Simplest way to restart service on a remote computer

Question

What's the easiest programmatic way to restart a service on a remote Windows system? Language or method doesn't matter as long as it doesn't require human interaction.

score 98 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 05 '08 at 20:01

98

As of Windows XP, you can use sc.exe to interact with local and remote services. Schedule a task to run a batch file similar to this:

sc \\server stop service
sc \\server start service

Make sure the task runs under a user account privileged on the target server.

psservice.exe from the Sysinternals PSTools would also be doing the job:

psservice \\server restart service

answered Nov 05 '08 at 20:01

Tomalak

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Be aware of the fact that the "service name" for a service may be different from its "display name". E.g. The "Windows Time" service has the service name "W32Time". You can check the service name in the properties dialog of a service. – Brian Hinchey Dec 27 '12 at 03:15
2

psservice was the only thing I could use to script my task successfully. sc and net commands are very good for local systems or over the network actions in which you would want to use current user's credentials. But if you need to provide username and password to start/stop services remotely and dont want to use powershell then psservice is the way to go – Aidin Oct 03 '13 at 20:27

score 13 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 05 '08 at 20:04

DESCRIPTION: SC is a command line program used for communicating with the NT Service Controller and services. USAGE: sc [command] [service name] ...

    The option <server> has the form "\\ServerName"
    Further help on commands can be obtained by typing: "sc [command]"
    Commands:
      query-----------Queries the status for a service, or
                      enumerates the status for types of services.
      queryex---------Queries the extended status for a service, or
                      enumerates the status for types of services.
      start-----------Starts a service.
      pause-----------Sends a PAUSE control request to a service.
      interrogate-----Sends an INTERROGATE control request to a service.
      continue--------Sends a CONTINUE control request to a service.
      stop------------Sends a STOP request to a service.
      config----------Changes the configuration of a service (persistant).
      description-----Changes the description of a service.
      failure---------Changes the actions taken by a service upon failure.
      qc--------------Queries the configuration information for a service.
      qdescription----Queries the description for a service.
      qfailure--------Queries the actions taken by a service upon failure.
      delete----------Deletes a service (from the registry).
      create----------Creates a service. (adds it to the registry).
      control---------Sends a control to a service.
      sdshow----------Displays a service's security descriptor.
      sdset-----------Sets a service's security descriptor.
      GetDisplayName--Gets the DisplayName for a service.
      GetKeyName------Gets the ServiceKeyName for a service.
      EnumDepend------Enumerates Service Dependencies.

    The following commands don't require a service name:
    sc <server> <command> <option>
      boot------------(ok | bad) Indicates whether the last boot should
                      be saved as the last-known-good boot configuration
      Lock------------Locks the Service Database
      QueryLock-------Queries the LockStatus for the SCManager Database

EXAMPLE: sc start MyService

How do you pass the username and password required to restart the service on the remote system? Does this suggest "no password required" ? — djangofan, Jun 03 '13 at 21:26
@djangofan bit late but for those who are wondering you use `net use \\server_name\admin$ password /user:domain\username` prior to executing this command. https://stackoverflow.com/a/30787763/3447365 — Songy, Jun 01 '17 at 09:59

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 05 '08 at 20:13

4

If it doesn't require human interaction which means there will be no UI that invokes this operation and I assume it would restart at some set interval? If you have access to machine, you could just set a scheduled task to execute a batch file using good old NET STOP and NET START

net stop "DNS Client"
net start "DNS client"

or if you want to get a little more sophisticated, you could try Powershell

answered Nov 05 '08 at 20:13

Ta01

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As most other answers, this restarts the "DNS Client" service from the **local** machine... – Álvaro González Nov 11 '15 at 13:19

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 15 '15 at 14:18

There will be so many instances where the service will go in to "stop pending".The Operating system will complain that it was "Not able to stop the service xyz." In case you want to make absolutely sure the service is restarted you should kill the process instead. You can do that by doing the following in a bat file

taskkill /F /IM processname.exe
timeout 20
sc start servicename

To find out which process is associated with your service, go to task manager--> Services tab-->Right Click on your Service--> Go to process.

Note that this should be a work around until you figure out why your service had to be restarted in the first place. You should look for memory leaks, infinite loops and other such conditions for your service to have become unresponsive.

If you have written a service in python it will usually be the following:- "taskkill /F /IM pythonservice.exe" — ambassallo, Jun 15 '15 at 15:38

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 11 '15 at 11:35

2

As of Powershell v3, PSsessions allow for any native cmdlet to be run on a remote machine

$session = New-PSsession -Computername "YourServerName"
Invoke-Command -Session $Session -ScriptBlock {Restart-Service "YourServiceName"}
Remove-PSSession $Session

See here for more information

answered Sep 11 '15 at 11:35

ShaneC

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great answer, but keep in mind if the remote server is on a different domain you will [need to configure WinRM.](https://serverfault.com/questions/657918/remote-ps-session-fails-on-non-domain-server) – David Rogers Oct 08 '20 at 19:34

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 05 '08 at 20:00

1

look at sysinternals for a variety of tools to help you achieve that goal. psService for example would restart a service on a remote machine.

answered Nov 05 '08 at 20:00

Raz

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score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 05 '08 at 20:11

I recommend the method given by doofledorfer.

