How to install node.js as windows service?

Question

I have downloaded node.js executable. How can I run that executable as windows service? I cannot use standard node.js installer, since I need to run multiple version of node.js concurrently.

Answer 1

Late to the party, but node-windows will do the trick too.

It also has system logging built in.

There is an API to create scripts from code, i.e.

var Service = require('node-windows').Service;

// Create a new service object
var svc = new Service({
  name:'Hello World',
  description: 'The nodejs.org example web server.',
  script: 'C:\\path\\to\\helloworld.js'
});

// Listen for the "install" event, which indicates the
// process is available as a service.
svc.on('install',function(){
  svc.start();
});

svc.install();

FD: I'm the author of this module.

Answer 2

I found the thing so useful that I built an even easier to use wrapper around it (npm, github).

Installing it:

npm install -g qckwinsvc

Installing your service:

qckwinsvc

prompt: Service name: [name for your service]
prompt: Service description: [description for it]
prompt: Node script path: [path of your node script]
Service installed

Uninstalling your service:

qckwinsvc --uninstall

prompt: Service name: [name of your service]
prompt: Node script path: [path of your node script]
Service stopped
Service uninstalled

Answer 3

WinSer is a node.js friendly wrapper around the popular NSSM (Non-Sucking Service Manager)

Answer 4

From this blog

Next up, I wanted to host node as a service, just like IIS. This way it’d start up with my machine, run in the background, restart automatically if it crashes and so forth.

This is where nssm, the non-sucking service manager, enters the picture. This tool lets you host a normal .exe as a Windows service.

Here are the commands I used to setup an instance of the your node application as a service, open your cmd like administrator and type following commands:

nssm.exe install service_name c:\your_nodejs_directory\node.exe c:\your_application_directory\server.js
net start service_name

Answer 5

I'm not addressing the question directly, but providing an alternative that might also meet your requirement in a more node.js fashion way.

Functionally the requirements are:

1. Have the logic (app) running in the background
2. Be able to start/stop the logic
3. Automatically start the logic when system boots up

These requirements can be satisfied by using a process manager (PM) and making the process manager start on system startup. Two good PMs that are Windows-friendly are:

• PM2
• forever

To make the PM start automatically, the most simple way is to create a scheduled task with a "At Startup" trigger:

Answer 6

https://nssm.cc/ service helper good for create windows service by batch file i use from nssm & good working for any app & any file

Answer 7

The process manager + task scheduler approach I posted a year ago works well with some one-off service installations. But recently I started to design system in a micro-service fashion, with many small services talking to each other via IPC. So manually configuring each service has become unbearable.

Towards the goal of installing services without manual configuration, I created serman, a command line tool (install with npm i -g serman) to install an executable as a service. All you need to write (and only write once) is a simple service configuration file along with your executable. Run

serman install <path_to_config_file>

will install the service. stdout and stderr are all logged. For more info, take a look at the project website.

A working configuration file is very simple, as demonstrated below. But it also has many useful features such as <env> and <persistent_env> below.

<service>
  <id>hello</id>
  <name>hello</name>
  <description>This service runs the hello application</description>

  <executable>node.exe</executable>

  <!-- 
       {{dir}} will be expanded to the containing directory of your 
       config file, which is normally where your executable locates 
   -->
  <arguments>"{{dir}}\hello.js"</arguments>

  <logmode>rotate</logmode>

  <!-- OPTIONAL FEATURE:
       NODE_ENV=production will be an environment variable 
       available to your application, but not visible outside 
       of your application
   -->
  <env name="NODE_ENV" value="production"/>

  <!-- OPTIONAL FEATURE:
       FOO_SERVICE_PORT=8989 will be persisted as an environment
       variable machine-wide.
   -->
  <persistent_env name="FOO_SERVICE_PORT" value="8989" />
</service>

Answer 8

Since qckwinsvc has not been updated for a while there's a new version called qckwinsvc2 (npm, github)

It now supports args passed to the service. It also keeps a local cache so you don't have to provide a path every time you want to perform an action

Use the now arg to start the service as soon as it's installed

qckwinsvc2 install name="Hello" description="Hello World" path="C:\index.js" args="--y" now

qckwinsvc2 uninstall name="Hello"

qckwinsvc2 list