Configuring Service Recovery in Windows Server 2008



Another behavior you can configure for services is what happens when the service fails. You can configure the service to restart, execute a file, or reboot the computer. In addition, you can configure a fail counter to track how many times the service has failed. You set a service’s recover options through its Recovery property page.

The Recovery page contains the following options:

1) First Failure/Second Failure/Subsequent Failures: With these three drop-down lists, select the action (or no action) to take on the specified failure. You can choose to take no action, restart the service, execute a file, or reboot the computer.

2) Reset Fail Count After: Specify the number of days after which the fail counter is reset to zero.

3) Restart Service After: Specify the number of minutes that will pass between service failure and restart. Increase from the default of one minute if the system needs more time to stabilize after the service fails.

4) Run Program: Use this group of commands to recognize a program or script that will execute when the service fails. For instance, you may create a script that broadcasts a message with the fail count and other information to the Administrators group. Use the Append Fail Count option to append the current fail count to the end of the command line (passing the fail count to the command for internal processing).

5) Restart Computer Options: Click this button to specify the number of minutes to wait before restarting the computer and an optional message to broadcast on the network prior to restart (such as a reboot warning to users).