Worker Services in .NET Core 3.0 - The New Way to Create Services

[@isserzack4641]

This guy deserves more subscribes and more views. He is providing very great, useful and easy to understand content . Keep up the good work Tim and thank you very much for sharing your knowledge.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I appreciate the kind words.

[@acveigascs]

I totally agree. Great content :)

[@allenbythesea]

he needs to learn to summit mount point faster though. His videos has so much filler it takes forever to get to the point.

[@jeremyrooks9784]

I’ve learned more from Tim in 6 months than I did in 6 years of college…

[@PeterMisovicProfile]

Great channel!

[@clintaionasmith]

FYI - Deleting the service and files is not necessary to update the executable. You can just stop the service, publish your changes, and then start the service up again. Aside from that this is an EXCELLENT tutorial!

[@IAmTimCorey]

True, but by deleting the files, you ensure you don't leave any scraps behind from the old application. It is a good practice to have.

[@clintaionasmith]

@@IAmTimCorey That is a valid point although perhaps only really necessary once you're ready to deploy to production. During development and testing it seems a bit excessive, and I've had cases where deleting a service failed and the only resolution was to reboot. I guess I'm just a bit more gun shy about creating/deleting services more than absolutely necessary.

[@CodeZombie62]

Tim, I've recently started work on a Windows Service project and I've been looking all over for examples on how to do it. By far, this has been the clearest example that I've seen. Thanks, Scott

[@IAmTimCorey]

I am glad it was so helpful.

[@CoderboyPB]

Tim, if we wouldn't have Covid currently, I would kiss you: At Minute 8:00 you made clear to me, what several (text) tutorials about this topic missed before: It's an endless process and it restarts every second. You are a wonderful tutor !!!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad I could help!

[@birdasaurusrex]

THANK YOU! I watched your other video on services ~1 year ago and thought "that's interesting, but I don't think I'll use that"...At work I was just asked to write a simple monitoring tool for our other services and this came in immensely handy.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I am glad it was so helpful.

[@tickprophet]

Great video. Of note, if you are simply updating the service, you can stop the service, copy/replace the files and start the service. No need to uninstall.

[@IAmTimCorey]

True, but uninstalling makes sure you remove all of the files.

[@konoko-o3o]

Absolutely amazing video, I started my internship as C# developer today, the project that I'm working with have a lot of worker services this video is very useful.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Fantastic!

[@ateeqrahman5396]

The concepts are explained very clearly and in detail. The demo is simple yet powerful enough to grab the full concept.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@fidel_soto]

Previously we had to use Topshelf and code a lot for logging into a file. I'm glad to see its all getting standardized. Great topic, great teaching, great video.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it was helpful!

I love the clarity with which you expose. I will use this new knowledge to create a database backup tool that replicates Mega and Dropbox backup. I have multiple clients using SQL Server Express and I need to maintain a good backup policy on each one. Thank you very much for the great content

[@IAmTimCorey]

Awesome! I am glad to have helped.

[@sk00pidis]

Amazing work! I was asked during training at my job to create a windows service and this one covered everything in great detail! Thank you mr.Corey

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@tahmideshayat1849]

love your tutorials man. helping a lot in my job. love from Sydney

[@IAmTimCorey]

Awesome!

[@luiscreates]

Watching this to upgrade a .NET Framework 4.5 windows service to .NET5. Great video!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it helped!

[@smiley2474]

i am new to c# and it's quite challenging for me. but i have discovered your channel and will study your material slowly by slowly. hopping to learn a lot

[@IAmTimCorey]

Great!

[@adventureschannel9644]

Excellent tutorial. Clear and easy to follow. Thanks a bunch Tim.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@ricardomlourenco]

Absolutely great content. I loved how you start to really a beginner then you gradually progress to a more complete solution, adding log and configuring Windows Service. Loved it. Thank you so much for the great content.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@zoltan.halasz]

I wanted to try background jobs in windows, and exactly that is covered here. Great material, clear and concise until the end!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it was helpful!

[@sergZh78]

Im study english only for you videos It is a lot of information

[@IAmTimCorey]

Great!

[@francomorales4294]

Hi man, excellent tutorial and great & clear explanation! I'm evaluating create a windows service to check some tables in the db and I'll try to do that with net core 3.0 ! Thank you for sharing your knowledge! Cheers from Argentina!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@AmitSharma-bl1ur]

Sir Your voice is marvelous , Every Student pray to get Teacher Like You, Sir I want to learn Xamarin but did not find any good tutorial about this can you provide some tutorial about Xamarin to get Started

[@IAmTimCorey]

I am going to be covering Xamarin in a couple months.

