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P4 Server Administration Documentation | 2026.1

# Multiple Perforce services under Windows

By default, the P4 Server installer for Windows installs a single P4 Server as a single service. If you want to host more than one P4 Server installation on the same machine (for instance, one for production and one for testing), you can either manually start P4 Servers from the command line, or use the Perforce-supplied utility `svcinst.exe`, to configure additional Perforce services.

Setting up multiple services to increase the number of users you support without purchasing more user licenses is a violation of the terms of your Perforce End User License Agreement.

Understanding the precedence of environment variables in determining Perforce configuration is useful when configuring multiple Perforce services on the same machine. Before you begin, read and understand Configuration parameter precedence.

To set up a second Perforce service:

1. Create a new directory for the Perforce service.
2. Copy the server executable, service executable, and your license file into this directory.
3. Create the new Perforce service using the `svcinst.exe` utility, as described in the example below. (The `svcinst.exe` utility comes with the P4 Server installer, and can be found in your P4 Server root.)
4. Set up the environment variables and start the new service.

We recommend that you install your first Perforce service using the P4 Server installer. This first service is called `Perforce` and its server root directory contains files that are required by any other Perforce services you create on the machine.

Example: Adding a second Perforce service

You want to create a second Perforce service with a root in `C:\p4root2` and a service name of `Perforce2`. The `svcinst` executable is in the server root of the first P4 Server installation you installed in `C:\perforce`.

Create a `P4ROOT` directory for the new service:

    C:\> mkdir c:\p4root2

Copy the server executables, both `p4d.exe` (the server) and `p4s.exe` (the service), and your license file into the new directory:

    C:\> copy c:\perforce\p4d.exe c:\p4root2
    C:\> copy c:\perforce\p4d.exe c:\p4root2\p4s.exe
    C:\> copy c:\perforce\license c:\p4root2\license

Use `svcinst.exe` (the service installer) to create the `Perforce2` service:

    C:\> svcinst create -n Perforce2 -e c:\p4root2\p4s.exe -a

After you create the `Perforce2` service, set the service parameters for the `Perforce2` service:

    C:\> p4 set -S Perforce2 P4ROOT=c:\p4root2
    C:\> p4 set -S Perforce2 P4PORT=1667
    C:\> p4 set -S Perforce2 P4LOG=log2
    C:\> p4 set -S Perforce2 P4JOURNAL=journal2

Finally, use the Perforce service installer to start the `Perforce2` service:

    $ svcinst start -n Perforce2.

The second service is now running, and both services will start automatically the next time you reboot.

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