{"id":12165,"date":"2023-11-09T14:35:29","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T22:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/?p=12165"},"modified":"2023-11-09T14:35:29","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T22:35:29","slug":"version-9-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/service-protector\/version-9-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Service Protector 9.5 Helps You Bulletproof Your Network Services"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Service<\/div>\n

Service Protector<\/a> 9.5 out!<\/p>\n

As usual, we focused on improving the software to help your Windows Services achieve 100% uptime — even in the face of failures. Here are the highlights:<\/p>\n

Advanced safeguards for your network-aware Windows Services<\/h2>\n

Are you responsible for a service that communicates over the network?<\/p>\n

Or are you running a TCP\/IP server that accepts connections from other devices?<\/p>\n

What happens if your service cannot communicate with its clients?<\/p>\n

If the result is catastrophe, then you should deploy our new “check network connections” sanity check, to automatically restart your service if it experiences a networking failure.<\/p>\n

How the “check network connections” sanity check works<\/h3>\n

The new sanity check periodically scans your service for network connections, much like Microsoft’s TCPView utility<\/a> does. And if it doesn’t find any network connections, Service Protector stops and restarts your service — to give it the opportunity to reestablish connectivity.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Service Protector can alert you by email whenever the network check fails. The message will include details of what went wrong, like this:<\/p>\n

\"You'll<\/a><\/div>\n

How to activate the “check network connections” sanity check<\/h3>\n

It’s very easy to activate the new sanity check. Indeed, you should be up and running in a couple minutes (or less).<\/p>\n

Here are the steps to set it up:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    Edit your entry in Service Protector.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Go to the Monitor<\/b> tab, check the Whenever it fails a periodic sanity check<\/b> box and click the Set<\/b> button:<\/p>\n

  3. \n

    In the Add Sanity Check<\/b> window, choose Check that your service has active network connections<\/b> from the list and click Next<\/b> to continue:<\/p>\n

  4. \n

    Next, refine what the sanity check should investigate. For example, if your service must always be listening for requests from clients, check the Fail if there are no listening\/server connections<\/b> box:<\/p>\n

  5. \n

    Click Next<\/b> to continue.<\/p>\n

    At this point, you get to decide how often Service Protector must check your service. Every 5 minutes works for us but you should tune the settings for your unique situation:<\/p>\n

  6. \n

    Finally, after clicking Next<\/b> to move on, Service Protector will show a summary of your new sanity check. Confirm the details and click Add<\/b> to record it:<\/p>\n

    \"Set<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And that’s it. With the new watchdog in place, Service protector will interrogate your service every few minutes (as directed) and promptly restart it if there are no network connections. <\/p>\n

    At the end of the day, your customers will thank you for providing a more stable service. But even better, no one will interrupt you at home to ask you to recycle buggy software. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

    Get full support for monitoring “Automatic (Delayed Start)” services<\/h2>\n

    Service Protector is pretty aggressive about ensuring that your service is always running. For example, whenever Service Protector finds that your service is idle, it restarts it within a few seconds.<\/p>\n

    However, in it’s zeal to ensure 100% uptime, Service Protector went too far in one scenario.<\/p>\n

    Consider a Windows Service with startup type set to “Automatic (Delayed Start)”. Instead of starting it immediately at boot, Windows will launch the service 1-2 minutes after boot. And that brief delay may be a desirable because it increases the likelihood that all the critical infrastructure (e.g. networking and security) will be in place before the service starts.<\/p>\n

    Unfortunately, earlier versions of Service Protector didn’t respect the “Automatic (Delayed Start)” option. As soon as it saw that the service wasn’t running, Service Protector would start it. In essence, the service would start running a few seconds after boot — before supporting modules were ready. Oops.<\/p>\n

    Service Protector 9.5 fixes the problem. Now when babysitting a delayed service, Service Protector will give Windows a chance to launch the service before it starts monitoring it<\/b>.<\/p>\n

    Bu rest assured — if your delayed service fails to start (or terminates after launch), Service Protector will detect it and promptly take action. That’s because the new relaxations around delayed services only apply in the first few minutes of the boot process.<\/p>\n

    Other fixes & improvements<\/b><\/h2>\n