Install Omniscope as Windows Service

The main reason to install Omniscope as a Windows Service is to have it running 24/7 on a Windows Server in production to serve projects and reports in your enterprise or executing Scheduler tasks.

Keeping Omniscope running without login/logouts

If installed as a Windows Service, Omniscope will start when your system starts, without a user account login required. This enables 'always-on' 24/7 services to remain running regardless of user account logins or logout.

Installation on Windows Vista, 7, 8, 10, Server 2008-2019

Per-user installation

On typical systems, this is the default option when installing Omniscope.  Omniscope will be installed to the user profile under "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Visokio Omniscope app", and will not be available to other accounts.  The same user account will be activated, and will also be used to run the service under.

1. Stop the Visokio Enterprise service if previously installed, using the Windows Services dialog (Start > Control Panel" then "System and Security > Administrative Tools > Services).
2. Install Omniscope, customising and ensuring "Per-user" installation is chosen. If available, choose 64-bit.  No need to uninstall.
3. Activate: If not already activated, start Omniscope and activate with your Server license key. Note that activation is unaffected by upgrades.
4. Install the serviceas follows
   • Browse to "Start menu > All programs > Accessories > Command Prompt"
   • Right click and choose "Run as administrator".  Approve any User Account Control dialog that may be shown.
   • Enter:
     cd "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Visokio Omniscope app\service"
     "Install Visokio Service.bat"
   • Check the command executed successfully.  If not, check you followed the above steps correctly, then get in touch.
5. Configure the Windows accountfor the service to run as:
   • Open Windows Services dialog > "Visokio Enterprise" > Properties > "Log on" tab
   • Select "This account" and enter name and password of the account that the Visokio service is going to run on.
     This user must be the same account that has been installed and activated.
6. Start the service using the Windows Services dialog.

To uninstall the service:

• Open command prompt as administrator (as in step 4)
• Enter:
  cd "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Visokio Omniscope app\service"
  "Uninstall Visokio Service.bat"

System-wide installation

Follow the steps above.  But in this case, Omniscope is installed to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Visokio Omniscope" or "C:\Program Files\Visokio Omniscope". 

Regardless of installation location, activation is typically per-user.  You must ensure that the service is configured to run as a specific user account, and that same user account must be activated by logging in and entering the key into Omniscope.

Memory configuration

By default the service uses the same memory limit as the Omniscope app, which is roughly the 50% installed memory on a 64-bit PC. This is automatically configured at first installation time only, when wrapper.conf is created. Thereafter, if system memory is changed, it must be manually updated.

Advanced users can customise this to free up memory for multiple scheduled tasks or to squeeze more RAM out of a server.

To edit the service memory configuration, open wrapper.conf in your Omniscope installation folder typically in "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Visokio Omniscope app\service" or "c:\ProgramFiles\Visokio Omnisope\service" and edit the line "wrapper.java.maxmemory", specifying a number in MB.  For example:

wrapper.java.maxmemory=6000            (as recommended on an 12gb server running 64-bit)

Troubleshooting

Service will not install

If you try to install Visokio as a service on Vista, you will get a"OpenSCManager Failed - Access is Denied. (0x5)" error. On Vista, you need to log on as an administrator when you install the service, as detailed in the installation instructions above.

Service will not start

If your service will not start after it has been installed, please check that you have a clean installation of Omniscope with an updated "wrapper.conf" file as detailed above.  

Also make sure the service is configured to run under a user account which has access to the Omniscope installation folder.  Make sure the same account has been activated with your license key, and not another user account.

Repeat the installation steps carefully.  Get in touch if you still cannot get the service to start.

"Out of memory" errors

If you get out of memory errors (in the scheduler or service log files, in the program folder), please check that you have a clean installation of Omniscope with an updated "wrapper.conf" file as detailed above.  

See above Memory configuration section on how to increase memory

You need to restart the service for the changes to take effect.

Files on network drives

Omniscope Scheduler as a service is unable to access files on mapped network drive, because these drive mappings are only available to a desktop user session on Windows.

The way to get around this issue is by using full UNC paths (\\machine name\path) in your Workflow models and source/output paths.

Database drivers not working

See System-wide database driver location settings. 

Advisory for older versions of Omniscope (prior to 2021.1)

See here for additional setup required.