Posted onSeptember 7, 2015 (Revised February 1, 2024)
Our month-long evaluation of AlwaysUp 9.1 running windows services on Windows 10 started soon after the new operating system was released on July 29th. Testing was comprehensive, targeting all major features including:
Installation & setup
Sending emails in response to key events
Running programs in the background in Session 0
Starting applications interactively in the current session
Restarting an application if it uses too much memory
Detecting CPU spikes
Responding to customized failure detection scripts (“sanity checks”)
The end result is that AlwaysUp 9.1 is fully compatible with Windows 10!
The only trouble we noticed was when interacting with applications running in Session 0…
The Keyboard and Mouse didn’t work in Session 0
We were able to switch to the isolated Session 0 but couldn’t interact with the application running there. The mouse cursor vanished and the keyboard was unresponsive. We couldn’t even click the “Return now” button to go back to the normal desktop!
Fortunately this bug has already been reported to Microsoft and a resolution may be on the way.
We were unable to see Session 0 when logged in through RDP
The second oddity we encountered was when logged in to our server via RDP. Switching to Session 0, either from the Interactive Services Detection Dialog or from AlwaysUp, resulted in an unhelpful “black screen”. The black screen remained for one minute, until the Session 0 timeout elapsed and we were unceremoniously disconnected from the server. We experienced this with RDP versions 6.2.9200 and 6.3.9600 and our recommended driver updates didn’t resolve the problem. Hopefully Microsoft will fix this one quickly too.
Trinium Technologies provides business software for two primary verticals: intermodal trucking companies and fuel marketers. Its applications enable companies to reduce cost, grow revenue, and improve customer service. Customers range in size from small businesses to large enterprises with both cloud services and on-premises deployment options available.
Barry Assadi, the Chief Technical Officer at Trinium, has been using AlwaysUp since 2006. He knows AlwaysUp very well and was interviewed for this article.
Why does Trinium use AlwaysUp?
Trinium uses AlwaysUp to handle processes for file transfer (FTP), file import & export interfaces, and report generation. We used to deploy automated background processes with Windows Task Scheduler, but there were constant stability issues along with a lack of visibility of the status of these processes. AlwaysUp runs our executables without fail, and its detailed reporting tell us how our applications are doing.
Customer service is very important to us, so we have a dedicated AlwaysUp process per customer that is used to keep a heartbeat on all of the services we’ve created. This way we can see if any processes are hung or stopped to avoid any downtime for our customers.
How is AlwaysUp deployed in your business?
Each non-hosted customer will get an installation of AlwaysUp to run our software as a service in their environment. We also run AlwaysUp in Trinium’s hosted private cloud, which has a few dedicated servers reserved for processing using AlwaysUp.
What are your favorite features of AlwaysUp?
Over the years, we’ve come to appreciate the depth of settings to manage the processes we model as a service. There seems to be a solution for everything we’ve thrown at AlwaysUp!
Our more technical customers are happy that they can now stop and restart our applications from their batch files (using the NET command).
And we especially like the ability to multi-select to start/stop/restart processes. It is very convenient as our techs install and work with multiple services per server.
Incorporated in 2007 and driven by new opportunities in the “Internet-of-Things” (IoT) market, CartaSense offers end-to-end monitoring and alerting capabilities for cold-chain, agricultural and asset security applications. CartaSense provides complete field proven systems using wireless sensors, gateways and cloud based computing that deliver real-time information to support real-time decision making for increased efficiency and profits.
Chaim Belfer, the Vice President of R&D at CartaSense, has been using AlwaysUp with his Java programs since 2010. He currently manages more than 20 installations and was interviewed for this article.
How does CartaSense use AlwaysUp?
CartaSense deploys several Java applications that manage a world wide network of sensors. For security and management purposes, we need to run our windows installations as windows services. Looking for a solution we found AlwaysUp which solves the problem — plus helps with recovery and logging.
For the past few years, AlwaysUp has been included whenever we install our software on a Windows Server (2008 or 2012). We also recommend AlwaysUp to our own customers.
Why did you choose AlwaysUp for your Java applications?
We found your company through a Google search a few years ago. I tested several open source solutions but none of them really did the job, or at least needed a lot of development to make it work reliably. AlwaysUp worked well from the beginning (the 30-day trial) so we started out with a single license and bought more over time, as needed.
What are your favorite features of AlwaysUp?
Beyond solving the big problem of running our Java applications as windows services, AlwaysUp’s GUI is very nice and self explanatory. The documentation is also good, and the software is easy to use. Prompt service and quick response to our support emails is a big plus too!
A regular application is one that you start and run on your Windows desktop. You launch it from a desktop icon, by double-clicking an associated document, or by typing its name at a command prompt. Examples include Microsoft Excel, Adobe Reader, Google Chrome and virtually any other program you consciously interact with on your PC. These are the programs that you know, love and use every day — the ones that make your computer a remarkably powerful tool.
What is a windows service?
A Windows Service is a special program designed to “plug into” Windows. It typically chugs along doing its work in the background, never revealing itself, with little or no attention from anyone using the PC. It turns out that a whole host of these invisible workers are necessary to make your PC work smoothly! For example, the Print Spooler windows service ensures that your documents arrive at the printer, while the Workstation service makes the Internet available for all applications. Important tasks indeed!
What’s the difference?
So with those basics in place, here are the 10 most important ways that a windows service differs from a regular application:
A windows service can start automatically at boot, without anyone having to log on. A regular application only runs when a user is logged in. This key distinction makes the windows service framework the better choice for software that must run 24×7, surviving the inevitable reboot along the way.
A windows service won’t exit when you or anyone else logs off the PC. A regular application will stop when you log out.
