Coral: cron srvstart utility

Coral :  CRON | CRON - Configuration detail | CRON - Portable Design | CRON - SrvStart utility tutorial

CRON - SrvStart utility tutorial This short tutorial covers using the SrvStart utility written by Nick Rozanski. It allows you to run a script as a service! What is a Service? A Windows Service is automatically started when your PC starts. Services automatically recover from program crashes and Standby or Hibernation modes. Installing software as a service requires Administrator permissions. Complexity An application program designed to run as a service contains code that interfaces to the Windows service manager. Running a script as a service requires additional code that allows it to access the Windows service manager. This code registers your script, allowing it to be run as a service. In addition it must provide responses to command requests from the service manager and have the ability to provide your script's status. It's not a trivial exercise, but this complexity is hidden when using SrvStart.

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Download SrvStart

Download SRVStart.exe from http://www.rozanski.org.uk/software

• Navigate to section SRVSTART.EXE
• Click on the image named "Executable"
• This starts the download.
• Save file srvstart_run.v110.zip to any folder.
• Extract contents of this file to where you saved it.

Install SRVStart

The folder srvstart_run.v110 contains the following files:

• logger.dll (28KB)
• srvstart.dll (140KB)
• srvstart.exe (size 36KB)
• svc.exe

We are only interested in files srvstart.exe, srvstart.dll and logger.dll
For this tutorial, create a new folder c:\service_test and copy the above three files into it.

Note 1:
The documentation says to copy files srvstart.exe, srvstart.dll, logger.dll and msvcrt.dll to C:\WINDOWS\system32 (system path). For XP onwards msvcrt.dll is already installed on a system path. The other three files do not need to be installed on a system path; see below. We are going to run srvstart.exe from its installation folder. This allows it to be portable by not installing anything on a host PC (assumes running from memory stick).

Note 2:
Notwithstanding the above, when installing a service, it does write to the registry, so you must remember to stop and uninstall the service you create if it resides on an external drive or a memory stick.

Script to run

For this tutorial we require a script to run. Create a new text document named my_script.vbs with the following content:

Set oWS = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") oWS.Run "%comspec% /c echo " & Chr(07), 0, True Set oWS = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") oWS.Run "%comspec% /c echo " & Chr(07), 0, True

This is an annoying VBScript which just produces beeps when it runs. Double click on my_script.vbs and confirm that it produces two beeps.

Limitation

An application to be run as a service must have one of the following file extensions: .exe, .com or .bat. The script we want to run has an extension of .vbs so it cannot be run directly.

At first this looks very restrictive, however a batch file will run any application. To run our script as a service, create a batch file named my_script.bat with the following content:

start my_script.vbs

start Runs our vb script and closes. It does not wait for our vb script to finish. Double click on my_script.bat and confirm it produces two beeps.

Note 1: Running my_script.bat a command window opens for a short time. When run as a service this is hidden.

Note 2: Removing the "start" keyword, our vb script runs and the command window remains open until vb script finishes. Again, when run as a service, this is hidden.

SrvStart configuration file

To create our application (script) service SrvStart requires a configuration file.

• Each service to be run is contained in a separate block.
• Every block starts with a service name enclosed in square brackets.
• Each block must contain a startup command, which specifies the program (application/script) to launch.

Create a file named srvstart.ini with the following content:

[z_test] startup=C:\service_test\my_script.bat startup_dir=C:\service_test

Service name is z_test startup Full path to script startup_dir Folder to start looking in

Control_batch_files

We are now ready to install and run our service. This can be done using a command prompt and issuing the appropriate commands. I prefer to put these commands into separate batch files as follows:

z_install.bat

Create a file named z_install.bat with the following content: srvstart.exe install z_test -c C:\service_test\srvstart.ini pause

srvstart.exe - Run srvstart program install - Command to run is install z_test - Name of service to install -c Configuration file to use

z_uninstall_service.bat

Create a file named z_uninstall_service.bat with the following content: srvstart.exe remove z_test pause

srvstart.exe - Run srvstart program remove - Command to run is install z_test - Name of service to uninstall

z_service_start.bat

Create a file named z_service_start.bat with the following content: net start z_test pause

net - Command is used to manage services start - Start the named service z_test - Name of service to start

z_service_stop.bat

Create a file named z_service_stop.bat with the following content: net stop z_test pause

net - Command is used to manage services stop - Stops the named service z_test - Name of service to start

