How can a windows service programmatically restart itself

Question

I need to write robust code in  NET to enable a windows service  server 2003  to restart itself  What is the best way to so this  Is there some  NET API to do it

User · Answer

It would depend on why you want it to restart itself.

If you are just looking for a way to have the service clean itself out periodically then you could have a timer running in the service that periodically causes a purge routine.

If you are looking for a way to restart on failure - the service host itself can provide that ability when it is setup.

So why do you need to restart the server? What are you trying to achieve?

User · Answer

private static void  RestartService string serviceName                using  var controller   new ServiceController serviceName                         controller Stop                int counter   0              while  controller Status    ServiceControllerStatus Stopped                                Thread Sleep 100                   controller Refresh                    counter                    if  counter  gt  1000                                        throw new System TimeoutException string Format  Could not stop service   0    Constants Series6Service WindowsServiceName                                                 controller Start

User · Answer

Set the service to restart after failure  double click the service in the control panel and have a look around on those tabs - I forget the name of it    Then  anytime you want the service to restart  just call Environment Exit 1   or any non-zero return  and the OS will restart it for you

User · Answer

I don t think it can  When a service is  stopped   it gets totally unloaded   Well  OK  there s always a way I suppose  For instance  you could create a detached process to stop the service  then restart it  then exit

User · Answer

The better approach may be to utilize the NT Service as a wrapper for your application   When the NT Service is started  your application can start in an  idle  mode waiting for the command to start  or be configured to start automatically      Think of a car  when it s started it begins in an idle state  waiting for your command to go forward or reverse   This also allows for other benefits  such as better remote administration as you can choose how to expose your application

User · Answer

I don t think you can in a self-contained service  when you call Restart  it will stop the service  which will interrupt the Restart command  and it won t ever get started again   If you can add a second  exe  a Console app that uses the ServiceManager class   then you can kick off the standalone  exe and have it restart the service and then exit   On second thought  you could probably have the service register a Scheduled Task  using the command-line  at  command  for example  to start the service and then have it stop itself  that would probably work

User · Answer

The better approach may be to utilize the NT Service as a wrapper for your application   When the NT Service is started  your application can start in an  idle  mode waiting for the command to start  or be configured to start automatically      Think of a car  when it s started it begins in an idle state  waiting for your command to go forward or reverse   This also allows for other benefits  such as better remote administration as you can choose how to expose your application

User · Answer

I would use the Windows Scheduler to schedule a restart of your service   The problem is that you can t restart yourself  but you can stop yourself    You ve essentially sawed off the branch that you re sitting on    if you get my analogy   You need a separate process to do it for you   The Windows Scheduler is an appropriate one   Schedule a one-time task to restart your service  even from within the service itself  to execute immediately   Otherwise  you ll have to create a  shepherding  process that does it for you

User · Answer

The first response to the question is the simplest solution   Environment Exit 1   I am using this on Windows Server 2008 R2 and it works perfectly  The service stops itself  the O S waits 1 minute  then restarts it

User · Answer

You can create a subprocess using Windows cmd exe that restarts yourself   Process process   new Process     process StartInfo FileName    quot cmd quot    process StartInfo Arguments    quot  c net stop   quot servicename  quot   amp  net start   quot servicename  quot  quot    process Start

User · Answer

You can t be sure that the user account that your service is running under even has permissions to stop and restart the service

User · Answer

I don t think you can in a self-contained service  when you call Restart  it will stop the service  which will interrupt the Restart command  and it won t ever get started again   If you can add a second  exe  a Console app that uses the ServiceManager class   then you can kick off the standalone  exe and have it restart the service and then exit   On second thought  you could probably have the service register a Scheduled Task  using the command-line  at  command  for example  to start the service and then have it stop itself  that would probably work

User · Answer

I don t think it can  When a service is  stopped   it gets totally unloaded   Well  OK  there s always a way I suppose  For instance  you could create a detached process to stop the service  then restart it  then exit

User · Answer

const string strCmdText     C net stop   SERVICENAME   amp net start   SERVICENAME     Process Start  CMD exe   strCmdText     where SERVICENAME is the name of your service  double quotes included to account for spaces in the service name  can be omitted otherwise    Clean  no auto-restart configuration necessary

User · Answer

You can t be sure that the user account that your service is running under even has permissions to stop and restart the service

User · Answer

Set the service to restart after failure  double click the service in the control panel and have a look around on those tabs - I forget the name of it    Then  anytime you want the service to restart  just call Environment Exit 1   or any non-zero return  and the OS will restart it for you

User · Answer

It would depend on why you want it to restart itself.

If you are just looking for a way to have the service clean itself out periodically then you could have a timer running in the service that periodically causes a purge routine.

If you are looking for a way to restart on failure - the service host itself can provide that ability when it is setup.

So why do you need to restart the server? What are you trying to achieve?