[@AmitSharma-bl1ur]

@@IAmTimCorey Thanks Sir for quick reply

[@AllenMichaelsVlogs]

Absolutely fantastic! I wish there is a second part to this on how to add the installer.

[@IAmTimCorey]

What do you mean "add the installer"? You can run the command I showed on screen for installing the service on any machine. What are you looking for beyond that?

[@AllenMichaelsVlogs]

@@IAmTimCorey in my situation I would have a system admin do the installation and they want to use the installer and not the command tool

[@AlexKidd4Fun]

​@@AllenMichaelsVlogs​ In the past, I was able to generate an MSI (Microsoft Installer) that would deploy the bits and set up services using Flexera Installshield. It might not work for the project type demonstrated here as their website doesn't list support for .net Core 3 yet but I suppose it's only a matter of time. Give that a look - it was very simple to set up the package once compiled.

[@88spaces]

Thank you, Tim. This is a very informative video. I watched it because I have a service that needs to run but I'm choosing to run it as a console app under the Windows Task Scheduler. I still wanted to explore my options though.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@camcommute]

I used to use the console app as a Windows task scheduler but I've noticed that it pop up the command prompt everytime it run. Have u found a way to disable this?

[@shvideo1]

Great topic and tutorial. Very useful information. Thank you also for covering the uninstall service.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are most welcome. Thanks for watching.

[@adedotunrichard8691]

Thank you for this great work. I will like to try the worker service to run some certain background services for my application. Thank you once again

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@alinpaul4268]

great video Tim, also great content on your website. Keep up the good work. I hope people can make the difference between quality content like yours and other "made on the knees" content who just floods youtube and other chanels.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I am glad you are enjoying my content.

[@marcospalladino1963]

Tim, it was very nice. Thank you. Please, send more videos about Worker Services, but now, working the advanced ways. Example: "Worker Services with Selenium automation"

[@IAmTimCorey]

I will add it to the list. Thanks for the suggestion.

[@marcoscarvalho9956]

Thanks Tim you helped me a lot with your detailed explanation. Translation by Google.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@norryowlmalahan5136]

A bit old thread here but the first time when I met worker service was trying to make Hangfire running in a Docker container :)

[@fastbowler38]

Excellent video ! You should have a "buy me a coffee" button.. I would have gladly bought you a couple ! Great Work again !!!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You could go to www.patreon.com/IAmTimCorey and buy me one there

[@lukassrovnal9312]

Many thanks for this video, finally i get it how it all works!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Awesome!

[@jonannin]

Excellent delivery. Thank you.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@facundopugliese9632]

This is one of my favourite videos. I really enjoyed it. Thanks, Tim. I'm going to automate everything.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@whirlwnd1]

Very useful, Very to the point, Well explained, Solid... Thanks Tim

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@Navelpluisje]

Hi Tim, that was excellent thanks for the lesson. I am monitoring all websites on the web now.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it was helpful!

[@ManiasInc]

Thank you very much Tim! for all the knowledge you provide, your effort and time you invest to teach. Thank you very much!

[@IAmTimCorey]

My pleasure!

[@thingstodowithBASS]

Very very good! Beautifully articulated the context of use. You deserve far more views then you have!!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you.

[@frederickmanlusoc2050]

A very understandable explanation. Great job sir!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it was helpful!

[@BobDenny]

Who knew? It just happens I am converting a console app / service that I wrote years ago from .NET Framework to .NET Core. I did the service bare metal using InstallUtil. That's fine, but It appears that this will accomplish the same thing in COre, and give me a Linux Daemon on top of it, with much simpler code. I am just lucky to have stumbled across this !!

[@IAmTimCorey]

I'm glad you found it. Yep, this should do all you want in a packaging that is easier to manage.

[@VictorPraizTech]

Thank you Tim 🎉

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@cavalsilva]

Hello Tim, thanks for the video, is very useful!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@jovicamilenovic2899]

When using classic WindowsServices for example, you just have to stop the service, recompile the service project with your changes and start the service again. You don't need to delete the deployment files or the delete the service. Just restart the service after recompile. Can we still use OnStop OnShutdown OnPowerEvent from ServiceBase? Very nice intro to Worker Services!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Yeah, I just prefer to clean it out and start over. Otherwise, you might end up with artifacts from a previous installation. And yes, I believe we do.