Test - Perceived problems

Run z_install.bat	You will see "Successfully created non-desktop service 'z_test'"
Run z_service_start.bat	Confirm two beeps are produced. Note the following messages: The z_test service is starting. The z_test service could not be started. The service did not report an error. More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 3534. With the confirmation of two beeps, our script was successfully run. The reason for could not be started message; the batch file closes immediately when run. Srvstart regularly checks the running status of an application it started, it immediately sees the script is no longer running and reports back to the service control that it could not be started. The service did not report an error because it’s not an error.
Run z_service_stop.bat	Note the following messages C:\service_test>net stop z_test The z_test service is not started. More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 3521. The batch file is not running, hence the service is reported as not running; see above. The above is not a problem; it's the way we want to run our script.
Run z_uninstall_service.bat	Note the following message Deletion of service 'z_test' succeeded Confirms correct operation

Note: The above results may be a little confusing. Rremember our VBScript does not run continuously; it's a run-once program. Its purpose is to familiarise yourself with the SrvStart program.

Service Status

With the service created, it will now appear in the Windows Services list and can be configured like any other Windows Service. The service which is installed has the following characteristics.

• Its short name and display name are both z_test.
• It is set to Manual startup.
• It starts using LocalSystem and has no dependencies.
• It cannot interact with the desktop.

Manual startup

The service start type specifies the service's behavior after reboot:

• Auto - Automatically start after a re-boot
• Manual - Need to manually start service once PC started
• Disabled - Deactivated

We want our script to start when the PC is powered up. Either change the Manual state to Auto using service manger, or use a script to set the service state. Create a new file named start_automatic.vbs with the following content:

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\cimv2") 

Set colRunningServices = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("Select * from Win32_Service")
 For Each objService in colRunningServices
   If objService.DisplayName = "z_test" Then
        errReturn = objService.Change( , , , , "Automatic")
   End If
 Next

The above script will change the service state to Automatic. After you have installed your service it only requires running once.

For testing, this script starts our service and changes it to Automatic.

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\cimv2") 

Set colRunningServices = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("Select * from Win32_Service")
 For Each objService in colRunningServices
   If objService.DisplayName = "z_test" Then
     If objService.State = "Running" Then
        MsgBox "Is Running"
     End If
     If objService.State= "Stopped" Then
        errReturn = objService.StartService()
        errReturn = objService.Change( , , , , "Automatic")
     End If
   End If
 Next

Simulating service program crash

Our batch file is ideal for simulating a service program crash and demonstrating recovery. The batch file only runs once (simulating a program crash), srvstat can be set to automatically restart the program using directive auto_restart=y, setting restart_interval=seconds will pause before starting.

This can be put to good use; it allows a one time run script to be periodically called. Modify the configuration file as shown below:

[z_test] startup=C:\service_test\my_script.bat startup_dir=C:\service_test auto_restart=y restart_interval=10

Our test script will now be run every 10 seconds

Note 1: auto_restart will restart the service program if it exits for any reason. If restart_interval is defined, then before restarting, SRVSTART will wait the specified seconds.

Note 2: auto_restart does not restart the service program if it is stopped by request (eg NET STOP or Control Panel|Services).

Note 3: auto_restart does not restart the service program if it thinks that Windows NT is shutting down. If you are irritated by services restarting during Windows NT shutdown, then increase the value of restart_interval to, say, a minute.

Conclusion

The above has shown how to run a simple VBScipt as a service. When The Uniform Server is installed as a permanent installation, the concepts outlined above can be used for kicking portable cron into life. Portable cron is intended to be run from a memory stick and still requires manually starting.

Where to next

Related to the above service is The Uniform Server Cron. Both portable cron and running as a service have been implemented. For the details, see Cron.

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