Deploy .NET window service artifact to a remote server from TeamCity (Updated)

- This post is an update of my previous post. Basically, it's the same approach of 90% similar except I won't use Remote Powershell in this post. Config remote PowerShell is such a pain in the ass, I reckon. I had to setup a deployment on another box which have IIS actually but someone in my team had already removed the Default Web Site so I couldn't find any quick and easy way to make Remote Powershell work. The error message Powershell prints out is so stupid which does not even tell me what it wants.

“Set-WSManQuickConfig : The client cannot connect to the destination specified in the request. Verify that the service on the destination is running and is accepting requests. Consult the logs and documentation for the WS-Management service running on the destination, most commonly IIS or WinRM. If the destination is the WinRM service, run the following command on the destination to analyze and configure the WinRM service: “winrm quickconfig”. At line:50 char:33 + Set-WSManQuickConfig <<<< -force + CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Set-WSManQuickConfig], InvalidOperationException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : WsManError,Microsoft.WSMan.Management.SetWSManQuickConfigCommand“

- Ok, there is another reason to hate Microsoft. It's time to abandon PS, I tried pstools before Remote Power Shell and got other problems so I won't waste time to go back to the very old tool as Power Shell is much more power full. So writting a simple console WCF application to communitcate between TeamCity and the Remote server is my choice.

- And the tool's name is DD which is a shortname of "Distributed Deployment". In this post, I'll sum up with details how to setup deployment for a windows service from TeamCity.

- Unlike web application, a window service is often a long running process in background. A .NET windows service has an OnStop method for you to clean up resource before stopping, which is cool. HOWEVER, when you try to stop the service using "net stop servicename", it does stop the service but the process will not end as fast as it can. I reckon a .NET window service can host multiple window services which are classes inherit from ServiceBase class so it could be a reason that makes the window services manager wait a little while for all potential services within a process to stop before ending the main process.

- In some cases like mine, I want the service stop immediately when it can so I have to somehow call Environment.Exit to make the process stop asap. Apparently I cannot use TASK KILL like the previous post as it was such a hacky way and it could corrupt my data. So my approach is letting the program listen to a command, when receiving an exit signal, the app should cleanup resources and invoke Enrironment.Exit. So if you need something like this, go on reading.

I/ Things you need to prepare:

• Remote server: aka target server, a server that we'll install the service on
• TeamCity server: aka build server, a server that has TeamCity installed
• 1 Project slot in Teamcity as I want to deploy whenever I click "Run" on a Teamcity deployment project instead of auto deployment after code build, so it'll cost you 1 project in 20 available slots of free TeamCity
• Wget: this tool will download a compressed artifac from Teamcity
• 7zip: this tool will be used to decompressed the artifac
• DD: this tool will do 2 things: listen on a deployment command from teamcity and send exit signal to your long running window service

II/ Code involved:

1/ Assume that your service class is AwesomeService.cs, implement interface ISignalListener and add event WhenStop:

public partial class AwesomeService : ServiceBase, ISignalListener
{
    public Action WhenStop { get; set; }
    public void Exit()
    {
        Stop();
        if (WhenStop != null)
        {
            WhenStop();
        }
    }
    
    // ...
}

2/ In your service code, anywhere before service start such as Program.cs, add this code:

var svc = new AwesomeService();            
//NOTE: Wait for signal from Teamcity Deployment
Server.Start<ISignalListener>(svc, "AwesomeService");
Timer timer;
svc.WhenStop = () =>
{
    // NOTE: Will end process after 1 second
    timer = new Timer(o => Environment.Exit(0), null, 1000, Timeout.Infinite);
};
ServiceBase.Run(svc);
// ...

3/ Prepare the deploy.bat script. I like to control the deployment process in a batch file instead of implement the steps in a program as I think people will have their own steps and a batch file is simple enough to manage. Again this batch file will basically do these things:

• Use wget to download the latest artifact from TeamCity.
• Use 7zip to extract the artifact, copy it to a temporary folder.
• Save the artifact to Artifacts folder
• Backup the whole current service folder
• Stop target window service
• Copy over new files and old configuration files
• Start target window service
• Clean up

Here is the basic code that anyone can use, just keep it somewhere, we'll need to copy the batch file to RemoteServer.

