How to change Iguana Service details in the iguana_service.hdf file

Introduction

When you are installing multiple instances of Iguana (as windows services) on a single server, you need to ensure that each instance uses a different service name. If you do not change the service name you will overwrite any existing service with the same name.

Note: If you do overwrite the service don’t panic it is very easy to fix, see: How to recover from overwriting your default Iguana Service during a manual install.

Issue [top]

How to install multiple instances of instances of Iguana (as windows services) on a single server.

Solution [top]

Before installing the service (using iguana --run) you need to change the the service_name and (optionally) the service_description (easier to differentiate between services) in the iguana_service.hdf file.

Some key parameters:

  • service_name: the name of the service. Pick something like “Iguana5”. Then net start Iguana5 can be used to start the service.
  • service_description: how the service is described in the service window. Useful for putting in more descriptive information.
  • command_line: This is useful for including special flags to be passed to the main Iguana executable like --working_dir <dir-name>

It is important to change the service_name otherwise another Iguana service entry can be overwritten. Ideally you should also change the service_description to easily differentiate between services.

The other parameters typically do not need to be altered:

application{
   service_kill_timeout = 500000 
   service_display_name=iNTERFACEWARE Iguana
   service_name=Iguana
   service_description=HL7 Integration Engine
   command_line=iguana.exe
   command_line_unix=./iguana
   path_registry_entry_win32 = SYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerEnvironment

How it Works [top]

The iguana_service.hdf file that the iguana_service.exe file will load up (iguana_service.exe is bootstrap program responsible for invoking the main iguana.exe as a service). Under Windows it defines how the service will appear in the Services window.