User · Answer

Create a separate appdomain to host the application code  When requires restart  we could unload and reload the appdomain instead the process  windows service   This is how IIS app pool works  they dont run asp net app directly  they use separate appdmain

User · Answer

Set the service to restart after failure  double click the service in the control panel and have a look around on those tabs - I forget the name of it    Then  anytime you want the service to restart  just call Environment Exit 1   or any non-zero return  and the OS will restart it for you

User · Answer

Create a separate appdomain to host the application code  When requires restart  we could unload and reload the appdomain instead the process  windows service   This is how IIS app pool works  they dont run asp net app directly  they use separate appdmain

User · Answer

The easiest way is to have a batch file with   net stop  net start   and add the file to the scheduler with your desired time interval

User · Answer

You can t be sure that the user account that your service is running under even has permissions to stop and restart the service

User · Answer

The problem with shelling out to a batch file or EXE is that a service may or may not have the permissions required to run the external app   The cleanest way to do this that I have found is to use the OnStop   method  which is the entry point for the Service Control Manager   Then all your cleanup code will run  and you won t have any hanging sockets or other processes  assuming your stop code is doing its job     To do this you need to set a flag before you terminate that tells the OnStop method to exit with an error code  then the SCM knows that the service needs to be restarted  Without this flag you won t be able to stop the service manually from the SCM   This also assumes you have set up the service to restart on an error     Here s my stop code        bool ABORT   protected override void OnStop         Logger log  Stopping service        WorkThreadRun   false      WorkThread Join        Logger stop           if there was a problem  set an exit error code        so the service manager will restart this     if ABORT Environment Exit 1       If the service runs into a problem and needs to restart  I launch a thread that stops the service from the SCM  This allows the service to clean up after itself        if NeedToRestart        ABORT   true      new Thread RestartThread  Start       void RestartThread         ServiceController sc   new ServiceController ServiceName       try               sc Stop              catch  Exception

User · Answer

I would use the Windows Scheduler to schedule a restart of your service   The problem is that you can t restart yourself  but you can stop yourself    You ve essentially sawed off the branch that you re sitting on    if you get my analogy   You need a separate process to do it for you   The Windows Scheduler is an appropriate one   Schedule a one-time task to restart your service  even from within the service itself  to execute immediately   Otherwise  you ll have to create a  shepherding  process that does it for you

User · Answer

You can t be sure that the user account that your service is running under even has permissions to stop and restart the service

User · Answer

I don t think it can  When a service is  stopped   it gets totally unloaded   Well  OK  there s always a way I suppose  For instance  you could create a detached process to stop the service  then restart it  then exit

User · Answer

const string strCmdText     C net stop   SERVICENAME   amp net start   SERVICENAME     Process Start  CMD exe   strCmdText     where SERVICENAME is the name of your service  double quotes included to account for spaces in the service name  can be omitted otherwise    Clean  no auto-restart configuration necessary

User · Answer

Set the service to restart after failure  double click the service in the control panel and have a look around on those tabs - I forget the name of it    Then  anytime you want the service to restart  just call Environment Exit 1   or any non-zero return  and the OS will restart it for you

User · Answer

Just passing  and thought i would add some extra info     you can also throw an exception  this will auto close the windows service  and the auto re-start options just kick in  the only issue with this is that if you have a dev enviroment on your pc then the JIT tries to kick in  and you will get a prompt saying debug Y N    say no and then it will close  and then re-start properly   on a PC with no JIT it just all works   the reason im trolling  is this JIT is new to Win 7  it used to work fine with XP etc  and im trying to find a way of disabling the JIT     i may try the Environment Exit method mentioned here see how that works too   Kristian   Bristol  UK

User · Answer

It would depend on why you want it to restart itself.

If you are just looking for a way to have the service clean itself out periodically then you could have a timer running in the service that periodically causes a purge routine.

If you are looking for a way to restart on failure - the service host itself can provide that ability when it is setup.

So why do you need to restart the server? What are you trying to achieve?

User · Answer

The better approach may be to utilize the NT Service as a wrapper for your application   When the NT Service is started  your application can start in an  idle  mode waiting for the command to start  or be configured to start automatically      Think of a car  when it s started it begins in an idle state  waiting for your command to go forward or reverse   This also allows for other benefits  such as better remote administration as you can choose how to expose your application

User · Answer

The easiest way is to have a batch file with   net stop  net start   and add the file to the scheduler with your desired time interval

User · Answer

Create a restart bat file like this   echo on set once  C  Program Files MyService once bat  set taskname Restart MyService set service MyService echo rem  time   gt  once  echo net stop  service   gt  gt  once  echo net start  service   gt  gt  once  echo del  once   gt  gt  once   schtasks  create  ru  System   tn  taskname   tr   once    sc onstart  F  V1  Z schtasks  run  tn  taskname    Then delete the task  taskname  when your  service  starts

User · Answer

The better approach may be to utilize the NT Service as a wrapper for your application   When the NT Service is started  your application can start in an  idle  mode waiting for the command to start  or be configured to start automatically      Think of a car  when it s started it begins in an idle state  waiting for your command to go forward or reverse   This also allows for other benefits  such as better remote administration as you can choose how to expose your application

