ColdFusion 11 instances not autostarting

[tbarroqueiro]

I have a Windows 2012R2 server(iis 8.5) running Coldfusion 11 Developer edition.  I have 6 instances running on the server.  They work fine and everything seems to be configured correctly.

When I restart the server, the main instance starts up correctly, but the other 6 instances don't autostart.  I have to go into instance manager and start each instance.

I don't see any errors in any logs and can;t figure out why they won;t start after a server/service restart.

[BKBK]

Go to Control Panel => Administrative Tools.

Open Services.

You will then get the list of services registered with Windows.

Is each of the 6 instances in the list, and does it have "Automatic" Startup Type? If you answer no, then that is potentially the issue.

[tbarroqueiro]

I don't see each service in the list.  I did select to create a windows service for each when I created them though.

Can you help with adding the services?

[BKBK · Accepted solution]

There is an MS DOS tool you can use to add a service. It is SC.EXE. I shall illustrate its use with an example.

Suppose, that I had installed two Coldfusion 11 instances named testInstance1 and myNewCFInstance. Their installation directories are, respectively

C:\ColdFusion11\testInstance1\

C:\ColdFusion11\myNewCFInstance\

To add them as Windows services, you could proceed as follows.

Click on the Windows Start symbol.

When you type cmd in the search field, a link to the DOS command prompt should appear.

Right-click on the link and select to Run as Administrator. You should now get the DOS command prompt.

You can now run the DOS command, SC, to add a Windows service. You will have to do this for each and every instance you wish to add, one instance at a time.

testInstance1

Type the following after the prompt and press enter:

sc create "ColdFusion 11 testInstance1" binPath= C:\ColdFusion11\testInstance1\bin\coldfusionsvc.exe start= auto DisplayName= "ColdFusion 11 testInstance1"

Explanation:

• You must leave a single space after each equal (=) sign.
• "ColdFusion 11 testInstance1" is the name of the Windows service.
• The start type is Automatic.

You should get the result "SUCCESS".

To add the description, you have to run SC once again:

sc description "ColdFusion 11 testInstance1" "My first ColdFusion 11 instance"

Explanation:

• You must use the exact Windows service name. It is, in this case,  "ColdFusion 11 testInstance1".
• You may use any description you like. But I would advise you to use something like "ColdFusion 11 instance name_of_instance"

myNewCFInstance

For my second instance, the DOS commands I used to create the Windows service and to add the description were, respectively,

sc create "ColdFusion 11 myNewCFInstance" binPath= C:\ColdFusion11\myNewCFInstance\bin\coldfusionsvc.exe start= auto DisplayName= "ColdFusion 11 myNewCFInstance"

Followed by

sc description "ColdFusion 11 myNewCFInstance" "ColdFusion 11 instance myNewCFInstance"

Some references:

https://coldfusionsolution.wordpress.com/2014/11/12/how-to-create-service-for-coldfusion/

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29702700/sc-exe-how-to-set-up-the-description-for-the-windows-ser...

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1152396

Should you make a mistake, and wish to delete a service, then see

How to Delete a Windows Service in Windows 7, 8, 10, Vista, or XP

[tbarroqueiro]

Thanks for the help!

[BKBK]

My pleasure.