148

I have downloaded node.js executable. How can I run that executable as windows service? I cannot use standard node.js installer, since I need to run multiple version of node.js concurrently.

Improve this question

9 Answers 9

Reset to default
238

Late to the party, but node-windows will do the trick too.

enter image description here

It also has system logging built in.

enter image description here

There is an API to create scripts from code, i.e.

var Service = require('node-windows').Service; // Create a new service object var svc = new Service({ name:'Hello World', description: 'The nodejs.org example web server.', script: 'C:\\path\\to\\helloworld.js' }); // Listen for the "install" event, which indicates the // process is available as a service. svc.on('install',function(){ svc.start(); }); svc.install();

FD: I'm the author of this module.

Improve this answer
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

12 Comments

second that "awesome". I just followed your readme instructions and it worked straight out of the box - very rare! just one thing you might want to add to the readme: how to run the created js script at the CLI: i.e. > node set_up_win_service.js ...
@Corey any way I can run JXCore package as a service using this module ?
@Madhur - Theoretically, it might work, but I haven't and don't plan to test it. node-windows uses a wrapper.js file that's responsible for monitoring/restarts. This just launches the node script as a child process though. It's also possible to configure the executable path (i.e. jx instead of node). So, theoretically, you could probably do this, but I have no idea what kind of quirks you could potentially run into.
@Corey I have a simple Http Node app but it cant seem to stay running using this service. It installs and starts fine, but it stops immediatelly. Any help would be greatly appreciated sir! The event viewer shows no errors, but a warning: Child process [50732 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe --harmony "C:\Users\bmechkov\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\node-windows\lib\wrapper.js" -f "C:\dev\Node\abs_tips\server.js" -l "NODE ABS TIPS" -g 0.25 -w 1 -r 3 -a n] terminated with 0
@Mechkov - Terminating with a 0 means a successful exit. Can you run the script successfully without node-windows?
|
48

I found the thing so useful that I built an even easier to use wrapper around it (npm, github).

Installing it:

npm install -g qckwinsvc

Installing your service:

qckwinsvc

prompt: Service name: [name for your service] prompt: Service description: [description for it] prompt: Node script path: [path of your node script] Service installed

Uninstalling your service:

qckwinsvc --uninstall

prompt: Service name: [name of your service] prompt: Node script path: [path of your node script] Service stopped Service uninstalled
Improve this answer

3 Comments

Thanks, very easy!! quarky, it works for me (win 10 64 bit)
“npm ERR! asyncWrite is not a function” “npm ERR! pna.nextTick is not a function”
qckwinsvc is not maintained anymore. There is a new version qckwinsvc2 (npm i qckwinsvc2 -g)
29

WinSer is a node.js friendly wrapper around the popular NSSM (Non-Sucking Service Manager)

Improve this answer

6 Comments

don't like NSSM because it assumes it is Non-Sucking because it handles the the hosted application crash, so actually it is the hosted application sucking. Don't like in general blaming at Microsoft just because it is Microsoft.
@FelicePollano NSSM assumes it is Non-Sucking because it monitors the hosted application, in contrast to other solutions like srvany that leave the service in a running state, even if the wrapped process dies.
@JürgenSteinblock this is exactly what I said: is the hosted application sucking, not the service manager itself
@FelicePollano a hosted application exit does not nessecarry mean something bad. The point is: NSSM reflects (or can reflect if configured properly) the real service state so the service can be monitored instead of just assuming a running state like other service managers (as a user I kann kill the hosted process and srvary would still show the service in a running state).
In my experience, Nothing comes close to NSSM, handles Node, Python, Java(jar), PHP and PowerShell scripts just by a nssm install command. Install it via chocolatey choco install nssm and forget about all windows services quirks.
|
19

From this blog

Next up, I wanted to host node as a service, just like IIS. This way it’d start up with my machine, run in the background, restart automatically if it crashes and so forth.

This is where nssm, the non-sucking service manager, enters the picture. This tool lets you host a normal .exe as a Windows service.

Here are the commands I used to setup an instance of the your node application as a service, open your cmd like administrator and type following commands:

nssm.exe install service_name c:\your_nodejs_directory\node.exe c:\your_application_directory\server.js net start service_name
Improve this answer

Comments

18

I'm not addressing the question directly, but providing an alternative that might also meet your requirement in a more node.js fashion way.

Functionally the requirements are:

  1. Have the logic (app) running in the background
  2. Be able to start/stop the logic
  3. Automatically start the logic when system boots up

These requirements can be satisfied by using a process manager (PM) and making the process manager start on system startup. Two good PMs that are Windows-friendly are:

To make the PM start automatically, the most simple way is to create a scheduled task with a "At Startup" trigger:

enter image description here

Improve this answer

2 Comments

If you try to start pm2 using a batch script on startup, be sure to include the environment variables or it will not work. Discussed here: github.com/Unitech/pm2/issues/1079
@steampowered how give the PM2_Home path ?
4

Since qckwinsvc has not been updated for a while there's a new version called qckwinsvc2 (npm, github)

It now supports args passed to the service. It also keeps a local cache so you don't have to provide a path every time you want to perform an action

Use the now arg to start the service as soon as it's installed

qckwinsvc2 install name="Hello" description="Hello World" path="C:\index.js" args="--y" now 
qckwinsvc2 uninstall name="Hello" 
qckwinsvc2 list
Improve this answer

2 Comments

This is what worked for me. Very easy to use.
This works well. I wish there was a way to redirect the console.logs to a file. I tried adding it as a argument which did not work: args="> c:\log.txt"
2

https://nssm.cc/ service helper good for create windows service by batch file i use from nssm & good working for any app & any file

Improve this answer

Comments

1

The process manager + task scheduler approach I posted a year ago works well with some one-off service installations. But recently I started to design system in a micro-service fashion, with many small services talking to each other via IPC. So manually configuring each service has become unbearable.

Towards the goal of installing services without manual configuration, I created serman, a command line tool (install with npm i -g serman) to install an executable as a service. All you need to write (and only write once) is a simple service configuration file along with your executable. Run 

serman install <path_to_config_file>

will install the service. stdout and stderr are all logged. For more info, take a look at the project website.

A working configuration file is very simple, as demonstrated below. But it also has many useful features such as <env> and <persistent_env> below.

<service> <id>hello</id> <name>hello</name> <description>This service runs the hello application</description> <executable>node.exe</executable> <!-- {{dir}} will be expanded to the containing directory of your config file, which is normally where your executable locates --> <arguments>"{{dir}}\hello.js"</arguments> <logmode>rotate</logmode> <!-- OPTIONAL FEATURE: NODE_ENV=production will be an environment variable available to your application, but not visible outside of your application --> <env name="NODE_ENV" value="production"/> <!-- OPTIONAL FEATURE: FOO_SERVICE_PORT=8989 will be persisted as an environment variable machine-wide. --> <persistent_env name="FOO_SERVICE_PORT" value="8989" /> </service>
Improve this answer

Comments

0

Actually, node.exe officially doesnt support Windows Service, the exe must implement 3 functions(C/C++):

 Service Entry Point ServiceMain Function Control Handler

So, register node directly wont work(starting the service takes infinite time). To solve the problem, use 3rd party library like os-service or pm2.

Improve this answer

Comments

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.