A service starts by itself when Windows starts. Nobody needs to log in. Use it on production servers.
🛠️ 1. Install
Stop AwareIM. Close the Control Panel.
Open a command prompt as Administrator.
Run AwareIM\bin\InstallService.bat.
This installs two services: Tomcat and AwareIM.
Open Windows Services. Set both to Automatic. Start Tomcat first, then AwareIM.
To remove the services, run AwareIM\bin\UninstallService.bat as Administrator.
⚠️ When the services run, you cannot use the Control Panel. To edit your application, start the Configuration Tool directly with AwareIM\ConfigTool\eclipse\ConfigTool.exe.
🧠 2. Memory
The service does not use the Control Panel memory settings. Set memory in the service files:
| Service | File | Setting |
|---|
| AwareIM | AwareIM\bin\awareim.conf | wrapper.java.maxmemory=4096 (in MB) |
| Tomcat | AwareIM\Tomcat\conf\ | wrapper.confwrapper.java.maxmemory=1024 (in MB) |
Remove the # at the start of the line, or the setting has no effect. Restart both services. For sizes, see the memory reply.
If you are not sure which file your version uses, open InstallService.bat. It names the .conf file for each service.
📜 3. Logs
You do not get output windows when you run as a service.
The output goes to wrapper.log files. Look in AwareIM\bin and AwareIM\Tomcat\logs.
Log Viewer: set logging to a file in logger.props. Then open bin\main.log (or test.log in test mode) with bin\logViewer.bat.
🔁 4. Starts in the wrong order, or not at all after a reboot
If you see connection refused on port 9000, or the AwareIM service stops right after Windows starts, the services start too fast or in the wrong order.
✅ Fix:
Make AwareIM wait for Tomcat and your database. Run this in an Administrator command prompt (change MySQL to the name of your database service):
sc config AwareIM depend= Tomcat/MySQL
In Services → AwareIM → Recovery, set “Restart the Service” for the first and second failures, with a 1-minute delay.
🧩 5. Works from the Control Panel, fails as a service
Memory errors: the service still has the small default memory. See step 2.
Custom JAR plugins: add the JAR to both .conf files. Use forward slashes in the path:
wrapper.java.classpath.42=../Tomcat/shared/lib/my_plugin.jar
Use the next free number after the existing wrapper.java.classpath.N lines.
Files on network drives, or MS Word / Excel documents: a service runs as the Local System account. It cannot see mapped drives (Z:\) or your Office settings.
Use UNC paths (\\server\share).
Or, in Services → AwareIM → Log On, run the service as a normal user account that has the access it needs.
Error 1: Incorrect function / NoClassDefFoundError org/apache/juli: install the service again as Administrator, on a current build.
💡 No service?
If you run from the Control Panel instead, close the Tomcat Output window. Leaving it open slows the whole server.
Still stuck? Post the end of both wrapper.log files, your Windows version, and your AwareIM version and build.
