Critical services information explained

Overview

For Windows computers, Applixure Agent automatically detects and reports if critical operating system services are having technical issues that may prevent them running altogether, or have resulted an unexpected exits while running.

Applixure detects three kind of conditions for these critical services:

Service has been explicitly disabled, preventing it running
Service has tried to start, but failed to do so
Service has had some error condition while running

Service has been explicitly disabled

Typically, this condition has resulted from the explicit action of the end user or central IT management, by configuring service's startup type from Windows' Services -tool or using some other interface to be set to "Disaled". When service's startup is set to disabled, operating system won't even try to start it.

Service has failed to start

This condition typically indicates that some technical configuration for the operating system and/or services themselves (such as dependency on some other service being able to start) has resulted operating system trying to start the service in question, but failed to do so.

Service has error condition

Presently, Applixure Agent is only able to detect some pre-defined anomalous unexpected service termination conditions based information logged by the Service Control Manager (SCM) for this condition. Typically this error indicates some internal error in service, which may have resulted from operating system configuration issues or corruption of settings etc.

Additional (operational) error conditions are detected specifically for WMI service, for which Applixure Agent relies on for correctly functioning data collection purposes.

If known, additional error message is shown alongside of this condition in the reported data to give better understanding of the nature of error condition.

Information in the web UI

In the Applixure Web UI, if certain device (Agent) is having any of these issues with the monitored system services, they are shown on the individual Agent's page on the right-hand side column:

Information in the API data

Critical services issues are reported in the Applixure Connect API data Issues -array of the Services -subobject for the Agent.

List of critical services being monitored

List of these services is based on their important role in well-functioning Windows system, while still not being those selected system services whose technical errors would immediately result in a crashing system or some other well visible system instability.

Currently monitored critical system services by the Applixure Agent are:

Application Identity
Group Policy Client (in case of AD-joined devices)
Eventlog
Netlogon
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Security Accounts Manager
Task Scheduler
Update Orchestator Service
User Profile Service
Windows Installer
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)
Windows Modules Installer
Windows Update