How can I programmatically stop/start a windows service on a remote box?

Question

I want to write a console or Click Once WinForms app that will programmatically stop and/or start a windows service on a remote box.

Both boxes are running .NET 3.5

Answer 1

You can use System.Management APIs (WMI) to control services remotely. WMI is the generic API to do administrative tasks.

For this problem, however, I suggest you to use the easier to use System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController class.

Answer 2

galets code snippet above is a great start. However, keep in mind it assumes that the service has already started, or, more importantly, that

sc.Status == System.ServiceProcess.ServiceControllerStatus.Running

Also, it may important to, at some point during code execution, call

sc.Refresh();

because the properties values (such as ServiceControllerStatus) may not reflect the actual properties of the service. For instance, you may call

sc.Start();

and wait indefinitely when this command executes

sc.WaitForStatus(System.ServiceProcess.ServiceControllerStatus.Running)

Here is a version of this code that I coded with those considerations in mind.

            //Restart Content Service on DEV. 
        String svcName = "TheServiceName";
        String machineName = "TheMachineName";
        var sc = new System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController(svcName, machineName);
        Console.WriteLine("Stopping Service '{0}' on machine '{1}", svcName, machineName);
        sc.Stop();
        sc.WaitForStatus(System.ServiceProcess.ServiceControllerStatus.Stopped);          

        //sc.WaitForStatus(System.ServiceProcess.ServiceControllerStatus.Running);
        do
        {
            try
            {
                sc.Refresh();
                if (sc.Status == System.ServiceProcess.ServiceControllerStatus.Running)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Code has detected that servive start is pending, waiting 5 seconds to see if status changes..");
                    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000);
                }
                else
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("waiting 5 seconds and retrying start..");
                    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000);
                    Console.WriteLine("Attempt Starting Service '{0}' on machine '{1}", svcName, machineName);
                    sc.Start();
                }
            }

            catch(Exception ex)
            {
                //If it is already running, then abort do while
                if (ex.InnerException.Message == "An instance of the service is already running")
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(ex.InnerException.Message);
                    continue;
                }
                Console.WriteLine(ex.InnerException.ToString());
            }
        } while (sc.Status != System.ServiceProcess.ServiceControllerStatus.Running);

Answer 3

in C#:

var sc = new System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController("MyService", "MyRemoteMachine");
sc.Start();
sc.WaitForStatus(System.ServiceProcess.ServiceControllerStatus.Running);
sc.Stop();
sc.WaitForStatus(System.ServiceProcess.ServiceControllerStatus.Stopped);