C# – Does one need to manually create a Windows event log source when installing a Windows service

cevent-lognetwindows-services

I have developed a Windows service in C#. I have created a installer with Visual Studio 2008, which installs the Windows service. Everything is good so far. I want to make sure that the event source has been created at install time, so that any error/exception conditions at runtime are correctly logged to the Windows event log.

Does the event source get automatically created (and removed) as part of the windows service installation (and uninstallation), or do I have to handle this myself and create a custom action to create and delete it as follows?

protected override void OnBeforeInstall(IDictionary savedState)
{
    base.OnBeforeInstall(savedState);

    if (!EventLog.SourceExists(ServiceName))
        EventLog.CreateEventSource(ServiceName, "Application");
}

protected override void OnAfterUninstall(IDictionary savedState)
{
    base.OnAfterInstall(savedState);

    if (EventLog.SourceExists(ServiceName))
        EventLog.DeleteEventSource(ServiceName);
}

Best Answer

It appears to me like the ServiceInstaller automatically creates a DataSource during installation with the same name as the service, so there's no need for any extra code.

From the ServiceInstaller documentation

When the installation is performed, it automatically creates an EventLogInstaller to install the event log source associated with the ServiceBase derived class. The Log property for this source is set by the ServiceInstaller constructor to the computer's Application log. When you set the ServiceName of the ServiceInstaller (which should be identical to the ServiceBase..::.ServiceName of the service), the Source is automatically set to the same value. In an installation failure, the source's installation is rolled-back along with previously installed services.

Related Solutions

C# – the most reliable way to create a custom event log and event source during the installation of a .Net Service

The ServiceInstaller class automatically creates an EventLogInstaller and puts it inside its own Installers collection.

Try this code:

ServiceProcessInstaller serviceProcessInstaller = new ServiceProcessInstaller();
serviceProcessInstaller.Password = null;
serviceProcessInstaller.Username = null;
serviceProcessInstaller.Account = ServiceAccount.LocalSystem;

// serviceInstaller
ServiceInstaller serviceInstaller = new ServiceInstaller();
serviceInstaller.ServiceName = "MyService";
serviceInstaller.DisplayName = "My Service";
serviceInstaller.StartType = ServiceStartMode.Automatic;
serviceInstaller.Description = "My Service Description";
// kill the default event log installer
serviceInstaller.Installers.Clear(); 

// Create Event Source and Event Log     
EventLogInstaller logInstaller = new EventLogInstaller();
logInstaller.Source = "MyService"; // use same as ServiceName
logInstaller.Log = "MyLog";

// Add all installers
this.Installers.AddRange(new Installer[] {
   serviceProcessInstaller, serviceInstaller, logInstaller
});

Windows – System.Security.SecurityException when writing to Event Log

To give Network Service read permission on the EventLog/Security key (as suggested by Firenzi and royrules22) follow instructions from http://geekswithblogs.net/timh/archive/2005/10/05/56029.aspx

Open the Registry Editor:
1. Select Start then Run
2. Enter regedt32 or regedit
Navigate/expand to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog\Security
Right click on this entry and select Permissions
Add the Network Service user
Give it Read permission

UPDATE: The steps above are ok on developer machines, where you do not use deployment process to install application.
However if you deploy your application to other machine(s), consider to register event log sources during installation as suggested in SailAvid's and Nicole Calinoiu's answers.

I am using PowerShell function (calling in Octopus Deploy.ps1)

function Create-EventSources() {
    $eventSources = @("MySource1","MySource2" )
    foreach ($source in $eventSources) {
            if ([System.Diagnostics.EventLog]::SourceExists($source) -eq $false) {
                [System.Diagnostics.EventLog]::CreateEventSource($source, "Application")
            }
    }
}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – the most reliable way to create a custom event log and event source during the installation of a .Net Service

Windows – System.Security.SecurityException when writing to Event Log

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