The
Windows OS service is a program that runs regardless of whether or not there is any logged user in
Windows OS.
It runs with the permissions of defined
Windows user, it can be configured and controlled by standard Windows tools (
Services.msc console).
The service can be launched or stopped by the user (from the command line or admin console), but this is only an instruction for action, the launch/stop itself is executed by the
Windows system regardless of whether the user is logged in locally or remotely.
If the application manager PmRtManager runs as Windows service, then applications launched by the manager behave as Windows service.
Although from the
Windows OS point of view, these applications are not real services. But because these apps are launched by a real service
PmRtManager, they run regardless of whether there is a logged user or not.
These applications run under the same user and with the same permissions as the real service. But these applications are not listed among
Windows OS registered services, their configuration and management is fully under control of the
PmRtManager. This is the basic procedure of launching PROMOTIC applications (and other programs) as
Windows service.
Caution! If the PROMOTIC application runs as
Windows service, then it should run invisibly as server without user interface.
Visible application (local or remote client) should be another normal PROMOTIC application (not a service) or Web client.
Installation, uninstallation and setting of application manager service
The
PmRtManager.exe utility is a part of the PROMOTIC system located in the
\Promotic\Tools\PmRtManager folder, but is not originally configured as
Windows service. If it is needed to run the
PmRtManager.exe as
Windows service, then it is necessary to execute the
PmRtManager -i command. After the registration, the configuration, stopping and launching is managed by standard
Windows OS tools. The program (service) can be controlled from the command line by parameters. The command line terminal must be launched with
Administrator rights. Individual commands:
PmRtManager -i - Adds the Windows OS service for the PmRtManager program. The service will be configured in order to launch automatically on system boot.
PmRtManager -u - Removes the Windows OS service of the PmRtManager program.
PmRtManager -s - Launches the Windows OS service of the PmRtManager program.
PmRtManager -k - Stopps the Windows OS service of the PmRtManager program.
PmRtManager - Launches the PmRtManager program as a normal application, not as Windows service. The application icon appears in the Windows OS Sys Tray among icons on the right. It allows to use the PmRtManager as normal program and also the applications launched by the manager are running as normal programs.
The old procedure of launching the PROMOTIC application as service by using the two utilities (
Instsrv.exe and
Srvany.exe) is no longer recommended. There are many disadvantages of the old procedure compared to the new one (getting the utilities, complex configuration), especially if the PROMOTIC application was stopped (crashed) the service still considered the application as correctly running (there was no
WatchDog functionality). These utilities are contained in the
Windows Resource Kit that is available for download at the Microsoft Web. The installation procedure itself is describerd here
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/137890.