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GSOUZA
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Posted: June 27 2007 at 15:59 \| IP Logged

Hello Dave,

could you please give a little explanation on how to use phservice.exe?

thanks

Gustavo

dhoward
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Posted: June 27 2007 at 16:31 \| IP Logged

Absolutely!

Shut PowerHome down and make that the SDM and database are shutdown as well. Open a Command prompt window (run cmd.exe) and navigate to the PowerHome directory. Execute the following:

phservice -i

This will install the PowerHome service.

To uninstall, execute:

phservice -u

Once the PowerHome service is installed, right-click on My Computer and select "Manage". Go to "Services" under "Services and Applications". Scroll through the list until you find the "PowerHome" service.

Everything should be good to go as the default, but if you want to verify, right click the PowerHome service and select properties. On the general tab, you can change the startup type. The default is automatic. On the Log On tab, you should have "Log on as" set to "Local System account" and have checked "Allow service to interact with desktop". These are the defaults.

To start the PowerHome service going, just right-click and select "All-tasks" followed by "Start".

Now comes the important part. In all likelihood, PowerHome will have multiple errors starting such as unable to open sockets, COM ports, the Script Server, TTS, etc. This is because when you installed PowerHome, all of these activex controls were installed as the currently logged on user (it could have even be Admin). When PowerHome is run as a service, it is running as a special System account which cant see these activex controls.

No problem...just get past the errors and get PowerHome running as a service. With PowerHome running as a service, open the File menu and select "Register Activex". A moment later you'll see a window that the ActiveX controls were registered.

Back in the Services window, stop the PowerHome service and Start the PowerHome service. PowerHome should now launch as a service without errors. The Register ActiveX process should only have to be done this one time.

Dave.

GSOUZA
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Posted: June 27 2007 at 17:04 \| IP Logged

Amazing, :)

thanks for the instant reply.

Gustavo

GSOUZA
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Posted: June 27 2007 at 17:17 \| IP Logged

Just one more thing,

Im using Remote Desktop to manage my server so powerhome wont show up when running as service.

is there any way to open powerhome with remote desktop?

thanks

Gustavo

dhoward
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Posted: June 28 2007 at 18:18 \| IP Logged

Gustavo,

Im not quite sure what you're asking here, but it sounds as if when you're running Remove Desktop, you cant see PowerHome running as a service (even though it should still show in the System tray).

In any case, another change made to PowerHome with this version is that if you just launch PowerHome, (say from a desktop icon), if PowerHome is already running, it'll just bring up the currently running instance of PowerHome (instead of the previous error message saying that PowerHome was already running).

HTH,

Dave.

GSOUZA
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Posted: June 28 2007 at 19:00 \| IP Logged

exactly, when in remote desktop, i cant see what is running on local desktop.

yes i tried it but it gives me the odbc screen.

Gustavo

wasdvd
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Posted: June 28 2007 at 21:29 \| IP Logged

The instructions were just right. After the initial start and the register ActiveX step, it is cruising along fine.

This is a big step.

wasdvd
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Posted: June 28 2007 at 23:24 \| IP Logged

Using R11 on my XP Pro, once the service is running using the instructions above, I am not able to shutdown or restart the PC unless I stop the service first.

Since I have stopped the service, I am able to restart the PC, but PH does not seem to restart automatically once the PC is restarted.

Please advise.

dhoward
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Posted: June 29 2007 at 23:20 \| IP Logged

Gustavo,

I will setup some tests on my end and see if there is anything that can be done. It appears that the RDP is creating a completely separate desktop that is incapable of detecting the currently running PowerHome service and instead of bringing it current, is trying to launch a new instance and this of course will give the ODBC error.

Dave.

dhoward
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Posted: June 29 2007 at 23:29 \| IP Logged

Wasdvd,

Correct...when PowerHome is running as a service, clicking on the Exit or close windows button will just minimize PowerHome. It's designed to only shutdown when the service shuts down.

Now, as long as the service startup type is "automatic", it should automatically start when you boot your PC even if the service was previously stopped (it does on my test machines anyways).

