1.3 Overview

The Service Control Manager Remote Protocol is a client/server protocol used for configuring and controlling service programs running on a remote computer. A remote service management session begins with the client initiating the connection request to the server. If the server grants the request, the connection is established. The client can then make multiple requests to modify, query the configuration, or start and stop services on the server by using the same session until the session is terminated.

A typical Service Control Manager Remote Protocol session involves the client connecting to the server and requesting to open the SCM on the server. If the server accepts the request, it responds with an RPC context handle to the client. The client uses this RPC context handle to operate on the server. This usually involves sending another request to the server and specifying the type of operation to perform and any specific parameters associated with that operation. If the server accepts this request, it attempts to perform the specified operation and responds to the client with the result of the operation. After the client is finished operating on the server, it terminates the protocol by sending a request to close the RPC context handle.

The Service Control Manager Remote Protocol maintains an internal database to store service program configurations and state. The Service Control Manager Protocol has exclusive access to this internal database. On one operating system instance there is only one SCM and one corresponding SCM database. Any updates to this internal database are made only through the Service Control Manager Remote Protocol. SCM takes care of serializing all concurrent accesses to the SCM database. The SCM database is resident in memory; it is recreated every time the SCM restarts (after each reboot). Part of the SCM database is retrieved from persistent storage (all information regarding registered services) and partially nonpersistent (current active state of the services). The persistent information is modified by the SCM when a service is added, configured, or deleted. Any attempt to directly modify the persistent part of the database directly in the persistent storage is not a supported scenario and will result in possible inconsistencies. Finally, if SCM were to be forcefully terminated, the operating system will shut down and restart.