Windows Service Integration

Windows Services

Microsoft Windows Services are programs that are long running in the background on a Windows system. Services can be configured to kick-start when the system boots, or to be triggered by an event or manually. This integration explains how to install and configure Telegraf to collect Windows Services status data and send it into Wavefront.

Metrics

This integration generates these metrics for each service:

• win.services.state metric, which can have the following values:
  • 1 - stopped
  • 2 - start pending
  • 3 - stop pending
  • 4 - running
  • 5 - continue pending
  • 6 - pause pending
  • 7 - paused
• win.services.startup.mode metric, which can have the following values:
  • 0 - boot start
  • 1 - system start
  • 2 - auto start
  • 3 - demand start
  • 4 - disabled

All metrics have the following point tags:

• service_name
• display_name

Step 1: Set up the Wavefront Proxy

If you do not have a Wavefront proxy installed on your network, install a proxy.

Step 2: Install the Telegraf Agent

1. Download wavefront-telegraf-64-setup.exe. Only 64-bit Windows is supported.

2. Double click the wavefront-telegraf-64-setup.exe file and follow the instructions in the setup dialog to install Telegraf.

   Note: Steps 3-5 are only required if the Wavefront proxy is installed on a different host.

3. Edit the telegraf.conf file located in Program Files\Telegraf.

   Warning: Do not use notepad to modify the file. Use an editor that supports Unix style line endings, such as Notepad++ or EditPlus.

4. Configure the outputs section to communicate with your Wavefront proxy:

   [[outputs.wavefront]]
      host = "WAVEFRONT_PROXY_HOSTNAME"
      port = 2878
   

   Note: In the default telegraf.conf, the host property is set to localhost.

5. Restart the Telegraf service using the Windows Services Management Console or from the command prompt:

   net stop telegraf
   net start telegraf
   

6. Check Program Files\Telegraf\telegraf.log to verify the installation.

Step 3. Configure Telegraf

Edit the telegraf.conf file located in Program Files\Telegraf and enter the following snippet:

[[inputs.win_services]]
  service_names = [
    "LanmanServer",
    "TermService",
  ]

Use service_names to specify the names of the services to monitor. Leave service_names empty to monitor all available services on the host. You can find the list of services using the Windows Service Management console.

Step 4. Restart Telegraf

After any changes restart your Telegraf agent service.

net stop telegraf
net start telegraf

Step 5. Create an Alert (Optional)

You can create an alert on the win.services.state metric. To create the alert:

1. Select Alerts and click the Create Alert button, located at the top of the filter bar.
2. Configure the alert properties (notification targets, condition checking frequency, etc.).