0

My question is, is there a good way to push an integer value to a running windows service without restarting it and without writing to disk or having it poll some database?

Here's my scenario and a few thoughts: I need to pass data to a windows service in real time I DO NOT want there to be a delay. All I need to give it is in integer and it can do the rest. My predecessor had it set up to poll a database every 10 min but that is no longer an option. I need the response time to be less than a second. I suppose technically I could just reduce the poll time to 0.5 sec but I'm thinking that would be bad for the database server. I know you can pass data to a windows service when it starts but restarting this service isn't an option because of what it's doing.

I would love to use a web service and just call a web method to pass in the data but the tasks require elevated (admin) permissions and almost everything involves file system access so my understanding is that a web service isn't really the best option either.

I've thought of using a hybrid scenario where I run a web service and a windows service on the same machine but then I still have the problem of how to pass the integer from the web service to the windows service... I could technically use a file system watcher but I really don't want to create a file just to pass an integer. I thought maybe I could use localDb and have the web service just write the value there and have the windows service poll localDb every 0.5 sec, But I'm not sure how much that polling would affect overall performance of other things. I really want a way to push data to the windows service rather than having the service poll somewhere else.

LorneCash
  • 1,446
  • 2
  • 16
  • 30
  • You could send ExecuteCommand from you web service: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.serviceprocess.servicecontroller.executecommand(v=vs.110).aspx – ErikEJ Mar 31 '17 at 07:21

1 Answers1

1

The project I work on has a front-end UI that communicates with a Windows Service running on the same system. In the past, I used the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), but found this to be heavy-weight for what I really needed. I am now using a TCP socket over the localhost address (127.0.0.1) to exchange data between the UI and the service.

Based on your description, the web service approach seems heavy-weight, kinda like the WCF approach we used to use. And, as you've noted, it has permissions issues. A simple application that pushes the integer to your service over a socket would be straightforward in my mind.

If WCF is of interest, here's a couple links that might help:

Creating a user interface for monitoring and interacting with a running windows service

GUI and windows service communication

Community
  • 1
  • 1
Matt Davis
  • 45,297
  • 16
  • 93
  • 124