[@alvinbernardo9551]

another clear and help full tutorial

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad it helped

[@CarlosHerreraJugovie]

Excellent video dude, thanks so much...!!! - Greetings from Caracas / Venezuela

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@fzamick]

just wow thanks again Tim!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@alexy.3512]

Brilliant. I have been evaluating whether .Net Core is a good fit for mixed Windows/Linux environment, which requires small microservices like this (not this simple). And you basically answered it. Thank you! Awesome stuff.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Awesome!

[@lakshminarayanans9252]

Amazing Tutorial Tim!!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@tamerezzeldin4404]

Great video & simply explained! Thanks!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You're welcome!

[@samerelsahih]

Great content as usual I can't skip a single video from your channel ! Do you think it would be a good idea or even possible to create a worker that can update a memory cache in the background when database changes occur ? Is such a concept possible with this ?

[@novedadesdanny2829]

Excellent your tutorial. I think that is better than hangfire.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You can actually use hangfire inside of a service. Hangfire is more about scheduling where services are about running something continually in the background.

[@ChosenHandle]

This was excellent content. Succinct and informative. Thank you tim!

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Thanks for sharing

[@Coeur85]

Awesome tim , amazing as always, hope to see one grpc service :)

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you! People have been requesting gRPC so I'll keep bumping it up the priority list.

[@venky76v]

@@IAmTimCorey gRPC as well as GraphQL might interesting. Tim you are briiliant. I am coming off your Docker course and I must say it has been one of the courses that I have had. Keep it going.

[@fatihduzenli5893]

Thanks for all your videos and efforts on teaching C# with a great detail. Could you please also make a video about good books to read for C#? I would like to know what books you would recommend worth reading. Thanks in advance.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I will add it to the list. Thanks for the suggestion.

[@dsmyify]

CLR via C# is a good book.

[@fatihduzenli5893]

@@dsmyify did you read that book ? Is it like from beginner to advance, covering all topics in depth with good examples ? Because I heard that book when i was searching on google. In addition, i have seen "c# 7.0 in a nutshell: the definitive reference" multiple times. I m not sure cause I want to buy a book that is comprehensive and nearly up to date.

[@dsmyify]

@@fatihduzenli5893 ~ it's an advanced book. It's about the CLR and how C# works under the covers. It's learning the underlying concepts of .NET. It is a good book. Makes you think about memory allocation and using the right types structures or classes, it takes about the difference between instance and type methods, and things like that.

[@dsmyify]

@@fatihduzenli5893 ~ it might be worth seeing if a similar book for Core comes out.

[@RalfsBalodis]

0:00 - Intro 1:15 - Creating Demo Worker Service App 2:54 - What is a Worker Service 3:59 - Service App template code overview 9:32 - Service App code design using http client 20:15 - Showing log messages: Serilog NuGet references 22:22 - Showing log messages: Serilog configuration 25:00 - Showing log messages: Implementing Serilog 29:45 - Configuring Worker Service for Windows: WindowsServices NuGet 31:32 - Deploying the Service App 33:39 - Installing the Service using PowerShell 37:26 - Uninstalling the Service using PowerShell 39:24 - Updating, deploying, installing and uninstalling the Service 44:04 - Summary and concluding remarks

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks again!

[@leefig6089]

This is fabulous. Thank you Tim

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@viniciusamaraal]

Very good explanation!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@RawCoding]

A little bit slow pace for my liking but you are covering a lot of ground here nice work Tim! This way is a lot nicer than the current 2.* way.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@TheDumpap]

Really appreciate the work you are putting into your content! :)

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@robertotomas]

tip: skip to 3:00, this is the context you need to know what you are looking at, then go back and watch how he creates it if you don't already know where it is in the new project menu

[@IAmTimCorey]

I'm glad you find it valuable enough to come back to.

[@hattinnh]

I really wish you all the best! Your videos have been very helpful! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You're very welcome!

[@superkoyo]

Nice video! thx from Brazil.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks for watching!

[@shaktisingh-lu3dm]

Thanks a lot Tim. Really enjoyed learning this new concept for me. :)

[@CarlosPerez-te4gx]

Great job Tim. Thanks a lot, great presentation.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@marcusreinicke]

Thanks very much Tim for your great work. You are the best

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@Umer171]

Excellent lecture deserve respect... Like

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thank you!