@echo off
SETLOCAL
:: 0/ --------- Set some local variables
SET Environment.ExecutingFolder="C:\Deployment"
SET Environment.7zip="C:\Program Files (x86)\7-Zip\7z.exe"
SET Environment.Wget="C:\Deployment\wget.exe"

SET TeamCity.User=your-teamcity-account
SET TeamCity.Password=your-teamcity-password
SET TeamCity.BuildTypeId=teamcity-build-type
SET TeamCity.Artifact=awesomeservice.{build.number}.zip ::

SET AwesomeService.TargetFolderName=AwesomeService
SET AwesomeService.TargetFolderPath=C:\AwesomeService
SET AwesomeService.ServiceName=AwesomeService
SET AwesomeService.ImageName=AwesomeService.exe
CD /D %Environment.ExecutingFolder%
 
ECHO 1/ --------- Get latest artifact from TeamCity, AwesomeService
%Environment.Wget% -q --http-user=%TeamCity.User% --http-password=%TeamCity.Password% --auth-no-challenge http://your.teamcity.url.com/repository/download/%TeamCity.BuildTypeId%/.lastSuccessful/%TeamCity.Artifact%
REN *.zip* *.zip
ECHO Found following artifact
DIR /B *zip


ECHO 2/ --------- Extract the artifact to folder __Temp ---------------
%Environment.7zip% e -y -o__Temp *.zip


ECHO 3/ --------- Store the artifact ------------------ 
MOVE /Y *.zip Artifacts\


ECHO 4/ --------- Backup current service folder --------------- 
for %%a in (%AwesomeService.TargetFolderPath%) do set Temp.LastDate=%%~ta
SET Temp.LastDate=%Temp.LastDate:~6,4%-%Temp.LastDate:~0,2%-%Temp.LastDate:~3,2% %Temp.LastDate:~11,2%%Temp.LastDate:~14,2%%Temp.LastDate:~17,2%
ECHO Last deployment: %Temp.LastDate%
ECHO Now backup files to folder %AwesomeService.TargetFolderName%.%Temp.LastDate%
XCOPY /E /I /H /R /Y %AwesomeService.TargetFolderPath% "%AwesomeService.TargetFolderName%.%Temp.LastDate%"


ECHO 5/ --------- Stop %AwesomeService.ServiceName% service ---------------
DD AwesomeService /wait 50
ECHO Wait 2 more seconds
ping 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 2000 > NUL

ECHO 6/ --------- Deploy new files and copy over old configs ----------------------
ECHO ... Deploy latest assemblies
XCOPY /E /H /R /Y __Temp %AwesomeService.TargetFolderPath%

ECHO ... Deploy old configs 
COPY /Y "%AwesomeService.TargetFolderName%.%Temp.LastDate%\*.config" %AwesomeService.TargetFolderPath%

ECHO ... Delete log files 
DEL /F /Q %AwesomeService.TargetFolderPath%\Logs\log.txt* > NUL
pause

ECHO 7/ --------- Start %AwesomeService.ServiceName% service ---------------
net start %AwesomeService.ServiceName% 

ECHO 8/ --------- Cleanup --------------------------------- 
::DEL /F /Q /S *jsessionid*
RD /S /Q __Temp
ENDLOCAL

- The url to the artifac in TeamCity will look like:
http://teamcity-ip-address:80/repository/download/bt2/3907:id/service.name.1.12.1234.zip - So dedend on the build type id of your artifac, change it in the above deploy.bat

III/ Setup steps:

* On Remote Server

- Download and install 7zip
- Assume that you put all custom tools and Deploy.bat in C:\Deployment. Create folder C:\Deployment\Artifacs to store your teamcity artifacs.
The Deployment folder should look like this:

 Volume in drive C is OS
 Volume Serial Number is ABCD-EFGH

 Directory of C:\Deployment

14/10/2012  02:59 PM    <DIR>          .
14/10/2012  02:59 PM    <DIR>          ..
14/10/2012  02:58 PM    <DIR>          Artifacts
14/10/2012  02:58 PM            38,912 DD.exe
14/10/2012  02:58 PM             2,558 Deploy.bat
14/10/2012  02:58 PM           401,408 wget.exe
               4 File(s)        442,878 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  405,532,868,608 bytes free

- Run DD tool:

C:\Deployment\DD -listen 5555 -token YourS3cur!tyTok3n

- Or install it as a window service, remember to start it once installed ;)

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe /listen=5555 /token=YourS3cur!tyTok3n /i C:\Deployment\DD.exe

* On Team City Server

- Copy DD.exe and put somewhere such as C:\Program Files\DD.exe
- Add new project such as: Awesome service deployment
- Add 1 build step like this picture:

Command parameters:

-execute C:\Deployment\deploy.bat -target remoteserver-ip:5555 -token YourS3cur!tyTok3n

That's it. Your AwesomeService should be deployed whenever you click Run on the deployment project from TeamCity. Obviously you could adjust some thing in the deploy.bat to suit your needs, let me know if you have any problems.

Cheers