Cumulus as Windows service on Windows Home Server 2011

[skmorgan1944]

I have read the various posts on running Cumulus as a Windows service though unless I have missed something, there seem to be a few problems.

I am currently building a new home server on an HP Microserver (looks like good value with cashback) using Windows Home Server 2011 (WHS2011). For a number of reasons I don't want to leave the server running with a logged on user just so that Cumulus can run.

I am not concerned about frequent interaction with Cumulus GUI as I am happy to view data FTP'd to my web site which is my current setup albeit having to leave my "server" (aka an old laptop) with a user logged on.

So my question is can and/or how can I run Cumulus as a service on WHS2011?

Any comments/tips/tutorials etc most gratefully received.

Thanks
Simon Morgan

[steve]

The only way you would be able to do it would be use srvany or something similar. My understanding is that this method works and a number of people are using it.

[skmorgan1944]

The only way you would be able to do it would be use srvany or something similar. My understanding is that this method works and a number of people are using it.

Hi Steve,
I had noted this from some earlier posts and have downloaded a copy ready to try when my WHS2011 is fully up and running. However I think someone reported that FTP wasn't working which would slightly defeat the object of the exercise. Maybe I misunderstood the post so will give it a try as soon as I can.

Simon Morgan

[chrissifer]

I run a HP Microserver, with WHS 2011, and Cumlus, although I've never really thought about making cumlus into a service.

I just usually login the server via remote desktop, then run cumlus and then disconnect from the local connection. My HP Microserver runs headless (no keyboard/monitor) so I don't really have any security issues with leaving a user logged on!

Where is the cashback offer? I got this on mine when I got mine a few years ago, but i know someone who was interested in a server like the HP Microserver....

[skmorgan1944]

I run a HP Microserver, with WHS 2011, and Cumlus, although I've never really thought about making cumlus into a service.

I just usually login the server via remote desktop, then run cumlus and then disconnect from the local connection. My HP Microserver runs headless (no keyboard/monitor) so I don't really have any security issues with leaving a user logged on!

Where is the cashback offer? I got this on mine when I got mine a few years ago, but i know someone who was interested in a server like the HP Microserver....

While I run my Microserver headless (currently on Win XP soon to be upgraded to WHS2011), I don't want to leave it with a user logged in as it is connected to internet and if Amazon and the banks get hacked, what chance do I have! I don't want my server being hijacked and used as a host for spam and/or unsavoury content. I am going to try running Cumulus as a service using srvany and instsrv and see what happens.

Ref the HP cashback, it was a real bargain. Bought the new Microserver Turion II N54L for £200 in early June and received £100 cashback from HP about 5 weeks later. I bought mine from Ebuyer but the cashback was HP's promotion. Unfortunately the offer ended in June. However last year HP made the same offer in May/June so keep your eyes open. Even at current price of £240 it is good value. To rub salt into your wounds, I bought the earlier Microserver N40L last year which cost me £130 after cashback and an Ebuyer £20 offer. When I upgraded to this latest Microserver, I sold my old box on Ebay for £143!!

Not trying to turn this into an advert for HP, it is an extremely well made box and makes just about the cheapest, quality NAS you could buy.

I will post back on the forum if I get Cumulus running as a service - awaiting rainy weather to justify the time spent indoors - shouldn't have to wait too long here in West Wales.

Simon Morgan

[chrissifer]

Not sure if this will be of help,

I do know a mate of mine used something similar for a media server called wizXP (or similar) where he chose to have it run as a service

http://www.hosting.com/support/windows- ... a-service-

[skmorgan1944]

Using svrany.exe I have Cumulus running as service on Win XP SP3. I can log off as user in Win XP and Cumulus continues to run as a service sending data via FTP to my web site. Next I will install WHS2011 and adopt the same approach and see what happens.

If anyone is interested I can post the few steps to get Cumulus as a service using srvany.exe ( surprisingly simple).