If you really want to do it via a direct API call, then look at the OpenSCManager function. Below are sample functions to take a machine name and service, and stop or start them.

function ServiceStart(sMachine, sService : string) : boolean;  //start service, return TRUE if successful
var schm, schs : SC_Handle;
    ss         : TServiceStatus;
    psTemp     : PChar;
    dwChkP     : DWord;
begin
  ss.dwCurrentState := 0;
  schm := OpenSCManager(PChar(sMachine),Nil,SC_MANAGER_CONNECT);  //connect to the service control manager

  if(schm > 0)then begin // if successful...
    schs := OpenService( schm,PChar(sService),SERVICE_START or SERVICE_QUERY_STATUS);    // open service handle, start and query status
    if(schs > 0)then begin     // if successful...
      psTemp := nil;
      if (StartService(schs,0,psTemp)) and (QueryServiceStatus(schs,ss)) then
        while(SERVICE_RUNNING <> ss.dwCurrentState)do begin
          dwChkP := ss.dwCheckPoint;  //dwCheckPoint contains a value incremented periodically to report progress of a long operation.  Store it.
          Sleep(ss.dwWaitHint);  //Sleep for recommended time before checking status again
          if(not QueryServiceStatus(schs,ss))then
            break;  //couldn't check status
          if(ss.dwCheckPoint < dwChkP)then
            Break;  //if QueryServiceStatus didn't work for some reason, avoid infinite loop
        end;  //while not running
      CloseServiceHandle(schs);
    end;  //if able to get service handle
    CloseServiceHandle(schm);
  end;  //if able to get svc mgr handle
  Result := SERVICE_RUNNING = ss.dwCurrentState;  //if we were able to start it, return true
end;

function ServiceStop(sMachine, sService : string) : boolean;  //stop service, return TRUE if successful
var schm, schs : SC_Handle;
    ss         : TServiceStatus;
    dwChkP     : DWord;
begin
  schm := OpenSCManager(PChar(sMachine),nil,SC_MANAGER_CONNECT);

  if(schm > 0)then begin
    schs := OpenService(schm,PChar(sService),SERVICE_STOP or SERVICE_QUERY_STATUS);
    if(schs > 0)then begin
      if (ControlService(schs,SERVICE_CONTROL_STOP,ss)) and (QueryServiceStatus(schs,ss)) then
        while(SERVICE_STOPPED <> ss.dwCurrentState) do begin
          dwChkP := ss.dwCheckPoint;
          Sleep(ss.dwWaitHint);
          if(not QueryServiceStatus(schs,ss))then
            Break;

          if(ss.dwCheckPoint < dwChkP)then
            Break;
        end;  //while
      CloseServiceHandle(schs);
    end;  //if able to get svc handle
    CloseServiceHandle(schm);
  end;  //if able to get svc mgr handle
  Result := SERVICE_STOPPED = ss.dwCurrentState;
end;

score 0 · Answer 8 · edited Mar 25 '12 at 14:23

open service control manager database using openscmanager
get dependent service using EnumDependService()
Stop all dependent services using ChangeConfig() sending STOP signal to this function if they are started
stop actual service
Get all Services dependencies of a service
Start all services dependencies using StartService() if they are stopped
Start actual service

Thus your service is restarted taking care all dependencies.

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 12 '16 at 23:35

0

I believe PowerShell now trumps the "sc" command in terms of simplicity:

Restart-Service "servicename"

answered Jul 12 '16 at 23:35

Medos

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Restart-Service doesn't have the option to restart a service on a remote computer though. – solipsicle Sep 21 '17 at 14:11

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 07 '19 at 13:32

This is what I do when I have restart a service remotely with different account

Open a CMD with different login

runas /noprofile /user:DOMAIN\USERNAME cmd

Use SC to stop and start

sc \\SERVERNAME query Tomcat8
sc \\SERVERNAME stop Tomcat8
sc \\SERVERNAME start Tomcat8

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Oct 08 '20 at 19:54

If you attempting to do this on a server on different domain you will need to a little bit more than what has been suggested by most answers so far, this is what I use to accomplish this:

#Configuration
$servername = "ABC",
$serviceAccountUsername = "XYZ",
$serviceAccountPassword = "XXX"

#Establish connection
try {
    if (-not ([System.IO.Directory]::Exists('\\' + $servername))) {
        net use \\$servername /user:$serviceAccountUsername $serviceAccountPassword
    }
}
catch {
    #May already exists, if so just continue
    Write-Output $_.Exception.Message
}

#Restart Service
sc.exe \\$servername stop "ServiceNameHere"
sc.exe \\$servername start "ServiceNameHere"

Simplest way to restart service on a remote computer

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