Servicepulse cannot connect to servicecontrol

My first encounter with NServiceBus - downloaded the trial version, selected to install all of its components, process which starts with ServicePulse Setup. That fails on the ServicePulse configuration dialog with the message "servicepulse cannot connect to servicecontrol using the uri specified. This surprises me as the setup looks very polished. If for example, this is caused by Windows 10 firewall, I would expect that the installer would invoke the firewall and suggest the way to resolve it.

Anyone willing to bail me out here, please?

Hi Nikolaj,

The Particular Service Platform Installer is designed to install ServiceControl before installing ServicePulse.That way you can be sure that an instance of ServiceControl is running before ServicePulse is installed, and that the new instance of ServicePulse can connect to the running instance of ServiceControl. I guess that things to check are:

  • Did ServiceControl install successfully, and do you have a running instance? (You can check by running ServiceControl Management from your Start menu.)
  • Is the address for ServiceControl correct in ServicePulse?

Hi @adriatic

Apologies, my previous reply was incorrect. I see the same behavior as you when I run the Particular Service Platform Installer.

What is happening here is that when you run the Platform Installer, the ServiceControl binaries (and ServiceControl Management) are installed on your machine, but no instance of ServiceControl is created and started before installation of ServicePulse is started.

(New instances of ServiceControl can be created by running ServiceControl Management from your start menu. You will also be prompted to start ServiceControl Management in the last screen of the Platform Installer.)

When the ServicePulse installation says:

Could not connect to ServiceControl using the URI specified. Do you wish to proceed with the install anyway?"

You can safely click “Yes”. The new instance of ServicePulse will be running after installation, but it won’t be able to connect to ServiceControl until you have created instance(s) of ServiceControl (“regular” instance and/or “monitoring” instance) at the address(es) with which you configured ServicePulse. Alternatively, you can create the ServiceControl instance(s) before proceeding with the rest of the ServicePulse installation.

There’s probably something we can do to make this experience smoother. I’ll look into it.

Thank you for your detailed explanation, Adam. While I thought for a while to take the approach you suggested as the final resolution, it was the very professional looking setup that prevented me from trying that. In other words, thought that such “phase error” would not be possible in a product used by so many for so long time (relatively speaking).

Your response made me think that you may be interested in a more complete feedback from my adventures with components of the Particular Software (a great name by the way), as I am likely going to make a deep dive as a part of my research for a big company interested in modernizing their product line.

@adriatic that’s great to hear, and we’re very interested in any feedback you have.

If you’d like any advice or guidance during your investigation, please feel free to drop me a line at adam.ralph@particular.net - we can even jump on a quick call if that helps.

I will happily use your offer to help - without abusing it of course. Thank you very much :smiley:

Hi, Adam

With a delay, I am confirming that the Particular Service Platform was successfully installed. Like you wrote (‘There’s probably something we can do to make this experience smoother’), the installation could benefit from resolving this interdependency.

Regards

Nik

Thanks @adriatic. I’m glad it’s all working for you.

We’re giving some thought to how to improve this, but we have no timeline yet.