Configuring Apps as a Windows Service

Overview

TIBCO Streaming applications can be installed as a Windows service. This page assumes familiarity with Windows services concepts and general architecture. Once installed according to this page, use native Windows tools to manage the service.

Installation

Use the epadmin install systemservice command to install StreamBase applications to run as a Windows service.

Specify the Windows user name to run the service when installing the service. This specified user must have the JAVA_HOME environment variable set. By default, this user is the SYSTEM user; specify the username parameter to run the servicea as a different user.

The epadmin install systemservice command takes several parameters that can be grouped into the following categories:

  • Specify the StreamBase application to run, including the application archive file, node deploy configuration, and substitution file, if used.

  • Specify the node to use, including node name and node directory.

  • Specify Windows service information, including the service name, service startup type, and so on.

Gather the required information in all three categories before experimenting with this command. See epadmin-systemservice(1) for guidance on using the install systemservice and remove systemservice commands.

Service Startup Parameters

The startup parameters for a service are stored in the Windows registry using the following key when the service is installed. (The following long line wraps to the next for clarity.)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\node-name\TIBCO Software Inc.\Settings\sb-cep\
  win-service-name\win-service-nameStartup
  • Where node-name is the fully qualified service name of the node running the application.

  • Where win-service-name is the Windows service name specified when the application was installed as a service.

You can change these parameters directly in the registry before a service is started:

Variable Description
application Absolute path to application archive.
nodedeploy Absolute path to node deploy configuration file.
nodedirectory Absolute path to node directory.
nodename Fully qualified node service name (clusername.nodename)
substitutionfile Absolute path to a substitution file for the node.

Operational Behavior

The installed service has the following behavior when starting and stopping services using native Windows tools:

  • start — install the node if not installed, then start the node.

  • stop — stop and quiesce the node.

Application warning and error messages are logged by default to the Windows event log. See Windows Event Log Appender to understand how to configure a logback.xml file to customize the log messages emitted. Then include your logback.xml in your EventFlow fragment project in its src/main/resources folder. When that fragment is built into a StreamBase application archive and loaded as a Windows service as described on this page, the application begins to emit log messages in your specified format to the Windows Event Log.

Removal

Windows services are removed using the epadmin remove systemservice command as described on epadmin-systemservice(1).