telegraf/docs/WINDOWS_SERVICE.md

Running Telegraf as a Windows Service

Telegraf natively supports running as a Windows Service. Outlined below is are the general steps to set it up.

1. Obtain the telegraf windows distribution

2. Create the directory C:\Program Files\Telegraf (if you install in a different location simply specify the --config parameter with the desired location)

3. Place the telegraf.exe and the telegraf.conf config file into C:\Program Files\Telegraf

4. To install the service into the Windows Service Manager, run the following in PowerShell as an administrator (If necessary, you can wrap any spaces in the file paths in double quotes ""):

   > C:\"Program Files"\Telegraf\telegraf.exe --service install
   

5. Edit the configuration file to meet your needs

6. To check that it works, run:

   > C:\"Program Files"\Telegraf\telegraf.exe --config C:\"Program Files"\Telegraf\telegraf.conf --test
   

7. To start collecting data, run:

   > net start telegraf
   

Config Directory

You can also specify a --config-directory for the service to use:

1. Create a directory for config snippets: C:\Program Files\Telegraf\telegraf.d
2. Include the --config-directory option when registering the service:

   > C:\"Program Files"\Telegraf\telegraf.exe --service install --config C:\"Program Files"\Telegraf\telegraf.conf --config-directory C:\"Program Files"\Telegraf\telegraf.d
   

Other supported operations

Telegraf can manage its own service through the --service flag:

Command	Effect
telegraf.exe --service install	Install telegraf as a service
telegraf.exe --service uninstall	Remove the telegraf service
telegraf.exe --service start	Start the telegraf service
telegraf.exe --service stop	Stop the telegraf service

Install multiple services

Running multiple instances of Telegraf is seldom needed, as you can run multiple instances of each plugin and route metric flow using the metric filtering options. However, if you do need to run multiple telegraf instances on a single system, you can install the service with the --service-name and --service-display-name flags to give the services unique names:

> C:\"Program Files"\Telegraf\telegraf.exe --service install --service-name telegraf-1 --service-display-name "Telegraf 1"
> C:\"Program Files"\Telegraf\telegraf.exe --service install --service-name telegraf-2 --service-display-name "Telegraf 2"

Troubleshooting

When Telegraf runs as a Windows service, Telegraf logs messages to Windows events log before configuration file with logging settings is loaded. Check event log for an error reported by telegraf service in case of Telegraf service reports failure on its start: Event Viewer->Windows Logs->Application

Troubleshooting common error #1067

When installing as service in Windows, always double check to specify full path of the config file, otherwise windows service will fail to start

--config "C:\Program Files\Telegraf\telegraf.conf"