User · Answer

Dim proc As New Process   Dim psi As New ProcessStartInfo    psi CreateNoWindow   True psi FileName    cmd exe  psi Arguments     C net stop YOURSERVICENAMEHERE  amp  amp  net start YOURSERVICENAMEHERE  psi LoadUserProfile   False psi UseShellExecute   False psi WindowStyle   ProcessWindowStyle Hidden proc StartInfo   psi proc Start

User · Answer

The first response to the question is the simplest solution   Environment Exit 1   I am using this on Windows Server 2008 R2 and it works perfectly  The service stops itself  the O S waits 1 minute  then restarts it

User · Answer

I don t think you can in a self-contained service  when you call Restart  it will stop the service  which will interrupt the Restart command  and it won t ever get started again   If you can add a second  exe  a Console app that uses the ServiceManager class   then you can kick off the standalone  exe and have it restart the service and then exit   On second thought  you could probably have the service register a Scheduled Task  using the command-line  at  command  for example  to start the service and then have it stop itself  that would probably work

User · Answer

I don t think you can in a self-contained service  when you call Restart  it will stop the service  which will interrupt the Restart command  and it won t ever get started again   If you can add a second  exe  a Console app that uses the ServiceManager class   then you can kick off the standalone  exe and have it restart the service and then exit   On second thought  you could probably have the service register a Scheduled Task  using the command-line  at  command  for example  to start the service and then have it stop itself  that would probably work

User · Answer

Create a restart bat file like this   echo on set once  C  Program Files MyService once bat  set taskname Restart MyService set service MyService echo rem  time   gt  once  echo net stop  service   gt  gt  once  echo net start  service   gt  gt  once  echo del  once   gt  gt  once   schtasks  create  ru  System   tn  taskname   tr   once    sc onstart  F  V1  Z schtasks  run  tn  taskname    Then delete the task  taskname  when your  service  starts

User · Answer

Dim proc As New Process   Dim psi As New ProcessStartInfo    psi CreateNoWindow   True psi FileName    cmd exe  psi Arguments     C net stop YOURSERVICENAMEHERE  amp  amp  net start YOURSERVICENAMEHERE  psi LoadUserProfile   False psi UseShellExecute   False psi WindowStyle   ProcessWindowStyle Hidden proc StartInfo   psi proc Start

User · Answer

Just passing  and thought i would add some extra info     you can also throw an exception  this will auto close the windows service  and the auto re-start options just kick in  the only issue with this is that if you have a dev enviroment on your pc then the JIT tries to kick in  and you will get a prompt saying debug Y N    say no and then it will close  and then re-start properly   on a PC with no JIT it just all works   the reason im trolling  is this JIT is new to Win 7  it used to work fine with XP etc  and im trying to find a way of disabling the JIT     i may try the Environment Exit method mentioned here see how that works too   Kristian   Bristol  UK

User · Answer

You can create a subprocess using Windows cmd exe that restarts yourself   Process process   new Process     process StartInfo FileName    quot cmd quot    process StartInfo Arguments    quot  c net stop   quot servicename  quot   amp  net start   quot servicename  quot  quot    process Start

User · Answer

It would depend on why you want it to restart itself.

If you are just looking for a way to have the service clean itself out periodically then you could have a timer running in the service that periodically causes a purge routine.

If you are looking for a way to restart on failure - the service host itself can provide that ability when it is setup.

So why do you need to restart the server? What are you trying to achieve?

User · Answer

I don t think it can  When a service is  stopped   it gets totally unloaded   Well  OK  there s always a way I suppose  For instance  you could create a detached process to stop the service  then restart it  then exit

User · Answer

The problem with shelling out to a batch file or EXE is that a service may or may not have the permissions required to run the external app   The cleanest way to do this that I have found is to use the OnStop   method  which is the entry point for the Service Control Manager   Then all your cleanup code will run  and you won t have any hanging sockets or other processes  assuming your stop code is doing its job     To do this you need to set a flag before you terminate that tells the OnStop method to exit with an error code  then the SCM knows that the service needs to be restarted  Without this flag you won t be able to stop the service manually from the SCM   This also assumes you have set up the service to restart on an error     Here s my stop code        bool ABORT   protected override void OnStop         Logger log  Stopping service        WorkThreadRun   false      WorkThread Join        Logger stop           if there was a problem  set an exit error code        so the service manager will restart this     if ABORT Environment Exit 1       If the service runs into a problem and needs to restart  I launch a thread that stops the service from the SCM  This allows the service to clean up after itself        if NeedToRestart        ABORT   true      new Thread RestartThread  Start       void RestartThread         ServiceController sc   new ServiceController ServiceName       try               sc Stop              catch  Exception

User · Answer

private static void  RestartService string serviceName                using  var controller   new ServiceController serviceName                         controller Stop                int counter   0              while  controller Status    ServiceControllerStatus Stopped                                Thread Sleep 100                   controller Refresh                    counter                    if  counter  gt  1000                                        throw new System TimeoutException string Format  Could not stop service   0    Constants Series6Service WindowsServiceName                                                 controller Start

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