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2.4.2. Running the Agent as a Windows Service

Important

The agent does not prompt for the configuration when it is started as a service. The agent must either be pre-configured or have already been started once and the configuration entered. Both options are described in the Installation Guide.
  1. Edit the rhq-agent-wrapper.bat script and set the environment variable to define the system user as whom the init script will run. There are two options:
    • RHQ_AGENT_RUN_AS explicitly sets the user account name. This must match the format of a Windows user account name, DOMAIN\username.
    • RHQ_AGENT_RUN_AS_ME forces the agent to run as whoever the current user is; this uses the format . \ %USERNAME %. If both environment variables are defined, this variable overrides RHQ_AGENT_RUN_AS.

    Note

    Before setting RHQ_AGENT_RUN_AS_ME or RHQ_AGENT_RUN_AS, make sure that the given user actually has permission to start services. If necessary, assign the user the appropriate rights. Assigning rights is covered in the Windows documentation.
    If neither variable is set, the agent init script runs as the System user.
    Other available environment variables are listed and defined in the comments in the rhq-agent-wrapper.bat script.
  2. Run the rhq-agent-wrapper.bat script to install the init script as a service. Use the install command to install the init script.
  3. When prompted, fill in the password for the system user as whom the service will run.
The agent service starts automatically when the Windows system boots. The service can be started or stopped through the Windows Services Administrative Tools.
The agent service can also be started and stopped through the rhq-agent-wrapper.bat script using the start and stop commands. The status command shows whether the agent init script is installed as a service and whether it is running. The remove command removes the agent init script as a service.
The JBoss ON agent Windows scripts use the Java Wrapper Service to control the service. A configuration file, agentRoot\bin\wrapper\rhq-agent-wrapper.conf, contains the service configuration properties. These are standard wrapper service properties; more information is available at http://wrapper.tanukisoftware.org/doc/english/properties.html.
There are some common properties to edit to custom the service:
  • wrapper.app.parameter.# set command-line options to pass to the agent. These are the same options listed in Section 6.2, “Working with the Agent Command Prompt”. Each option requires its own configuration property. Properties must be placed in numeric order and the first two properties (wrapper.app.parameter.1 and wrapper.app.parameter.2) are reserved. Start with wrapper.app.parameter.3.
  • wrapper.java.additional.# set additional JVM options that are passed directly to the VM, corresponding to the -D and -X options. These also must be incremented numerically. wrapper.java.additional.1 always specifies the log configuration file.
  • wrapper.ntservice.starttype sets when to start the service. The default is AUTO_START, which starts the service when the system boots. To start the service manually, the value is DEMAND_START.