Logging to a console when using Wowza as a Windows Service?

Wowza Streaming Engine
1

Under Windows when we launch Wowza from the startup script we get a console that shows errors and whatnot. I was wondering how we can get that same console when running Wowza as a system service? That way when the box boots we’re back online. But is there a command I can run to open up the console and see what is happening in real time within Wowza?

2

The only option is to find a way to “tail” the log files. I am not sure if there is a good way to do this on Windows.

Charlie

3

Everything that goes to console goes to logs file. It all uses the same system.

Charlie

4

Here is a tool that allow tailing of a file on Windows:

http://tailforwin32.sourceforge.net/

Just tail the log file.

Charlie

5

All information that is logged shows up in both places.

Charlie

6

Alternatively, you could just put a shortcut to the Wowza startup.bat in your Windows startup folder. It will then run it in a console window when you reboot.

7

Does Wowza log everything to the log files? For example, do all error messages get placed in a log file that we can simply open? Or are there certain messages that are only logged to the console? Is there a way to turn it on so that anything that goes to the console is placed in to a log file we can review?

8

I looks like Wowza uses the Tanuki Java wrapper to create a Windows system service. Doing a down a dirty Google search I was able to find this:

http://wrapper.tanukisoftware.com/doc/english/prop-console-loglevel.html

But I believe that will need to be written in to the wrapper itself. Don’t suppose that is an easy change? If that gets us the option of a console output while at the same time running a Windows system service, that would be awesomeness on a stick!

9

We only RDP to the box and have multiple users RDP in. Which means that either everyone will get a new instance of Wowza with the console window, or only one person will… Or no one will as it would run as a system service and since we’re logging in under our own accounts we won’t spawn a new instance but will also not get the console.

Ideally we would be able to RDP in, open a console window and attach it to the running Wowza instance to see what is going on. Or, if Wowza logged everything that was output to that console window to a text file that we could look at, that would work too so long as it has some way to ensure it doesn’t eat all of the space on the logging drive and crash the server.

10

Thanks for that link… I’ll install that and play with it in development. However, I was told, maybe incorrectly, that the Console that opens in the standalone server will actually show information that never makes it in to the logs. If that’s the case, wouldn’t this in essence not really fix the core problem? Or is that information about logs vs console incorrect?

Thanks,

Benjamin

11

For those who are looking to do the same thing, I found that talforwin32 doesn’t seem to automagically update the log files from Wowza for some reason. http://www.baremetalsoft.com/baretail/ does seem to work a bit better. There is also MTail http://ophilipp.free.fr/op_tail.htm but I don’t know how well that works.

Thanks,

Benjamin