14.1 Execution Environment
- Billy Sewell (Unlicensed)
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Overview
ServiceManager is a web application which is hosted by an application server. To run ServiceManager, it is the hosting application server (Apache Tomcat), which must be executed.
However, once ServiceManager has been installed via the installation process, ServiceManager (or more accurately, Apache Tomcat) must be registered as a Windows Service before it can be started.
Service Registration
Apache Tomcat must be registered as a Windows Service by running, from within a command line prompt that has been started with administrator privileges, the supplied install_tomcat_service.bat file (see Fig. 1). The file is located within the ServiceManager directory, which can be found in the installation folder selected during the installation process.
This file sets setting up the appropriate environment variables required by ServiceManager and Apache Tomcat (via the svmconf.bat file) prior to calling the Apache Tomcat provided service.bat file, which registers Apache Tomcat as a Windows Service.
The install_tomcat_service.bat file must be run from within a command line prompt that has been started with administrator privileges.
The install_tomcat_service.bat takes up to two parameters: install_tomcat_service <install|remove> [service_name]
Where:
install | Registers Apache Tomcat as a Windows Service, and updates the Windows Registry. |
remove | Removes the Apache Tomcat service and deletes the Windows Registry entries. |
service_name | An optional parameter, which allows the name of the Windows Service under which Apache Tomcat is registered to be customized.
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By default, if no service_name is supplied, the service name used is Tomcat9, which results in a Windows Service with the full name of Apache Tomcat 9.0 Tomcat9 in the Windows Services view (see Fig. 2).
Modifying Service Parameters
Once installed as a Windows Service, it is possible to review and change the Apache Tomcat configuration settings via the supplied tomcat9w executable located within the ServiceManager\tomcat\bin directory.
From within a command line prompt that has been started with administrator privileges, run either:
> tomcat9w //ES//
or, if, for example, a service_name of ServiceManager was used, then run:
> tomcat9w //ES//ServiceManager
The Apache Tomcat control panel that is displayed provides an interface to change the Windows Registry-based service parameter settings (see Fig. 3).
From here, it is possible to view and modify the path to Java, and to specify additional JVM arguments (for example, if configuring SSO for SQL Server).
These settings must only be modified by experienced administrators as advised by ServicePower.
To return to the default settings, remove the service and reinstall it, as described above.
First Execution
Once ServiceManager has been installed and registered as a Windows Service, then ServiceManager must be executed for the first time from within a command line prompt that has been started with administrator privileges. This is because it is likely that the Windows firewall will be configured to block access to ServiceManager, and that on the first execution of ServiceManager, a prompt will be displayed asking the user to grant access through the firewall. However, if ServiceManager is started as a Windows Service, then this prompt will not be displayed, and so, ServiceManager will fail to start.
Do not attempt to run ServiceManager for the first time until the Service Registration process, above, has been completed. Service Registration is required to ensure that the necessary environment variables and Windows Registry settings are in place.
To run ServiceManager for the first time, run the tomcat9.exe file. The file is located within the ServiceManager\tomcat\bin directory, which can be found in the installation folder selected during the installation process.
The tomcat9.exe file must be run from within a command line prompt that has been started with administrator privileges.
If Apache Tomcat has been registered using a service_name other than the default, then use the optional //TS// command line argument to specify the service name. For example, if a service_name of ServiceManager was used, then start ServiceManager for the first time with the command:
> tomcat9 //TS//ServiceManager
When ServiceManger is run for the first time from the command line, a Windows Security Alert prompt may appear, noting that the Windows Firewall has blocked Apache Tomcat from communicating on certain networks (see Fig. 4).
Based on which networks ServiceManager needs to be accessible on, select the appropriate options, and grant access through the Windows Firewall.
Future Execution
Once the Service Registration and First Execution processes (above) have been completed, ServiceManager may now be started and stopped (by starting and stopping the Apache Tomcat service) via the Windows Service.