[@UnknownMoses]

For debugging and testing Windows Services I would always put the code in a class library and create a Windows application that references that class library. I then write the code in the class library debugging and testing it from the Windows application. After I am think I am about done, I added a Windows Service project and referenced that same class library and executed by calling the same methods from the Windows Service. I would add a timer delay or task delay in the service of say 20 seconds. Then I would install the service and run it, the delay is so I could attach the visual studio debugger to the running service. This way I could step through all the code and test it all that.

[@IAmTimCorey]

The good news is that you don't need to do all of this work now with worker services.

[@UnknownMoses]

@@IAmTimCorey The only thing that sort of irritates me about the newer frameworks over Net Framework 4.8 is the lifecycle. I it feels like every couple years I have to update applications to a newer version of NET where as with Net Framework 4.x I did not have to update projects to newer versions of the framework. I would like NET to stop releasing new versions and just update the major and minor builds like they did with the old Net Framework.

[@mehr52]

Thank you Tim, it was awesome!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@alexanderspiegel6747]

Thanks Tim for one more nice lesson.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@alexanderspiegel6747]

Tim, what can be the best way to ask some questions? If it is possible of course.... here ? Or via email?

[@dileepkumarpd]

It's Really nice man..! And very clear explanation.!

[@IAmTimCorey]

Glad you liked it!

[@maqsudbeknurmatov3998]

good job and good luck bro!!!

[@pravingade6053]

Nice video...Thanks for explain very detailed

[@IAmTimCorey]

Most welcome 😊

[@fikerehman9614]

Very useful. Please keep up the good work. Only thing I noticed that you could use string interpolation to make code more readable. instead of saying Log.info("Web Site Status: {statusCode}", statusCode); could do : Log.info($"Website Status: {statusCode} "); notice the '$'

[@IAmTimCorey]

Actually, there is a difference. I pointed it out briefly. If you do it my way, a structured logger like Serilog can pull out that data and store it separately so that you can query on it later in the logs (where statusCode = 401 or temperature > 50 would be examples). If you use string interpolation, you only get a string stored in your log statement so you would need to do a regex match to try to pull out the values.

[@brentzeiss2387]

Thanks for your video. It's so in depth. Are you able to do a video on automating the deployment of a windows service? Eg Deploying from some generic CI/CD pipeline on some server and deploying the service to another server that may or may not have the service already running?

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

I added it to Tim's list for topics to consider. Thanks for recommending it.

[@MsYogeshPandey]

Very useful video, Thank u Tim 💯😊

[@MsYogeshPandey]

Is worker service useful for scheduling a task on daily basis?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks. And yes, they can be useful for scheduling daily tasks.

[@MsYogeshPandey]

@@IAmTimCorey Wow! so quick response.. I really not expected this fast. Hats off to you Tim, our devs community must be loving you a lot. Love from India too 😘

[@kangooroovd]

thank you for making this video

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

Hi Tim, I'm a hugh fan of your videos. Microservices are very popular nowadays. Could you make a video about dapr? I use it for a while and it would be very helpful for your followes too.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks for the suggestion. Please add it to the list on the suggestion site so others can vote on it as well: suggestions.iamtimcorey.com/

[@edrianjerusalem1258]

finally! a way to debug a window service :D

[@IAmTimCorey]

I hope it helps

[@MaximilianGe]

Logging (Windows Event Log) is working only on my windows 10 PC, did not work on Windows Server 2016. Any Idea?

[@tkytessy]

Hey...I just went through this demo and created the same...ur demo was very helpful...Is there any way to call an already existing api in the worker service... Thanks in advance

[@PiterMorbid]

Great video! Completely understood. The outstanding question I've got, though, is how or where do I pass a Cancellation token to end my service operation?

[@MohdMoinuddinVohra]

Nice explanation. Thank you so much for sharing.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@alexismyname3421]

Is there a way to automatically install and start the service aswell? Nice vid btw very helpful! I want to use the worker to automatically add and commit the changes in svn, do you think this is a good practice?

[@robertosterberg]

Hi Tim great video you mention the possibility to trigger the service based on an event in a database could you elaborate on that. Is that done on the DB side using events or sound really interesting. Love you r videos i get so much inspiration from this keep it up!

[@IAmTimCorey]

A worker service can monitor the database for changes by just calling a small query on a schedule. If something has changed, it can get the new data and do something. For example, if you had a People table, you could do a "select max(id) from People", which would return the last identifier issued. Let's say the first time it is called, you get back id number 10. If you run it again and you get back id number 12, you know that you have at least one new record. You can run "select * from People where id > 10" to get the new records.

