H.3 The Ice Service Installer

Ice provides the command-line tool iceserviceinstall to assist you in installing and uninstalling the following Windows services:

• IceGrid registry

• IceGrid node

• Glacier2 router

Ice includes other programs that can also be run as Windows services, such as the IceBox and IcePatch2 servers. Typically it is not necessary to install these programs as Windows services because they can be launched by an IceGrid node service. However, if you wish to run an IceBox or IcePatch2 server as a Windows service without the use of IceGrid, you must install the service manually (see page 2010).

In this section, we describe how to use the Ice service installer and discuss its actions and prerequisites.

Usage

iceserviceinstall supports the following options and arguments:

iceserviceinstall [options] service config‑file [property ...]

Options:
‑h, ‑‑help           Show this message.
‑n, ‑‑nopause        Do not call pause after displaying a message.
‑v, ‑‑version        Display the Ice version.
‑u, ‑‑uninstall      Uninstall the Windows service.

The service and config-file arguments are required during installation and uninstallation.

The service argument selects the type of service you are installing; use one of the following values:

• icegridregistry

• icegridnode

• glacier2router

Note that the Ice service installer currently does not support the installation of an IceGrid node with a collocated registry, therefore you must install the registry and node separately.

The config-file argument specifies the name of an Ice configuration file. See page 2006 for additional information.

When installing a service, properties can be defined on the command line using the --name=value syntax, or they can be defined in the configuration file. The supported properties are described on page 2007.

Security Considerations

None of the Ice services require privileges beyond a normal user account. In the case of the IceGrid node service in particular, we do not recommend running it in a user account with elevated privileges because the service is responsible for launching server executables, and those servers would inherit the node’s access rights. See page 2004 for more information selecting a user account.

Configuration File

The Ice service installer requires that you specify the path name of the Ice config­uration file for the service being installed or uninstalled. The tool needs this path name for several reasons:

• During installation, it verifies that the configuration file has sufficient access rights.

• It configures a newly-installed service to load the configuration file using its absolute path name, therefore you must decide in advance where the file will be located.

• It reads the configuration file and examines certain service-specific properties. For example, prior to installing an IceGrid registry service, the tool verifies that the directory specified by the property IceGrid.Registry.Data has sufficient access rights.

• The tool supports its own configuration parameters that may also be defined as properties in this file (see page 2007).

You may still modify a service’s configuration file after installation, but you should uninstall and reinstall the service if you change any of the properties that influence the service installer’s actions. The table below describes the service properties that affect the installer:

Property	Service	Description
IceGrid.InstanceName	IceGrid Registry	Value appears in the service name; also included in the default display name if one is not defined.
IceGrid.Node.Data	IceGrid Node	Directory is created if nec­essary; access rights are verified.
IceGrid.Node.Name	IceGrid Node	Value appears in the service name; also included in the default display name if one is not defined.
IceGrid.Registry.Data	IceGrid Registry	Directory is created if nec­essary; access rights are verified.
Ice.Default.Locator	IceGrid Node, Glacier2 Router	The IceGrid instance name is derived from the identity in this proxy.
Ice.EventLog.Source	All	Specifies the name of an event log source for the ser­vice.

The steps performed by the tool during an installation are described in detail on page 2008.

Sample Configuration Files

Ice includes sample configuration files for the IceGrid and Glacier2 services in the config subdirectory of your Ice installation. We recommend that you review the comments and settings in these files to familiarize yourself with a typical configu­ration of each service.

You can modify a configuration file to suit your needs or copy one to use as a starting point for your own configuration.

Installer Properties

The Ice service installer uses a set of optional properties that customize the instal­lation process. These properties can be defined in the service’s configuration file as discussed in the previous section, or they can be defined on the command line using the familiar --name=value syntax:

iceserviceinstall --DependOnRegistry=1 ...

The installer’s properties are listed below:

• AutoStart=num

If num is a value greater than zero, the service is configured to start automati­cally at system start up. Set this property to zero to configure the service to start on demand instead. If not specified, the default value is 1.

• DependOnRegistry=num

If num is a value greater than zero, the service is configured to depend on the IceGrid registry, meaning Windows will start the registry prior to starting this service. Enabling this feature also requires that the property Ice.Default.Locator be defined in config-file. If not specified, the default value is zero.

• Description=value

A brief description of the service. If not specified, a general description is used.

• DisplayName=name

The friendly name that identifies the service to the user. If not specified, iceserviceinstall composes a default display name.

• EventLog=name

The name of the event log used by the service. If not specified, the default value is Application.

• ImagePath=path

The path name of the service executable. If not specified, iceserviceinstall assumes the service executable resides in the same directory as itself and fails if the executable is not found.

• ObjectName=name

Specifies the account used to run the service. If not specified, the default value is NT Authority\LocalService.

• Password=value

The password required by the account specified in ObjectName.

Installation Process

The Ice service installer performs a number of steps to install a service. As discussed on page 2006, you must specify the path name of the service’s configu­ration file because the service installer uses certain properties during the installa­tion process. The actions taken by the service installer are described below:

• Obtain the service’s instance name from the configuration file. The instance name is specified by the property IceGrid.InstanceName or Glacier2.InstanceName. If an instance name is not specified, the default value is IceGrid or Glacier2, respectively. If the service being installed depends on the IceGrid registry, the IceGrid instance name is derived from the value of the Ice.Default.Locator property.

• For an IceGrid node, obtain the node’s name from the property IceGrid.Node.Name. This property must be defined when installing a node.

• Compose the service name from the service type, instance name, and node name (for an IceGrid node). For example, the default service name for an IceGrid registry is icegridregistry.IceGrid. Note that the service name is not the same as the display name.

• Resolve the user account specified by ObjectName.

• For an IceGrid registry, create the data directory specified by the property IceGrid.Registry.Data and ensure that the user account specified by ObjectName has read/write access to the directory.

• For an IceGrid node, create the data directory specified by the property IceGrid.Node.Data and ensure that the user account specified by ObjectName has read/write access to the directory.

• For an IceGrid node, ensure that the user account specified by ObjectName has read access to the following registry key:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Perflib

This key allows the node to access CPU utilization statistics (see page 2020).

• Ensure that the user account specified by ObjectName has read/write access to the configuration file.

• Create a new Windows event log by adding the registry key specified by EventLog.

• Add an event log source under EventLog for the source name specified by Ice.EventLog.Source (see Appendix D). If this property is not defined, the service name is used as the source name.

• Install the service, including command line arguments that specify the service name (--service name) and the absolute path name of the configuration file (--Ice.Config=config-file).

The Ice service installer currently does not perform these tasks:

• modify access rights for the service’s executable or its DLL dependencies

•  verify that the user account specified by ObjectName has the right to “Log on as a service”

Uninstallation

When uninstalling an existing service, the Ice service installer first ensures that the service is stopped, then proceeds to remove the service. The service’s event log source is removed and, if the service is not using the Application log, the event log registry key is also removed.