Windows services don’t run visibly on your desktop (not since Vista). They are confined to the isolated Session 0 and can not (usually) show their windows or tray icons to anyone logging into the PC. This restriction makes it very difficult for a windows service to interact with someone using the computer and consequently Microsoft strongly discourages implementing GUI services.
A windows service can be easily started or stopped from the command line using the NET or SC commands. This capability is a boon to sysadmins and technical folks, who can conveniently manage a service’s lifetime through unattended, administrative scripts.
Only a single instance of a windows service can be started at any time. That single copy must serve all users on the PC. This is very different than a regular application, which typically permits multiple copies, especially when several people are logged in.
Services typically run in the Local System account, which has administrative powers over many aspects of the PC. Thus your average service will have more rights and control over your computer than your typical application running in the context of a regular user’s account.
When run as LocalSystem, a service has access to UNC paths (for example, “\\server\data”) but cannot access mapped drive letters. You should run the service in a regular user account to access network drives, and even then the service may have to map drives explicitly (for example, with the NET USE command) to gain access.
All windows services support sophisticated recovery options for when they stop unexpectedly. You can restart the service, run a command line or even reboot the computer.
While each regular application is backed by a single, unique process, it is possible for many services to share a single running process. This situation makes it possible for some services to start rapidly and make efficient use of resources — important characteristics for critical components that must always be available.
A windows service must contain special code to respond to instructions from the Windows Service Control Manager (SCM). For the technical folks, this means implementing the ServiceMain (or equivalent) entry point in your application.
AlwaysUp is designed to run your application as a Windows Service and automatically restart it when it crashes or stops for any reason. Even though this frees you from having to take any action on a failure (eliminating those unwelcome “server-not-working” calls at 3 AM), you may still want to:
Find out how often your application is failing
Know the time when your program stops working (for diagnostic purposes)
See how your application is using CPU and memory over the course of the day
Find out whenever your server has been rebooted
Automatic email from AlwaysUp will tell you all that, and more!
Specifying Who to Email & When to Send a Message
To setup email in AlwaysUp, edit your application and switch to the Email tab:
Enter the following:
The email address to notify. To send to multiple addresses, just separate each one with a comma (,).
When AlwaysUp should send you an email — either in response to an important event, or at a regular time. The daily and weekly summary emails are a good way to monitor your application’s activities without having to receive multiple emails throughout the day.
A line of text to be included in the email. This value is optional, but you can use it to explicitly label a server & application when you have many installed with the same name (for example, when you are running the same application on many different workstations).
Server/SMTP Settings
AlwaysUp doesn’t require that you have Outlook or any other email software installed. Instead, it deals directly with your SMTP server – the machine actually responsible for routing your email over the Internet and delivering it to your recipients. Every major provider (such as Gmail, Yahoo and Office 365) supports SMTP mail and it is simply a matter of providing those settings to AlwaysUp so that it can send messages on your behalf.
Click the Configure… button to reveal the details:
The Configure Email Settings window that comes up requests quite a bit of information, but don’t be scared! Your systems administrator will be able to fill this in while balancing a bowl of water on his head and dancing the Macarena, but in case you are entering these values yourself here is what each field means:
Address: The email address that will be displayed in the “From” field of the email messages sent by AlwaysUp.
Name: The name that will be displayed in the “From” field of the email messages sent. This value is optional.
Name/IP: The name (or IP address) of your mail server.
Port: The numeric port on which the mail server is available. Note that the default is 25 for regular SMTP servers and 465 for servers using SSL – please specify one if these if in doubt.
This server requires encryption: Check and make the appropriate selection if the mail server uses TLS, SSL or STARTTLS.
This server requires authentication: Check if the server requires authentication, and select the authentication method. The choices are CRAM-MD5, AUTH-LOGIN, AUTH-PLAIN, and AUTH-NTLM. A login and a password will be required for all but AUTH-NTLM.
Login: The user name/login for the mail server. Usually your full email address.
Password: The password for your email account.
How to use your Gmail Account
To send email with your Gmail account, please specify the following settings:
Address:
Your full gmail address (your-user-name@gmail.com)
Name:
Your name
SMTP Server Name/IP:
smtp.gmail.com
Port:
465
Encryption:
SSL/TLS
Authentication:
AUTH-LOGIN
Login:
Your full gmail address (your-user-name@gmail.com)
Password
Your gmail password
So for someone named Mike Jones, whose Gmail address is jones1985@gmail.com, the Configure Email window should look something like this:
This short, step-by-step video highlights the settings to enter for Gmail:
If not, you may get an error like this when you try to send a test email from AlwaysUp:
How to use your Microsoft Office 365 Account
If you have an Office 365 mail account, please specify the settings described here:
Address:
Your full Office 365 email address
Name:
Your name
SMTP Server Name/IP:
smtp.office365.com
Port:
587
Encryption:
STARTTLS
Authentication:
AUTH-LOGIN
Login:
Your full Office 365 email address
Password
Your Office 365 password
So for Mike Jones, whose Office 365 email address is mike.jones@somecompany.com, the Configure Email window should look something like this:
Note: Because of changes to Office 365 authentication methods, attempts to send email with Office 365 may fail with this message: “Authentication unsuccessful, basic authentication is disabled”.
To overcome that problem, we recommend creating an app password for sending email using office365.com.
Create a Free Account with SMTP2GO
If you don’t want to (or can’t) use an existing email address, we recommend creating a free account at SMTP2GO. Their free plan will allow AlwaysUp to send you up to 1,000 emails per month.
Address:
Your SMTP2GO email address
Name:
Your name
SMTP Server Name/IP:
mail.smtp2go.com
Port:
2525 (or 465, 80, 25, 8025 or 587 if that doesn’t work)
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