For security reasons, Windows Server 2008 is configured to not
allow interactive services. When a service is installed as an interactive
service on Windows Server 2008, the operating system logs an error
message to the Windows System log about the service being marked as
an interactive service.
When you use Server Administrator to configure Alert Actions for
an event, you can specify the action to execute an application. In
order for interactive applications to execute properly for an Alert
Action, the Dell Systems Management Server Administrator (DSM SA)
Data Manager service must be configured as an interactive service.
Examples of interactive applications are applications with a graphical
user interface (GUI) or that prompt the user for input in some way
such as the pause command in a batch file.
When Server Administrator is installed on Microsoft Windows Server
2008, the DSM SA Data Manager service is installed as a non-interactive
service which means that it is configured to not be allowed to interact
with the desktop by default. This means that interactive applications
are not executed properly when executed for an Alert Action. If an
interactive application is executed for an Alert Action in this situation,
the application is suspended and waits for an input. The application
interface/prompt is not visible to you and remains invisible even
after the Interactive Services Detection service is started. The
Processes tab in the Task Manager displays an application
process entry for each execution of the interactive application.
If you need to execute an interactive application for an Alert
Action on Microsoft Windows Server 2008, you must configure the DSM
SA Data Manager service to be allowed to interact with the desktop
and enable interactive services.
To allow interaction with the desktop:
- Right-click the DSM SA Data Manager service in the
Services control panel and select
Properties.
- In the
Log On tab, select
Allow service to interact
with desktop
and click
OK.
- Restart the DSM SA Data Manager service for the change to take
effect.
- Ensure that the
Interactive Services Detection service
is running.
When the DSM SA Data Manager service is restarted with this change,
the Service Control Manager logs the following message to the System
log:
The DSM SA Data Manager service is marked as an interactive
service. Enabling the Interactive Services Detection service allows
the DSM SA Data Manager service to execute interactive applications
properly for an Alert Action.
Once these changes are made, the
Interactive services dialog
detection
dialog box is displayed by the operating system to provide
access to the interactive application interface/prompt.