Installation
When self-hosting a Windows Service, the startup code is in full control of installation. Windows supports these features though the use of the Service Control tool. For example, a basic install and uninstall commands would be:
sc.exe create SalesEndpoint binpath= "c:\SalesEndpoint\SalesEndpoint.exe --run-as-service"
sc.exe delete SalesEndpoint
For completeness, here are some other common usages of the Service Control tool:
Setting the Windows Service name
The Windows Service name can be configured at creation time, as follows:
sc.exe create [ServiceName] binpath= [BinaryPathName]
sc.exe create SalesEndpoint binpath= "c:\SalesEndpoint\SalesEndpoint.exe --run-as-service"
Setting the Display name
The display name can be configured, at creation time, using the displayname argument:
sc.exe create [ServiceName] displayname= [Description] binpath= [BinaryPathName]
sc.exe create SalesEndpoint displayname= "Sales Endpoint" binpath= "c:\SalesEndpoint\SalesEndpoint.exe --run-as-service"
Setting the Description
The description can be changed, after the Windows Service has been created, using the sc description command.
sc.exe description [ServiceName] [Description]
sc.exe description SalesEndpoint "Service for hosting the Sales Endpoint"
Specifying Service dependencies
The dependencies of a Windows Service can be configured after it has been created using the sc config command.
sc.exe config [ServiceName] depend= <Dependencies(separated by / (forward slash))>
sc.exe config SalesEndpoint depend= MSMQ/MSDTC/RavenDB
Setting the Restart Recovery Options
Windows has a Windows Service recovery mechanism that makes sure a crashed process will be restarted.
The endpoint can fail when self-hosting and implementing a critical error handler that exits the process in case a critical error occurs.
If Windows Service Recovery is not configured, message processing will halt. Therefore it's important to configure recovery options when hosting an NServiceBus endpoint as a Windows Service.
The recovery options can be adjusted via the Services dialog or via sc.. Note that the command line tool has advanced configuration options.
Configuring Windows Service Recovery via sc.exe
The default restart duration is 1 minute when enabling recovery via the Windows Service Management Console, but a different restart duration may be defined for the subsequent restarts using sc..
The following example will restart the process after 5 seconds the first time, after 10 seconds the second time and then every 60 seconds. The Restart Service Count is reset after 1 hour (3600 seconds) of uninterrupted work since the last restart.
sc.exe failure [ServiceName] reset= [seconds] actions= restart/[milliseconds]/restart/[milliseconds]/restart/[milliseconds]
sc.exe failure SalesEndpoint reset= 3600 actions= restart/5000/restart/10000/restart/60000
Configuring Service Recovery via Windows Service properties
Open the services window, select the endpoint Windows Service and open its properties. Then open the Recovery tab to adjust the settings:
Restart durations are only configurable using sc..
Username and password
Username and password can be configured at creation time using the obj and password parameters.
sc.exe create [ServiceName] obj= [AccountName] password= [Password] binpath= [BinaryPathName]
sc.exe create SalesEndpoint obj= MyDomain\SalesUser password= 9t6X7gkz binpath= "c:\SalesEndpoint\SalesEndpoint.exe --run-as-service"
Start mode
The Windows Service start mode can be configured at creation time using the start parameter.
sc.exe create [ServiceName] start= {auto | demand | disabled} binpath= [BinaryPathName]
sc.exe create SalesEndpoint start= demand binpath= "c:\SalesEndpoint\SalesEndpoint.exe --run-as-service"
Uninstall
A Windows Service can be uninstalled using the sc delete command.
sc.exe delete [ServiceName]
sc.exe delete SalesEndpoint