Processing jobs in a Windows Service

Question

I've created a Windows Service in C# using HangFire looks like:

using System;
using System.Configuration;
using System.ServiceProcess;
using Hangfire;
using Hangfire.SqlServer;

namespace WindowsService1
{
    public partial class Service1 : ServiceBase
    {
        private BackgroundJobServer _server;

        public Service1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.UseSqlServerStorage("connection_string");
        }

        protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
        {
            _server = new BackgroundJobServer();
        }

        protected override void OnStop()
        {
            _server.Dispose();
        }
    }
}

I'm using VS 2017 on Windows 10. After compiling and service installed successfully but not started! When I try to start manually it gives the famous Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

I found an answer in stackoverflow.com regarding grant permission to NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM. It does not solve my problem Please help. Thanks.

Answer 1

for Debugging use this pattern:

1.Add this method into WindowsService1 class:

 public void OnDebug()
 {
    OnStart(null);
 }

2.In Program.cs file change the content to something like it:

static class Program
{
    /// <summary>
    /// The main entry point for the application.
    /// </summary>
    static void Main()
    {
      #if DEBUG
        var Service = new WindowsService1();
        Service.OnDebug();
      #else
        ServiceBase[] ServicesToRun;
        ServicesToRun = new ServiceBase[]
        {
            new WindowsService1()
        };
        ServiceBase.Run(ServicesToRun);
      #endif
    }
}

By this way you can run your code in User Session and check possible problems (Non User-Specific Problems).

** Don't put all of your codes on OnStart method. The state of a service will turns to Started whenever OnStart ends.

** Use a thread to do you works instead:

    System.Threading.Thread MainThread { get; set; } = null;
    protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
    {
        MainThread = new System.Threading.Thread(new System.Threading.ThreadStart(new Action(()=>{
            // Put your codes here ... 
        })));
        MainThread.Start();
    }

    protected override void OnStop()
    {
        MainThread?.Abort();
    }

Most of the times your error is because of this problem.