Another way to start and stop the PowerHome service is using the phservice.exe utility. In addition to the -i option to install, the -u option to uninstall, it also has a -k and -r option as well. -k kills a service and -r starts a service. To use this with PowerHome would look like:

phservice -k powerhome

and

phservice -r powerhome

What I have done is create a restart batch file that looks like:

phservice -k powerhome
shutdown -r -t 5

The first line stops the PowerHome service followed by a 5 second countdown before the PC shutdowns and restarts.

Let me know if this doesnt work for you.

Dave.

wasdvd
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Posted: June 29 2007 at 23:54 \| IP Logged

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

I think the service tried to restart today as I rebooted, but the PLC and SDm were confused, so it never succeeded.

I finally reset the PLC and started the SDM by haned to get going.

Rally great work and impressive response.

GSOUZA
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Posted: June 30 2007 at 22:55 \| IP Logged

dhoward wrote:

yes Dave,

this is exactly the problem I have.

thanks

Gustavo

bhlonewolf
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Posted: July 01 2007 at 21:42 \| IP Logged

Unfortunately, this behavior is by design (the OS, that is). (Actually, it's a good thing for security, bad for what we'd like to see here.)

A somewhat-workaround is to connect to the server via remote desktop using the /console switch. Because the console session shares the same session space as services, you can interact with them.

The restart issue is still there ... this one is kind of a bummer if you have a system that restarts for other events.

Going forward, though, this will not work in Vista/Longhorn: services are now in session 0, and the console session has been moved to session 1 to eliminate security holes and, frankly, it's just a better design.

Dave -- I know this is not an easy fix given the platform limitations, but it's a biggie. :)

dhoward
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Posted: July 02 2007 at 09:42 \| IP Logged

I figured it would be tough

. However, the plans are to separate the GUI client from the backend service so that there will be no need to directly connect to the service. Hopefully I can get there one day soon, but it's a pretty big task. Im taking it a piece at a time especially with the remote clients.

Kind of a bummer though that it won't work how it currently is...

Dave.

guerrand
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Posted: July 02 2007 at 16:38 \| IP Logged

dhoward wrote:

I figured it would be tough

Don't sweat it Dave. We all know you'll get it there eventually.

So far the service is working like a charm for me.

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mustangcoupe
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Posted: November 04 2007 at 22:07 \| IP Logged

Dave,

As I posted earlier in the week I am moving my ph install to a whs box essentially windows sbs2003 without some fluff. Now I need to address the service issue... I find that if I reboot the icon does not appear in the task bar (I do not have my PLC installed yet so I can not confirm if it is working or not at this point.) I find I have to do a phservice.exe -k powerhome phservice.exe -r powerhome to get it to show up.

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Todd Hannemann

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dhoward
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Posted: November 04 2007 at 22:40 \| IP Logged

Todd,

Ive seen this happen as well, although not consistently. Ive got one machine that this never happens on, and another where it always happens. Even though the icon does not show up in the tray, if you go into the task manager, PowerHome is indeed running and I can verify this by hitting it's webserver. Im going to try to get this worked out so it doesnt happen. In the meantime, rather than doing the phservice.exe -k, I just go to the task manager and kill the pwrhome.exe process. Within a minute, the phservice.exe process will relaunch the pwrhome.exe process and then the icon will show.

I'll keep you posted on what I find out with this.

Dave.

mustangcoupe
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Posted: November 05 2007 at 17:28 \| IP Logged

so it isnt me... what I have currently done is to create a bat file using pstools pskill.exe and kill the process and restart it when I log in. I will confirm that I see the web interface once I get everything set up.

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Todd Hannemann

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jeffw_00
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Posted: November 19 2007 at 16:34 \| IP Logged

If I'm always logged into to my XP machine (one account, Admin privs, always logged in, logs in automatically on boot), is there any advantage to running PH as a service?

/j

wasdvd
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Posted: November 19 2007 at 17:17 \| IP Logged

For me, running XP-Pro always on, the service has been much more stable. I can't remember when Power-Home has gotten balled up and had to be restarted or the PLC reloaded.

The service also restarts each time the PC is rebooted - such as when MS decides you really must accept one of their security updates in the middle of the night.

I do reinitialize at 1:30AM each night, but I am not sure if even that is needed any more.

My big applause for Power-Home and Dave!!

Edited by wasdvd - November 19 2007 at 17:18

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