SwyxWare services fail to start on a Windows Server Reboot (kb2513)

The information in this article applies to:

• SwyxWare v4.14
• SwyxWare v4.13
• SwyxWare v4.12
• SwyxWare from version 4
• SwyxWare from version 3

[ Question | Answer | Further Informationen | Links ]

Question

Answer

During the last couple of weeks Swyx discovered some problems at customer sites regarding the automatical start of the SwyxWare Services on a Windows System reboot. Usually these problems do occur after installtin SP4 for Windows 2000.

This is caused by a very long taking call from the SwyxServer into the Microsoft API. This call does take up to serveral minutes on the startup of the system. Therefore the service control manager does classify the SwyxServer service as failed to start and does not start the other depending services like SwyxGate etc.

There is a workaround regarding this problem. It's possible to start the SwyxServices via a batch file with the help of the "schedules tasks" of the Windows system. The batch is attached via link to this article.

Please do the following steps to use the workaround:

• Copy the batch file (StartSwyxWareServices.bat) to an appropriate directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\SwyxWare).
• Go to the "control panel" via "Start/Settings/Control Panel" and doubleclick the Icon "Scheduled Tasks".
• Doubleclick "Add Scheduled Task".
• Click "Next".
• Press "Browse..." and navigate to the directory "C:\Program Files\SwyxWare" and select the batch file "StartSwyxWareServices.bat".  Acknowlege the dialog.
• Enter an appropriate name for the task (e.g. StartSwyxWare) and choose "When my computer starts". Press "Next".
• Now use an account with appropriate rights to start this task. E.g. use the account the SwyxWare services are running with, or use another local account of your choice.
• Press "Next"
• Press "Finish"

With the help of this workaround the SwyxWare services will start on rebooting the machine.

With version 4.20 of SwyxWare the workaround will not be necessary any more!

Further Informationen

The SwyxServer service does call a Microsoft WMI API to get the MAC address of the network adapter. This is necessary to check the SwyxWare license. Unfortunately this call does take up to serveral minutes on system boot. Therefore the problem with the Windows service control manager does occur, as described above.

With version 4.20 of SwyxWare the problem will disappear, as the SwyxServer will do the call to the Microsoft WMI API at a time the whole system and all services are up and running. At this time the API call is executed fast, as expected.

Links

• Start SwyxWare Services Batch
  kb2513_StartSwyxWareServices.zip

The third-party contact information included in this article is provided to help you find the technical support you need. This contact information is subject to change without notice. Swyx in no way guarantees the accuracy of this third-party contact information nor is responsible for it's content.