Operating System Service Mode

Iotellect Server may be started in operating system service mode. A service runs independently of logged-on users and can be run even if no user is logged on. A service cannot rely on the presence of a console, nor can it open windows. Service mode behavior depends on the operating system.

Iotellect Server service is registered by the installer. It is configured for auto-launch during operating system startup.

Service mode implementation is OS-specific:

  • For Microsoft Windows, service mode is represented by a Windows service

  • For Linux, service mode is represented by a daemon process

Microsoft Windows

When the service is installed, it can be controlled through Start > Control Panel > Administration > Services.

Installing and Uninstalling the Service

You can also install the service from the command line by passing /install to the service executable (%LS_BINARY%_service.exe). To prevent the automatic startup of your service when the computer is booted, pass the argument /install-demand instead.

As a second parameter after the /install parameter, you can optionally pass a service name. In that way, you can install a service with a different service name than the default name.

Service is uninstalled by passing /uninstall to the service executable.

All command line switches also work with a prefixed dash instead of a slash (i.e, -uninstall) or two prefixed dashes (i.e, --uninstall).

Starting and Stopping the Service from Command Line

To start or stop the service, the /start and /stop options are available. In addition, the /status argument shows if the service is already running. The exit code of the status command is 0 when the service is running, 3 when it is not running, and 1 when the state cannot be determined (for example, when the service is not installed on Windows).

Service Auto-Restart

Windows service will be auto-restarted if exits with a non-zero exit code or crashes. This effectively means the service will be always available until it's explicitly stopped via any Iotellect Server user interface or Windows service control panel.

Linux/Unix

Different versions of Linux use different approaches for auto-starting and auto-respawning services (daemons), so Iotellect Server installer does its best to configure any auto-start and auto-restart behavior by default. Here is how it's technically organized:

Iotellect Server Linux installation contains several scripts that can be used to auto-start and auto-restart the server:

  • iot_server script starts the server and waits until it stops. It returns the Iotellect Server exit code, which is 0 if server shutdown was requested and 1 if server restart was requested. Other non-zero codes may be returned if the server has stopped due to a fatal error.

  • %LS_BINARY%_service script starts the server as a daemon. The script accepts start, stop, restart or status arguments used to start/stop/restart the server or report its status respectively.

Auto-Start and Auto-Respawn for Systems with Upstart Init Daemon

To make the server auto-start and auto-respawn on systems that use Upstart init daemon, Iotellect Server installer copies %LS_BINARY%.conf configuration file to /etc/init directory.

To start the server first time, run initctl start iot_server command.

Auto-Start and Auto-Respawn for Systems with Systemd Init Daemon

To make the server auto-start and auto-respawn on systems that use systemd init daemon, Iotellect Server installer copies %LS_BINARY%.service configuration file to etcsystemdsystem directory.

To enable automatic start and respawn of the service, run systemctl enable %LS_BINARY%.service command.

To start the server the first time, run systemctl restart %LS_BINARY%.service command.

Note that automatic systemd-based service startup and respawn is not activated by Iotellect Server installer. You can reload systemctl daemon with command systemctl daemon-reload

To check service operation, run systemctl status %LS_BINARY%_service.service -l command.

Auto-Start Without Auto-Respawn

In some very rare cases, it may be necessary to make Iotellect Server auto-start on OS startup but don't restart if its restart is requested via the server user interface.

To make Iotellect Server daemon auto-start upon OS startup but not restart even if its restart was requested via a UI, use %LS_BINARY%_service script:

  • Create a symlink to it in services initialization directory (/etc/init.d or /etc/rc.d/init.d), or

  • Run update-rc.d %LS_BINARY%_service defaults command (for Ubuntu and similar Linux editions), or

  • Run chkconfig --add %LS_BINARY%_serviceandchkconfig %LS_BINARY%_service on commands (for RedHat and LSB-compatible Linux editions)

Was this page helpful?