Selenium is a suite of tools to automate web browsers across many platforms. Selenium Server (formerly the Selenium RC Server) can be run as a Windows Service using FireDaemon Pro, which allows you to have the script start automatically at boot prior to login, start multiple instances of the script and more. This HOWTO will show you how to set it up. You can also use FireDaemon Fusion to manage FireDaemon and other Windows services via a web browser.


Selenium Server Setup Under FireDaemon Pro

Download the latest Java Server JRE here. Make sure to download the Server JRE because it is designed to work better on servers.


Java Server JRE doesn't have an installer so extract the contents of the zip somewhere on your hard drive. For the purposes of this HOWTO we will use "C:\Java Server JRE".


Download the latest Selenium Server Installer from the Selenium website.


There is no installer for Selenium Server so save the download someplace on your hard drive. For the purposes of this HOWTO, we will use "C:\Selenium Server"


Download and install FireDaemon Pro into the directory of your choice, typically C:\Program Files\FireDaemon.


Next start the FireDaemon Pro GUI from the desktop shortcut. Click on the "Create a new service definition" button in the toolbar (or type Ctrl+N) and enter the information into the fields as you see below. Adjust the paths to suit your installation. Note the required parameters.



  • Executable: The path to your java.exe file. For the purposes of this HOWTO, the path is C:\Java Server JRE\jdk1.7.0_51\bin\java.exe.
  • Working Directory: The directory in which your Selenium Server resides. For the purposes of this HOWTO, the path is C:\Selenium Server.
  • Parameters: -jar follkowed by the name of your seleniumserver .jar file, including its extension.


Now click on the Settings tab. If you DON'T want to see the Selenium Server running, uncheck the Interact with Desktop check box & select "Hidden" from the "Show Window" dropdown. You must set the job type to "Global" so that child processes are terminated properly when the service is stopped or restarted. You can optionally run the Selenium Server as the user you installed it as. You can change the Process Priority to allocate more CPU time to the dedicated server or specify which CPU or core the dedicated server will run on (in the case of multi-processor, hyperthreaded or multi-core CPUs).



Now click on the Lifecycle tab. Uncheck Graceful Shutdown as it can slow the shutdown of the Selenium Server. Make sure "Console Application" is checked.



If for troubleshooting purposes you want to see what Selenium server, you can redirect its output to a specified file. Choose a path to a log file. Note that this step is optional.



Now click on the OK button to install and start your Selenium Server!