[@luisantonioparamoromero9512]

Thank You for the video, it really helped me out, i have a question, is there a way to make an installer like we do un ServiceBase? I need it for a setup proyect

[@mohammadusman1688]

Thanks for this detailed video. Really helpful.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@chrisogonas]

Well delivered, and many thanks!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@dernordischegott123]

Thanks for your Video - like the others awesome!

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Thanks for sharing!

[@Gonkers44]

Looks like a great video for beginners.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks!

[@irfanakunkerja7179]

Thank you. Awesome tutorial. I wonder how to create a unit test for a worker service. Do you have any references for that? Thanks in advance

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

Topic suggestion noted and have added to Tim's list of viewer requests, thanks.

[@maxron6514]

@@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597 i am heavily interested. did you do that already?

[@tomthelestaff-iamtimcorey7597]

@@maxron6514 Not yet. I would love for you to post this video recommendation on Tim's Suggestion App - suggestions.iamtimcorey.com/. Tim just implemented a new feature so that you will get an email if/when Tim completes the recommendation.

[@rolandomedina7140]

Great tutorial man! Thanks a lot from Panamá!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@owenlagula5812]

Love it. Thanks!

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@pyrejke2991]

Thanks Tim. It's really simple and usefull staff to start. It would be nice if you record new video with more cool things and deploy it to Azure.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I will add it to the list. Thanks for the suggestion.

[@RafCalg]

That was good and valuable.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Great!

[@b33hzad]

Fantastic video. thanks a lot.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@zachb8012]

Wow these services are easy, I wish I didn't make like the exact same thing as your sample project with a standalone Azure Timer Function.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Yep, they are really easy.

[@TheChandraak]

Thank you for valuable lesson. Could you please tell how to containerize this worker service. ?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks for the suggestion. Please add it to the list on the suggestion site so others can vote on it as well: suggestions.iamtimcorey.com/

[@str0g]

in ur example you used the worker service for monitoring a website. But how do you do that when you want to watch a directory with file system watcher?

[@ManojThakur-ig4mk]

Great video..love it.. is it better to do the scheduled task using time check in WorkerService or I would prefer some other library for scheduling tasks??

[@IAmTimCorey]

You can do either. The best solution for scheduled tasks is probably HangFire though.

[@ManojThakur-ig4mk]

@@IAmTimCorey Thank you very much for response

[@Coldshoulders69]

Great content! You've gained a new follower

[@IAmTimCorey]

Excellent!

[@JoeBonez]

Great video! Subscribed. The only thing that raised my hackles, is that I would have done client?.Dispose() out of an abundance of caution.

[@IAmTimCorey]

That wouldn't hurt and there is a small possibility it could help. Good catch.

[@immersivegamer492]

My thought was that you could also do a using statement wrapped around the while loop (just for this simple case, other cases cleaning up in stop method is correct)

[@mihaimyh]

I have another question, if that's ok: how can we unit test this since it has a hard dependency on BackgroundService class and also the methods are protected. Or we don't?

[@IAmTimCorey]

In order to test this well, you would want to move your logic out of the ExecuteAsync method and into a class that you can test more easily.

[@Antmanzzz]

Tim might know better, but AFAIK there's no good way to write true unit tests for static methods or classes with hard dependencies or restricted method signatures. However you can work around it to some extent by minimising the amount of your code residing in those places. In this case you could create a new public class WorkerHelper with the same _logger member, constructor and 3 methods as the current Worker class (just copy-paste Worker.cs and rename), but then make the methods public virtual instead. This can then be unit tested. Then modify the original Worker class to forward to _helper as follows: public class Worker { private readonly WorkerHelper _helper; public Worker(ILogger logger) { _helper = new WorkerHelper(logger); // new is OK here since cannot unit test, and no worse than current impl. } protected override async Task ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken stoppingToken) { await _helper.ExecuteAsync(stoppingToken); } //etc... } Also when you want to test a protected method in a non-sealed class (and you are unable to make the method protected internal etc) then it is still possible to test this using a hack/trick. Extend the class (e.g. MyClass) in a new class MyClassTestable in the same project as your tests. Add a public method that calls the protected method with the same signature. Voila you can now write tests for that method. Normally you would use this 'Testable' pattern for other reasons, but it does help in these cases too. Finally, you can (and should) also write at least one integration test on any service component like this. That test can often outweigh the value of all the unit tests combined.