1 Topic by Sörnt

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Topic: Service name for the Router component

Hi there,

is there a way to specify a different service name for the Router component
to avoid clashes with third party software that also use the Router component?

I am planning to use the named pipe protocol to pass the messages to the central router (at the same pc).

For deployment, I guess I should change:
a) the Servicename (is there a installer parameter available?)
b) the name of the pipe

Is it possible to get a MSI installer for the router component, which I can embed into my installer? I saw only an EXE file.

Kind regards,
Sörnt Poppe

2 Reply by dgurock

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Re: Service name for the Router component

Hello Sörnt,

Thanks for your message. First of all, you can change the name of the pipe in the Router's configuration file so you can change the default pipe name this way. Regarding the service name: there's currently no a way to change the service name unfortunately, but I've added it to our feature request list. We also offer the option to license the SmartInspect Router source code so you could customize all aspects of it. If this is something you would be interested in, please feel free to email me at dg (at) gurock.com for more details.

Although we don't offer an MSI installer, you could deploy the Router files as part of your own setup. To do this, simply deploy the Router files as part of your setup to a directory of your choice and call the Router's exe file with the "/install" parameter to register the service (and "/uninstall" to unregister it). You could alternatively register/unregister the service in your own setup as most setup tools support this.

I hope this helps!

Thanks,
Dennis

Dennis Gurock,
Director & Co-Founder
Gurock Software

3 Reply by Sörnt

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Re: Service name for the Router component

Hello Denis,

so I have the choice between waiting until you add the feature or licensing the source code.
Licensing the source code is really something I would like to avoid. I really have no interest to extend the router until you create that feature.

  • When will the feature be added and released?

  • Are there any cost for licensing the source code?

Kind regards,
Sörnt

4 Reply by Sörnt

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Re: Service name for the Router component

Hello Dennis,

just installed the SmartInspect Router and had a look at the properties of the service.

If I got it right, the Router also handles TCP/IP connections. Shouldn't the service have a dependency to the network service? It looks to me right now that the service may start before the network service is started.

Kind regards,
Sörnt

5 Reply by dgurock

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Re: Service name for the Router component

Hello Sörnt,

I cannot say if/when the feature will be available. I've added it to our feature request list and we will consider this for a future release, but I don't have more information about this at the moment unfortunately.

Licensing the SmartInspect Router source code involves additional licensing costs, yes (please contact me at dg (at) gurock.com for the exact details if this is an option). If you licensed the source code for the SmartInspect Router you could change the names and installation routine in your custom build, there wouldn't be a need to extend it/add new functionality for this.

You are correct that the /install routine doesn't currently add the Network service as a service dependency and we will look into this. That said we haven't seen any issues with this before (neither on our test systems nor have we have we seen any reports about this) but it's definitely a valid point. You could add such a dependency if you installed the service in your own setup of course.

Thanks,
Dennis

Dennis Gurock,
Director & Co-Founder
Gurock Software

6 Reply by Sörnt

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Re: Service name for the Router component

After 4 months of no updates of SmartInspect - When can I expect a new Version?

Kind regards,
Sörnt

7 Reply by dgurock

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Re: Service name for the Router component

Hello Sörnt,

Thanks for your message. We don't currently have plans to update the SmartInspect Router service to configure a custom name. We will, however, consider this for future updates.

Thanks,
Dennis

Dennis Gurock,
Director & Co-Founder
Gurock Software

8 Reply by Sörnt

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Re: Service name for the Router component

Hello Dennis,

Thank you for supporting your customers!

Two issues, both are time bombs, and no solution - great!

1. The missing dependency - even if it doesn't happend at your build server - it is an issue.
2. No option to configure the service name - sure that will sooner or later clashes with other developers installation.

And no I am not interested in purchasing a source code licence for another 850€ to fix your issues.

Last edited by Sörnt (2011-02-21 19:34:31)

9 Reply by dgurock

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Re: Service name for the Router component

Hello Sörnt,

Thanks for your feedback. We are always happy to support our customers, fix issues and provide sample source code and even help with custom projects if necessary etc. However, we need to carefully consider which new enhancements and capabilities we add to our products so that as many customers as possible benefit from those enhancements.

We haven't had any additional requests to allow for custom service names in the past and this would be a non-trivial change that would require a lot of effort to implement and to test this on all supported configurations and systems. As I mentioned previously, we suggest using and installing the SmartInspect Router service on production machines that you can control so that no second Router instance is installed. For other systems it's usually recommended to use log files instead of the Router service application.

You can also set (and customize) the service dependencies when you use the Windows' CreateService API call to install the service. You don't need to use SmartInspect's installation routine for this and you also don't need to license the Router's source code. There aren't any known issues regarding the Router service and dependencies. Are your experiencing any issues? If so, we are happy to investigate this. Could you let me know which issues you are seeing and let me know the operating system and other relevant environment details so we can reproduce this here?

Thanks,
Dennis

Dennis Gurock,
Director & Co-Founder
Gurock Software

10 Reply by Sörnt

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Re: Service name for the Router component

We have no control of the machines where the product will be installed.
We plan to roll out your software to +40.000 pc's - we will faceing both problems - be sure.

I can't read anywhere the requirement that we need to have the control of the target pc's.

Edit:
The relevant OS will be Vista 32/64 and Windows 7 32/64.

Last edited by Sörnt (2011-02-21 20:24:32)

11 Reply by dgurock

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Re: Service name for the Router component

Hello Sörnt,

Thanks for the additional details. I will get back to you via email later today.

Thanks,
Dennis

Dennis Gurock,
Director & Co-Founder
Gurock Software

12 Reply by Sörnt

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Re: Service name for the Router component

After some emails - I gave up.

The issues are still there - they will give you no idea if they are going to fix it or not. Right now they didn't even consider that an issue.

They will tell you that the router should only be used in an environment you can control - that is a joke. The only environment you can control is your very own PC.

They will tell you that the router is not designed to be delivered to so many computers - the question is what is the problem here - looks like they are not going to fix issus. The number of computers is totally irrelevant. Issues may occure at the very first installation.

Customer support looks a bit differently.

13 Reply by dgurock

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Re: Service name for the Router component

Hello,

Thanks for your feedback. As I mentioned in our emails, the SmartInspect Router service, like most Windows services, cannot be installed on the same machine multiple times. This is a limitation most service applications have and we will consider supporting this in the future.

However, as with all feature requests, we need to consider which features will benefit most customers and we haven't had any requests for this feature before. Please also note that due to the flexible routing and filtering capabilities, having multiple Router instances on the same machine is usually not needed.

For your specific scenario, using separate log files per process is recommended. The SmartInspect Console also comes with a feature to merge/sort multiple log files.

Thanks,
Dennis

Dennis Gurock,
Director & Co-Founder
Gurock Software