Simon Morgan

[skmorgan1944]

Not sure if this will be of help,

I do know a mate of mine used something similar for a media server called wizXP (or similar) where he chose to have it run as a service

http://www.hosting.com/support/windows- ... a-service-

Thanks for link however it turns out to be the same procedure using svrany.exe

As I said before, it is working for me on Win XP - next I will try on WHS2011 which may prove more difficult at it is a 64bit OS.
Simon Morgan

[skmorgan1944]

I came across the following which looks as though it may be more powerful that MS's srvany.exe - see http://rozanski.org.uk/software. SRVSTART is freeware with a GNU Lesser General Public License and the author has documented it well and it looks extremely professional (I have no relationship at all with author just an interested observer).

I haven't tried it yet because Cumulus seems to be running pretty well as a service using srvany.exe under Win XP SP3. I am anticipating a few problems when I upgrade to WHS2011 so I shall keep it in reserve.

If anyone else has used it with Cumulus I would be interested to hear about their experience.

Simon Morgan

[gwheelo]

I ran cumulus as a service with WHS2011 for about a year with just a few problems - all network related. The biggest problem with WHS2011 was the difficulty of installing webcam drivers so I changes to WIN 8 which has given absolutely no problems with Cumulus, networking, FTP, or webcams or anything else. I run a pair of large mirrored drives to solve the back up of the doc files.

In retrospect I think WHS2011 provided little advantage and quite a lot of grief for me. You may have far more luck. I know Steve uses WHS2011 - so that should be a good recommendation.

gwheelo
http://www.wheelocknet.net/cumulus/gauges.html?gb

[steve]

I know Steve uses WHS2011

The main reason I have for using WHS2011 is that all of the PCs in the house get backed up automatically, without even knowing that it's happening. It's also a music server. I don't really need a server OS, and I guess that there are other backup and media serving solutions if I wanted to run a different OS, but it's working well so I'm sticking with it. I have the (headless) server set to automatically log in a user and Cumulus runs under that. I don't have any concerns about security - it's behind a hardware firewall and as it's never used for running any additional software other than Cumulus, it's actually less of a risk than other systems which are used for email and browsing etc.

[skmorgan1944]

I can now confirm that Cumulus successfully runs as a Service in Windows Home Server 2011.

It was remarkably simple to set up using some tools from Microsoft so I thought I would describe the whole process for completeness in case anyone wishes to go down this route.

1. Download Microsoft's Windows Resource Kits from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download ... x?id=17657
This installs a complete suite of tools and you get a warning about incompatibility issues. However the two tools you need are "instsrv.exe" and "srvany.exe" which don't appear to suffer from these incompatibility issues. It would be more elegant to extract these 2 files and place then in a folder rather than install the whole suite.

2. Next you need to create a new Windows Service. I have named the service "Cumulus". The script to do this in my case in a Command Prompt window is:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\instsrv.exe" "Cumulus" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\srvany.exe"
Note you need to be logged in as Administrator and the full path to the 2 executables is required. If there are any spaces then the string needs to be enclosed in quotes as shown.
There will now be a Service called "Cumulus" which at the moment does nothing!

3. You now need to give the Cumulus service some information so that it can locate and run Cumulus. The usual caveats apply here - you are going to edit the Registry so a backup should be made before starting - it is possible to screw up your whole Windows installation!

Run Regedit

Next navigate to this registry key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\service name ( in my case “Cumulus”).


From the Edit menu, click Add Key and name it Parameters
Next from the Edit menu, click Add Value and type this information.
Value Name: Application
Data Type : REG_SZ
String : <path>\<application.ext> So in my case the data would show “C:\cumulus\cumulus.exe”

Last but not least, the Cumulus service needs to be started. Make sure that Cumulus is not running as you mustn’t have 2 instances running.

Run “services.msc” and scroll down to the Cumulus service and Start it. Make sure that it is also set to Automatic so that it will start after a Windows restart.

Check that it is running correctly by browsing to your website and see that this is being updated with new data from your weather station.

It takes longer to write than to do and if anyone has a query then just post a question.

Simon Morgan