Stop and Start a service via batch or cmd file?

Question

How can I script a bat or cmd to stop and start a service reliably with error checking (or let me know that it wasn't successful for whatever reason)?

Answer 1

Manual service restart is ok - services.msc has "Restart" button, but in command line both sc and net commands lacks a "restart" switch and if restart is scheduled in cmd/bat file, service is stopped and started immediately, sometimes it gets an error because service is not stopped yet, it needs some time to shut things down.

This may generate an error: sc stop sc start

It is a good idea to insert timeout, I use ping (it pings every 1 second): sc stop ping localhost -n 60 sc start

Answer 2

net start [serviceName]

and

net stop [serviceName]

tell you whether they have succeeded or failed pretty clearly. For example

U:\>net stop alerter
The Alerter service is not started.

More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 3521.

If running from a batch file, you have access to the ERRORLEVEL of the return code. 0 indicates success. Anything higher indicates failure.

As a bat file, error.bat:

@echo off
net stop alerter
if ERRORLEVEL 1 goto error
exit
:error
echo There was a problem
pause

The output looks like this:

U:\>error.bat
The Alerter service is not started.

More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 3521.

There was a problem
Press any key to continue . . .

Return Codes

 - 0 = Success
 - 1 = Not Supported
 - 2 = Access Denied
 - 3 = Dependent Services Running
 - 4 = Invalid Service Control
 - 5 = Service Cannot Accept Control
 - 6 = Service Not Active
 - 7 = Service Request Timeout
 - 8 = Unknown Failure
 - 9 = Path Not Found
 - 10 = Service Already Running
 - 11 = Service Database Locked
 - 12 = Service Dependency Deleted
 - 13 = Service Dependency Failure
 - 14 = Service Disabled
 - 15 = Service Logon Failure
 - 16 = Service Marked For Deletion
 - 17 = Service No Thread
 - 18 = Status Circular Dependency
 - 19 = Status Duplicate Name
 - 20 = Status Invalid Name
 - 21 = Status Invalid Parameter 
 - 22 = Status Invalid Service Account
 - 23 = Status Service Exists
 - 24 = Service Already Paused

Edit 20.04.2015

Return Codes:

The NET command does not return the documented Win32_Service class return codes (Service Not Active,Service Request Timeout, etc) and for many errors will simply return Errorlevel 2.

Look here: http://ss64.com/nt/net_service.html

Answer 3

I have created my personal batch file for this, mine is a little different but feel free to modify as you see fit. I created this a little while ago because I was bored and wanted to make a simple way for people to be able to input ending, starting, stopping, or setting to auto. This BAT file simply requests that you input the service name and it will do the rest for you. I didn't realize that he was looking for something that stated any error, I must have misread that part. Though typically this can be done by inputting >> output.txt on the end of the line.

The %var% is just a way for the user to be able to input their own service into this, instead of having to go modify the bat file every time that you want to start/stop a different service.

If I am wrong, anyone can feel free to correct me on this.

@echo off
set /p c= Would you like to start a service [Y/N]?
  if /I "%c%" EQU "Y" goto :1
  if /I "%c%" EQU "N" goto :2
    :1  
    set /p var= Service name: 
:2 
set /p c= Would you like to stop a service [Y/N]?
  if /I "%c%" EQU "Y" goto :3
  if /I "%c%" EQU "N" goto :4
    :3  
    set /p var1= Service name:
:4
set /p c= Would you like to disable a service [Y/N]?
  if /I "%c%" EQU "Y" goto :5
  if /I "%c%" EQU "N" goto :6
    :5  
    set /p var2= Service name:
:6 
set /p c= Would you like to set a service to auto [Y/N]?
  if /I "%c%" EQU "Y" goto :7
  if /I "%c%" EQU "N" goto :10
    :7  
    set /p var3= Service name:
:10
sc start %var%
sc stop %var1%
sc config %var2% start=disabled
sc config %var3% start=auto

Answer 4

Using the return codes from net start and net stop seems like the best method to me. Try a look at this: Net Start return codes.

Answer 5

Syntax always gets me.... so...

Here is explicitly how to add a line to a batch file that will kill a remote service (on another machine) if you are an admin on both machines, run the .bat as an administrator, and the machines are on the same domain. The machine name follows the UNC format \myserver

sc \\ip.ip.ip.ip stop p4_1

In this case... p4_1 was both the Service Name and the Display Name, when you view the Properties for the service in Service Manager. You must use the Service Name.

For your Service Ops junkies... be sure to append your reason code and comment! i.e. '4' which equals 'Planned' and comment 'Stopping server for maintenance'

sc \\ip.ip.ip.ip stop p4_1 4 Stopping server for maintenance

Answer 6

I just used Jonas' example above and created full list of 0 to 24 errorlevels. Other post is correct that net start and net stop only use errorlevel 0 for success and 2 for failure.

But this is what worked for me:

net stop postgresql-9.1
if %errorlevel% == 2 echo Access Denied - Could not stop service
if %errorlevel% == 0 echo Service stopped successfully
echo Errorlevel: %errorlevel%

Change stop to start and works in reverse.