Start Windows Service programmatically

Question

I am having an issue with an application that I am creating. I am trying to start a windows service through my C# app. When I click my start button, it looks like everything goes through but when I log into the server, the service still does not show that it is running. However, the second time I run it, I get an exception that says the instance of the service is already running. Again when I log into the server, the service appears to be stopped. Has anyone ever seen this?

Here is my code.

try
{
    while (reader.Read())
    {
        int timeoutMilliseconds = 1000;
        string serviceName = reader["ServiceName"].ToString();
        string permission = reader["Permission"].ToString();

        if (permission == "E")
        {
            lblServStartSuccess.Visible = true;

            ServiceController service = new ServiceController(serviceName);
            TimeSpan timeout = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(timeoutMilliseconds);

            service.Start();
            service.WaitForStatus(ServiceControllerStatus.Running, timeout);
        }
        else
        {
            lblServErrorStart.Visible = true;
        }
    }
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    Response.Write(ex.ToString());
}

EDIT: Here is the exception I received on one service:

System.InvalidOperationException: Service Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service was not found on computer '.'. ---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The specified service does not exist as an installed service --- End of inner exception stack trace

I know the service exists. Do I need to add something in front of the service to tell it what server to look at?

Answer 1

If the code you showed is executing on a different machine than where the service is supposed to run (I'm not clear from your comments if that's the case or not), you would need to provide the machine name in the ServiceController constructer.

Is it possible you are successfully starting the service, but not on the machine you think? That would fit the symptoms you describe.

ServiceController service = new ServiceController(serviceName, serverName);

Also see ServiceController constructor documentation.