              invokeCount    0              autoEvent Set                        Both examples comes from the MSDN pages

User · Answer

Either one should work OK  In fact  System Threading Timer uses System Timers Timer internally   Having said that  it s easy to misuse System Timers Timer  If you don t store the Timer object in a variable somewhere  then it is liable to be garbage collected  If that happens  your timer will no longer fire  Call the Dispose method to stop the timer  or use the System Threading Timer class  which is a slightly nicer wrapper   What problems have you seen so far

User · Answer

Either one should work OK  In fact  System Threading Timer uses System Timers Timer internally   Having said that  it s easy to misuse System Timers Timer  If you don t store the Timer object in a variable somewhere  then it is liable to be garbage collected  If that happens  your timer will no longer fire  Call the Dispose method to stop the timer  or use the System Threading Timer class  which is a slightly nicer wrapper   What problems have you seen so far

User · Answer

Both System Timers Timer and System Threading Timer will work for services   The timers you want to avoid are System Web UI Timer and System Windows Forms Timer  which are respectively for ASP applications and WinForms  Using those will cause the service to load an additional assembly which is not really needed for the type of application you are building   Use System Timers Timer like the following example  also  make sure that you use a class level variable to prevent garbage collection  as stated in Tim Robinson s answer    using System  using System Timers   public class Timer1       private static System Timers Timer aTimer       public static void Main                    Normally  the timer is declared at the class level             so that it stays in scope as long as it is needed             If the timer is declared in a long-running method               KeepAlive must be used to prevent the JIT compiler             from allowing aggressive garbage collection to occur             before the method ends   See end of method             System Timers Timer aTimer              Create a timer with a ten second interval          aTimer   new System Timers Timer 10000               Hook up the Elapsed event for the timer          aTimer Elapsed    new ElapsedEventHandler OnTimedEvent               Set the Interval to 2 seconds  2000 milliseconds           aTimer Interval   2000          aTimer Enabled   true           Console WriteLine  Press the Enter key to exit the program             Console ReadLine                If the timer is declared in a long-running method  use            KeepAlive to prevent garbage collection from occurring            before the method ends            GC KeepAlive aTimer                 Specify what you want to happen when the Elapsed event is         raised      private static void OnTimedEvent object source  ElapsedEventArgs e                Console WriteLine  The Elapsed event was raised at  0    e SignalTime               This code example produces output similar to the following   Press the Enter key to exit the program  The Elapsed event was raised at 5 20 2007 8 42 27 PM The Elapsed event was raised at 5 20 2007 8 42 29 PM The Elapsed event was raised at 5 20 2007 8 42 31 PM           If you choose System Threading Timer  you can use as follows   using System  using System Threading   class TimerExample       static void Main                 AutoResetEvent autoEvent       new AutoResetEvent false           StatusChecker  statusChecker   new StatusChecker 10               Create the delegate that invokes methods for the timer          TimerCallback timerDelegate                new TimerCallback statusChecker CheckStatus               Create a timer that signals the delegate to invoke             CheckStatus after one second  and every 1 4 second             thereafter          Console WriteLine   0  Creating timer  n                DateTime Now ToString  h mm ss fff             Timer stateTimer                    new Timer timerDelegate  autoEvent  1000  250               When autoEvent signals  change the period to every             1 2 second          autoEvent WaitOne 5000  false           stateTimer Change 0  500           Console WriteLine   nChanging period  n                When autoEvent signals the second time  dispose of             the timer          autoEvent WaitOne 5000  false           stateTimer Dispose            Console WriteLine   nDestroying timer              class StatusChecker       int invokeCount  maxCount       public StatusChecker int count                invokeCount    0          maxCount   count                This method is called by the timer delegate      public void CheckStatus Object stateInfo                AutoResetEvent autoEvent    AutoResetEvent stateInfo          Console WriteLine   0  Checking status  1 2                  DateTime Now ToString  h mm ss fff                    invokeCount  ToString              if invokeCount    maxCount                           Reset the counter and signal Main              invokeCount    0              autoEvent Set                        Both examples comes from the MSDN pages

User · Answer

Don t use a service for this   Create a normal application and create a scheduled task to run it  This is the commonly held best practice   Jon Galloway agrees with me   Or maybe its the other way around   Either way  the fact is that it is not best practices to create a windows service to perform an intermittent task run off a timer    quot If you re writing a Windows Service that runs a timer  you should re-evaluate your solution  quot     Jon Galloway  ASP NET MVC community program manager  author  part time superhero

User · Answer

As already stated both System Threading Timer and System Timers Timer will work  The big difference between the two is that System Threading Timer is a wrapper arround the other one       System Threading Timer will have more exception handling while   System Timers Timer will swallow all the exceptions    This gave me big problems in the past so I would always use  System Threading Timer  and still handle your exceptions very well

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