Service Control Task Properties

The Service Control Task Properties window contains the settings for a job step that executes a Service Control Task.

Property Pages

In addition to the standard Response Events, the Service Control Task defines the following special events:

Event Description
Task returns a failure result Occurs if adTempus is unable to start or stop the target service.
Task returns a successful result Occurs if adTempus succeeds in starting or stopping the service. Note:This event occurs before adTempus begins monitoring the service, so you can use it to respond to the service start without waiting for the monitoring to complete.
Service failed or was stopped outside of adTempus Occurs if adTempus detects that the service is no longer running. Valid only if the Monitor the service option has been selected.

Service Control

New feature iconService Location

Specify whether the target service is on the adTempus server or a different computer.

Service

Select the service you wish to control. The list of services is taken from the adTempus server.

You may also type in the name of the service if necessary. For example, the service may exist on the Agents where the job will run, but not on the Master computer where the job is maintained. Since the service list would come from the Master, in this case you would have to type in the service name.

If you enter the service name yourself, you must enter the "service name," which is often not the same as the "display name" that appears in the Service Control Manager. The service name is the same name you use when controlling the service through the "net start" and "net stop" commands. If you do not know the service name, look in the Registry under key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services. This key contains a subkey for each service; the key name is the service name.

Control Type

Select the action you want adTempus to perform:

Optionally, specify any Startup Parameters that should be passed to the service.

Options

When Start the service is selected as the control type, the following additional options are available:

Monitor the service

When this option is selected, adTempus will monitor the service. If adTempus detects that the service has stopped, it will fire the "Service Failed" event. By creating a Response to this event you can have adTempus restart the service (by restarting the step) or take other actions as appropriate.

When this option is selected, the job step does not end until the service has stopped (and no responses cause it to restart). Therefore, execution of the job will not continue past this step until the service stops. If you use this option you generally will want this step to be the only—or last—step of the job.

 

adTempus can only detect that the target service is no longer running. It cannot determine why the service is no longer running. Therefore any of the following circumstances could trigger the task's failure response:

  • The service application aborts ("crashes") in some way.
  • A user, or some other application, stops the service (e.g., using the Service Control Manager).
  • The operating system stops the service because the computer is shutting down. You should therefore make sure that adTempus is the first service to be stopped when the computer is being shut down or restarted.

Stop the service if the job is terminated

When this option is selected, adTempus will stop the service if the job is terminated (either through a manual abort or as a result of a Job Control action). The service is not stopped if the adTempus service is stopped.

This option is only available if the Monitor the service option is selected.

Related Concepts

Service Control Task