Running VMagent (Windows) as a service

[machinedrummer]

Is there a guide on how to run VMAgent as a Windows Service?

When I try to setup a service it keeps crashing (Windows gets no response). I can see process is started but seems exe does not support running as a Windows service.

The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

Example of service setup, environment variables are set and location is correct. I can see storage folder created and persistent-queue gets populated with files. I can execute it from shell and it runs fine but I'm unable to setup as a windows service.

$Name = "VMAgent"
$params = @{
    Name = $Name
    BinaryPathName = '"C:\VMAgent\vmagent-windows-amd64-prod.exe" -envflag.enable'
    DisplayName = $Name
    StartupType = "Auto"
    Description = "$Name is used to send server event logs and metrics to centralized monitoring server."
  }
  New-Service @params

[f41gh7]

Hello, currently it's not possible in native mode for vmagent. It doesn't have window service integration.

You have to use some windows service wrapper like https://github.com/winsw/winsw

[machinedrummer]

Thank you,

Are there plans for windows service integration? If yes, is there a link I could track?
I was looking at https://nssm.cc/download, but that is not actively maintained, and will definitely check winsw.

[f41gh7]

For now, there is no such plans, maybe @valyala could prioritize it.

Related integration example https://cs.opensource.google/go/x/sys/+/refs/tags/v0.5.0:windows/svc/example/

[valyala]

@machinedrummer , VictoriaMetrics team has no good expertise in Windows, so it would be great to get help from the community for implementing this feature request.

[machinedrummer]

Thank you,

I understand, for now I will use winsw.

In case someone else is looking on how to run it as a service, this is how I tested.
In this example I decided to reuse existing windows_exporter directory (https://github.com/prometheus-community/windows_exporter/releases latest msi).

Download vmagent-windows-amd64-prod.exe and place it under C:\Program Files\windows_exporter

Create C:\Program Files\windows_exporter\VMAgent.xml

<service>
  <id>VMAgent</id>
  <name>VMAgent</name>
  <description>This service is a service created from a sample configuration</description>
  <executable>%BASE%\vmagent-windows-amd64-prod.exe"</executable>

  <onfailure action="restart" delay="10 sec"/>
  <onfailure action="restart" delay="20 sec"/>
  
  <resetfailure>1 hour</resetfailure>

  <arguments>-envflag.enable</arguments>
  
  <priority>Normal</priority>

  <stoptimeout>15 sec</stoptimeout>

  <stopparentprocessfirst>true</stopparentprocessfirst>
    <startmode>Automatic</startmode>
    <waithint>15 sec</waithint>
    <sleeptime>1 sec</sleeptime>

  <logpath>%BASE%\logs</logpath>
  <log mode="roll">
    <sizeThreshold>10240</sizeThreshold>
    <keepFiles>8</keepFiles>
  </log>
  
<!--
SECTION: Environment setup since we are using -envflag.enable switch
-->

  <env name="loggerFormat" value="json" />
  <env name="loggerOutput" value="stderr" />
  <env name="remoteWrite_url" value="https://x.x.x.x/prometheus" />
  <env name="remoteWrite_maxDiskUsagePerURL" value="52428800" />
  <env name="promscrape_fileSDCheckInterval" value="5s" />
  <env name="promscrape_suppressScrapeErrors" value="false" />
  <env name="remoteWrite_tmpDataPath" value="C:\Program Files\windows_exporter\storage" />
  <env name="promscrape_config" value="C:\Program Files\windows_exporter\promscrape.yml" />

 </service>

Download winsw from https://github.com/winsw/winsw/releases/download/v2.12.0/WinSW-x64.exe
Rename WinSW-x64.exe to VMAgent.exe and move it to C:\Program Files\windows_exporter

From elevated powershell run

& "C:\Program Files\windows_exporter\VMAgent.exe" install VMAgent.xml

Get-Service VMAgent | Start-Service

Please note that for winsw .XML name must match .EXE name

[Munsio]

I've created a Chocolatey packages which installs WinSW as well as VMAgent automatically and adds it as Service to Windows.

Thanks for @machinedrummer as I use the same XML as base and it is working flawless right now.