Cumulus MX as a Server Service..

[bmdoss]

I have been running the EXE as a windows service on Server 2012 R2 its working GREAT.. Really not many issues to speak about..

[mcrossley]

How? Using ServiceEx, SrvAny etc.? I think for the beta keeping the console output visible is probably useful, even if it is not how you would run a production system.

[Adrian Hudson]

Well, since there was no reply to this, I thought I would share my experiences running as a service...

I tried just using SC to install as a service but cumulus wouldn't run. Don't know why and I didn't spend a lot of time trying. It seemed not to actually start, or if it did start it didn't get as far as writing to the diags file.

So, I used my old friend nssm (the Non-Sucking Service Manager - nssm.cc).

I simply entered the application path and start up directory. I left everything else default. It seems to run really well. The default is to run as the local system account and it hasn't appeared to cause any issues. It could be configured to run as a user but I havn't tried that.

My only concern is that nssm issues ctrl-c by default as the first attempt to tell a program that it is running to close and I think this just ends cumulus (or even mono) non-gracefully. So far it hasn't caused any problems but I suppose one day it might. Perhaps Steve might comment on possible effects of ctrl-c (or just closing the console) on Cumulus and its data.

[steve]

Perhaps Steve might comment on possible effects of ctrl-c (or just closing the console) on Cumulus and its data.

If the last entries in the diags file aren't something like

Key pressed - terminating
2015-01-16 18:36:53.231 Cumulus closing
2015-01-16 18:36:53.231 Writing Cumulus.ini file
2015-01-16 18:36:53.247 Closing connection
2015-01-16 18:36:53.278 Station stopped

then it hasn't been closed cleanly, and it might cause corruptions in the data files.

[steve]

It looks like neither ctrl-c nor closing the command window result in a clean closedown. However, it appears that I can trap both of those and perform a clean closedown.

[Adrian Hudson]

It looks like neither ctrl-c nor closing the command window result in a clean closedown. However, it appears that I can trap both of those and perform a clean closedown.

...that would be brilliant if you could because I was just about to post this:

No, it doesn't log those - so I wouldn't recommend running as a service in that case. It appears it can be done but shutting down might be a problem. Some service managers can issue commands - I believe firedaemon can, in which case it might be possible to simulate typing a key in the console window to initiate a shutdown. Unfortunately it looks like firedaemon has no free version any more - they used to have a free version that would manage a single service.

[Adrian Hudson]

I can confirm that Build 3010 now closes in a controlled manner when running as a service under nssm.

I can now use net start CumulusMX or net stop CumulusMX.

net stop gave me:
Exiting system due to external CTRL-C, or process kill, or shutdown
2015-01-18 16:38:16.164 Cumulus closing
2015-01-18 16:38:16.183 Writing Cumulus.ini file

Excellent!! Thanks Steve.