nginx stop/reload on windows failed for Access is denied

I am running nginx on Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64) as a windows service. I am using Windows Service Wrapper for that. (Actually, I have followed this tutorial: http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/HgServeNginxWindows.)

The service is running ok. However, the server does not process the signals (e.g. stop / reload).

This means if I stop the service, nginx is not stopped. (I have to kill it.)

And when I want to reload the configuration from command line:

C:\Users\Administrator>E:\apath\nginx\nginx.exe -p E:\apath\nginx -c E:\apath\nginx.conf -s reload

It outputs:

nginx: [error] OpenEvent("Global\ngx_reload_4268") failed (5: Access is denied)

I am running the command as administrator and the service is running under NETWORK SERVICE user.

Any hints or similar issues?

Solution 1:

You must run reload from the same account as service run. For example, if you run your nginx as SYSTEM, then you can use psexec tool:

PSEXEC -s c:\nginx\nginx.exe -p c:\nginx -s reload

Solution 2:

I run my nginx-service under LOCAL SYSTEM and I use following xml configuration:

<service>
      <id>nginx-service</id>
      <name>nginx-service</name>
      <description>nginx-service</description>
      <executable>c:\nginx\nginx.exe</executable>
      <logpath>c:\nginx\</logpath>
      <logmode>roll</logmode>
      <depend></depend>
      <startargument>-pc:\nginx</startargument>
      <stopexecutable>c:\nginx\nginx.exe</stopexecutable>
      <stopargument>-s</stopargument>
      <stopargument>stop</stopargument>
  </service>

I'm using Windows Service Wrapper 1.18 and this configuration works for me. Nginx processes should be stopped gracefully now. Good luck.

Solution 3:

Based on your output, I assume that you are on a Windows box. I encountered exactly the same problem. I solved my problem by finding out that the Nginx was managed by NSSM. I installed the Nginx via chocolatey and it treated NSSM as a dependency.

Launch an administrative Command Prompt and run the following.

nssm restart nginx