Stopping/Starting a remote Windows service and waiting for it to open/close

Question

The top answer to this question tells me how to stop/start a remote service. Great. Now, all I need is to wait for the actual stop/start to complete. So, what I'm looking for is a dos command to:

1. Start a service, should return only after the service is started (or after a timeout, raising error level)
2. Stop a service, return only after the service is stopped

Answer 1

I created a set of batch scripts that use sc.exe to do just this. They are attached below. To run these scripts, you should be a user with administration rights on the target machine and running this from a computer that is a member of the same domain. It's possible to set it up to be able to run from outside of the domain (like from a VPN) but there are a lot of layers of security to work through involving firewalls, DCOM and security credentials.

One of these days, I'm going to figure out the PowerShell equivalent, which should be much easier.

safeServiceStart.bat

@echo off :: This script originally authored by Eric Falsken  IF [%1]==[] GOTO usage IF [%2]==[] GOTO usage  ping -n 1 %1 | FIND "TTL=" >NUL IF errorlevel 1 GOTO SystemOffline SC \\%1 query %2 | FIND "STATE" >NUL IF errorlevel 1 GOTO SystemOffline  :ResolveInitialState SC \\%1 query %2 | FIND "STATE" | FIND "STOPPED" >NUL IF errorlevel 0 IF NOT errorlevel 1 GOTO StartService SC \\%1 query %2 | FIND "STATE" | FIND "RUNNING" >NUL IF errorlevel 0 IF NOT errorlevel 1 GOTO StartedService SC \\%1 query %2 | FIND "STATE" | FIND "PAUSED" >NUL IF errorlevel 0 IF NOT errorlevel 1 GOTO SystemOffline echo Service State is changing, waiting for service to resolve its state before making changes sc \\%1 query %2 | Find "STATE" timeout /t 2 /nobreak >NUL GOTO ResolveInitialState  :StartService echo Starting %2 on \\%1 sc \\%1 start %2 >NUL  GOTO StartingService :StartingServiceDelay echo Waiting for %2 to start timeout /t 2 /nobreak >NUL :StartingService SC \\%1 query %2 | FIND "STATE" | FIND "RUNNING" >NUL IF errorlevel 1 GOTO StartingServiceDelay  :StartedService echo %2 on \\%1 is started GOTO:eof  :SystemOffline echo Server \\%1 is not accessible or is offline GOTO:eof  :usage echo %0 [system name] [service name] echo Example: %0 server1 MyService echo. GOTO:eof 

safeServiceStop.bat

@echo off :: This script originally authored by Eric Falsken  IF [%1]==[] GOTO usage IF [%2]==[] GOTO usage  ping -n 1 %1 | FIND "TTL=" >NUL IF errorlevel 1 GOTO SystemOffline SC \\%1 query %2 | FIND "STATE" >NUL IF errorlevel 1 GOTO SystemOffline  :ResolveInitialState SC \\%1 query %2 | FIND "STATE" | FIND "RUNNING" >NUL IF errorlevel 0 IF NOT errorlevel 1 GOTO StopService SC \\%1 query %2 | FIND "STATE" | FIND "STOPPED" >NUL IF errorlevel 0 IF NOT errorlevel 1 GOTO StopedService SC \\%1 query %2 | FIND "STATE" | FIND "PAUSED" >NUL IF errorlevel 0 IF NOT errorlevel 1 GOTO SystemOffline echo Service State is changing, waiting for service to resolve its state before making changes sc \\%1 query %2 | Find "STATE" timeout /t 2 /nobreak >NUL GOTO ResolveInitialState  :StopService echo Stopping %2 on \\%1 sc \\%1 stop %2 %3 >NUL  GOTO StopingService :StopingServiceDelay echo Waiting for %2 to stop timeout /t 2 /nobreak >NUL :StopingService SC \\%1 query %2 | FIND "STATE" | FIND "STOPPED" >NUL IF errorlevel 1 GOTO StopingServiceDelay  :StopedService echo %2 on \\%1 is stopped GOTO:eof  :SystemOffline echo Server \\%1 or service %2 is not accessible or is offline GOTO:eof  :usage echo Will cause a remote service to STOP (if not already stopped). echo This script will waiting for the service to enter the stopped state if necessary. echo. echo %0 [system name] [service name] {reason} echo Example: %0 server1 MyService echo. echo For reason codes, run "sc stop" GOTO:eof 

safeServiceRestart.bat

@echo off :: This script originally authored by Eric Falsken  if [%1]==[] GOTO usage if [%2]==[] GOTO usage  ping -n 1 %1 | FIND "TTL=" >NUL IF errorlevel 1 GOTO SystemOffline SC \\%1 query %2 | FIND "STATE" >NUL IF errorlevel 1 GOTO SystemOffline  :ResolveInitialState SC \\%1 query %2 | FIND "STATE" | FIND "RUNNING" >NUL IF errorlevel 0 IF NOT errorlevel 1 GOTO StopService SC \\%1 query %2 | FIND "STATE" | FIND "STOPPED" >NUL IF errorlevel 0 IF NOT errorlevel 1 GOTO StartService SC \\%1 query %2 | FIND "STATE" | FIND "PAUSED" >NUL IF errorlevel 0 IF NOT errorlevel 1 GOTO SystemOffline echo Service State is changing, waiting for service to resolve its state before making changes sc \\%1 query %2 | Find "STATE" timeout /t 2 /nobreak >NUL GOTO ResolveInitialState  :StopService echo Stopping %2 on \\%1 sc \\%1 stop %2 %3 >NUL  GOTO StopingService :StopingServiceDelay echo Waiting for %2 to stop timeout /t 2 /nobreak >NUL :StopingService SC \\%1 query %2 | FIND "STATE" | FIND "STOPPED" >NUL IF errorlevel 1 GOTO StopingServiceDelay  :StopedService echo %2 on \\%1 is stopped GOTO StartService  :StartService echo Starting %2 on \\%1 sc \\%1 start %2 >NUL  GOTO StartingService :StartingServiceDelay echo Waiting for %2 to start timeout /t 2 /nobreak >NUL :StartingService SC \\%1 query %2 | FIND "STATE" | FIND "RUNNING" >NUL IF errorlevel 1 GOTO StartingServiceDelay  :StartedService echo %2 on \\%1 is started GOTO:eof  :SystemOffline echo Server \\%1 or service %2 is not accessible or is offline GOTO:eof  :usage echo Will restart a remote service, waiting for the service to stop/start (if necessary) echo. echo %0 [system name] [service name] {reason} echo Example: %0 server1 MyService echo. echo For reason codes, run "sc stop" GOTO:eof