Monitor Service
The Kensium POS Server installer includes an option to install and enable a Monitor Windows service.
The Monitor service has a simple job: to ensure that POS server is responsive to requests, and to prevent POS Server from sleeping due to inactivity, so that activities such as background tasks can be run.
a) Configuration (Optional)
The installer will install and configure the Monitor service with default settings that are appropriate for most environments. This help section describes the settings that are available, in case you want to change the default behavior.
The Monitor service is deployed to the same folder as the POS Server executable files. Accordingly, the Monitor service uses the same appsettings.json file (or environment variables) as POS Server. It uses some of the same settings as POS server, as well as introducing its own:
| Field Name | Description |
|---|---|
| SeqUrl | The URL to the Seq logging server, e.g. https://logs.fusionrms.com. |
| SeqApiKey | The API key to use for the Seq logging server. |
| MonitorBaseUrl | Base URL for tenants that use a Request Url Prefix to identify a tenant from an incoming HTTP request. This is not normally used outside of development, as production sites use Request Url Host to differentiate sites (e.g. each tenant gets its own host name). The default value is http://localhost. |
| MonitorTenantsFolder | The absolute path to the folder where the POS Server’s tenants.json file can be found. By default this is the App_Data folder of where the Monitor service is installed. You can change this value if you decide to run the Monitor service from a different folder than the default POS Server folder. |
| MonitorIntervalSeconds | Number of seconds to wait between monitor requests, in seconds. The default value is 60 seconds. |
As the Monitor service is installed in the same folder as POS Server, the default settings are appropriate for most installations.
Note: if testing the Monitor service on localhost, avoid using an HTTPS connection to a self-signed SSL certificate. The self-signed certificate is not readable when the program is run under a service account (you will receive an SSL error).
This scenario is typically only encountered when testing on a developer workstation.
b) Manual Installation
Starting with POS Server 5.1.0, the POS installer automatically configures and enables the Monitor service. In some cases, you may not be able to upgrade a client to POS 5.1.0. In those cases you may still be able to manually deploy the Monitor service to an POS installation, rather than perform a full upgrade.
To perform a manual installation and configuration:
- Locate a copy of Kensium.XMS.Monitor.exe in a working installation of POS Server 5.1.0 or higher.
- Copy this executable to the same folder where Kensium.XMS.exe is located.
- Update the appsettings.json file if needed (see above).
- Run the command prompt as Administrator.
- In the command prompt, change the working directory to the POS installation folder (where you copied the Monitor service executable).
- Install the Windows service by running the following commands:
sc create “Kensium POS Monitor” binPath=Kensium.POS.Monitor.exe start=delayed-auto
sc description “Kensium POS Monitor” “Monitors the health of Kensium POS server and its active tenants”
- Open the Windows Services Manager, and confirm that the Kensium POS Monitor service is listed.
- When you want to start running the service, right-click it and select the Start option.