Section 5.2. System Service on Windows

5.2. System Service on Windows

On Windows you can configure Radiator to run as a Windows Service. It is automatically started at boot time, and you can start, stop, and pause it is the Services window, also know as the MMC Services snap-in. This is the preferred way to get Radiator to run automatically every time the Windows server is started.

Review the Windows Perl and Radiator installation instructions. Make sure you have Win32::Daemon Perl module installed.
Start a Command Prompt window. Adjust the paths below for your Perl installation. Create the Radiator service with:
```
perl c:\perl64\bin\radiusd -install
```
This installs Radiator as a Windows Service so that it uses the default configuration file in C:\Program Files\Radiator\radius.cfg
Open the Services snap-in. You see Radiator Radius Server as one of the available services. Using the Services window you can start, stop, pause, and disable the Radiator service.
Start the Service.
Test that the Service is running correctly by sending a test request with
```
perl c:\perl64\bin\radpwtst -user mikem -password fred
```
Edit and test the configuration in C:\Program Files\Radiator\radius.cfg. You need to restart the Radiator service using the Services control panel after making any changes to the configuration file in order for the change to take effect.
Next time the computer reboots, the Radiator Service starts automatically.

Tip

Radiator runs successfully as a service if it runs properly using the same command line that you used during the installation testing. Try running Radiator from the root directory of the C: drive with something like perl c:\perl64\bin\radiusd. Since a Windows service has no “current directory” or “Current drive”, you must be very sure that your Radiator configuration file contains no relative file names. Every file name mentioned must be a fully qualified path name, including the drive name, such as.:

DbDir       C:\Program Files\Radiator

Tip

A Windows Service usually runs as the System User, not as a logged-in user. To run as a Service, configure your Radiator so that it does not rely on remote shares and other things that may not be accessible to the System User. Generally, this means that all Radiator configuration files, the Radiator program, and the like must be on the local disk.