Configuring the Windows service

Informer runs as Windows services, so it starts with the server. Which services exist, and how to repair them, depends on which installer built the deployment.

Servers built by Informer Setup

The Informer Setup wizard, used from 2026.1.0 onward, registers these services:

• Informer 5 Redis (informer5-redis) runs Informer's built-in Redis on the loopback address. Its description in the Services panel reads "Informer 5 in-process Redis (Garnet), on loopback"; Garnet is the Redis-compatible server it runs.
• The Informer service runs the application itself. It is registered under its own name and does not take over the informer5 registration used by the older installer, so an existing installation keeps its own service entry. After migrating an older installation you will therefore see two Informer services: the previous one, disabled by the installer, and the new one, running.

If you set Open the web port in Windows Firewall during setup, it adds a rule named Informer 5 Web.

Roles and logs

Informer runs as three roles, each listening on its own loopback port. The web port you configured is served by the Informer Load Balancer, which forwards to them.

Role	Loopback port	Handles
informer-api	3001	API and UI requests
informer-query	3002	Query requests
informer-schedules	3003	Scheduled Jobs

A server migrated from the older console installer keeps the layout its service.config.json had. Custom role ports carry over. A server that ran schedules on its query threads has no informer-schedules role, and informer-query runs the Jobs. A server that ran Informer as a single application has one role, informer, listening on the web port itself with no Load Balancer. See Upgrading Informer (Windows).

Each role writes its own log file to logs under the data directory you chose during setup, by default C:\Entrinsik\Informer5 Server\data\logs. They are ordinary files: open them with any Windows tool. There is no PM2 command to run.

When a browser reports a refused connection on the web port, the useful question is which layer is down: read the role logs first, then check the Informer Windows service in the Services panel. Stopping and starting it there is the first thing to try.

Servers built by the older console installer

The console installer used through 2025.2.15 registers a single informer5 service that runs Informer under PM2. This section covers reinstalling, setting dependencies, and uninstalling it.

Reinstall the service

If you need to reinstall the service, run this in an Administrator Command Prompt (not PowerShell), replacing $informerHome with the Informer install root and $npmPath with the npm directory (by default C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\npm):

sc.exe create informer5 DisplayName= "Entrinsik Informer 5" binPath= "\"$informerHome\ServiceBinary\ServiceBinary.exe\" \"$informerHome\" \"$npmPath\"" start= "auto"

The service installs and starts automatically. Check the Services panel to confirm it started, or run pm2 ls to verify Informer is running. You should see one thread per Informer thread you configured in the Load Balancer. If no threads run, verify the service.config.json entries and the PM2 environment variables, then restart the service. If it still will not start, contact Support at i5support@entrinsik.com.

Update service dependencies

To make sure Elasticsearch, Redis, and PostgreSQL start before Informer, run this in an Administrator Command Prompt (not PowerShell). It overwrites any existing dependencies, so you do not need to remove old ones first:

sc config informer5 depend= elasticsearch8/postgresql-x64-16/Redis

Uninstall the service

1. Stop the Informer service if it is running.

2. Open an elevated PowerShell window.

3. Delete the service:

   sc delete informer5