Connecting to a remote Windows server

The following documentation explains how to install the Remote System Explorer server components on a Windows server, and then how to connect to that server from within the workbench environment. The server components are basically composed of two files: rseserver.jar, which contains the server code, and rseserver_setup.sh, which is a setup file for rseserver.jar.

Before you begin

CAUTION:
Running a Windows daemon (a process that your client connects to before connecting to the Windows server) exposes your workstation to be connected to without authentication. If another user attempts to connect to that daemon, no authentication will be required to start a server session, and that server session runs under the same user ID and permissions as the workstation that started the Windows daemon.

Installing the server code:

  1. Create a directory where you want to install the server code. The remainder of these instructions will assume the directory name and location is C:\rseserver, but you are free to use any directory you choose.
  2. Find the x:\product directory\SDP70Shared\plugins\com.ibm.etools.systems.universal_version_number\serverruntime\rseserver.jar file on your local workstation, where x:\product directory is the directory where you installed the product.
  3. Copy the rseserver.jar to the C:\rseserver directory (this can be on a different machine).
  4. Open a command prompt, and run the following command in the C:\rseserver directory to extract the server code:
    jar xf rseserver.jar
    Note: If you receive an error, ensure that you have an entry for the /bin JDK directory in your Path environment variable. Also note that JDK version 1.3 is required.

Starting the server:

You can start the RSE communications server with the server manually, or with a daemon.

To start the server manually:
  1. First, you need to configure your CLASSPATH and then start the communications server. In a command prompt, enter:
    c:
    cd:\rseserver
    win.env.bat
    run.win.bat [port]
    The port parameter to the run.win.bat program is optional. If you do not specify a port, the server will pick the first port available and print the port number to standard out. By default, it is usually 4033. You will then have to enter this port number in the port property for the Files subsystem for your connection in the Remote System Explorer (see Connecting below).
To start the server with a the server daemon:
  1. First, you need to configure your CLASSPATH and then start the server daemon. In a command prompt, enter:
    c:
    cd:\rseserver
    win.env.bat
    daemon.win.bat
    Note that the server daemon does not enforce any user authentication. If you run the server daemon, any user can connect to the machine. This allows the user to work with the file system and run commands. This is not recommended.

About this task

The steps to connect to a remote Windows server are very similar to connecting to an IBM® i server, except that you select a different remote system from the System Type drop-down list. To connect:

Procedure

  1. Switch to the Remote System Explorer perspective.
  2. In the Remote Systems view, New Connection is automatically be expanded to show the various remote systems you can connect to through the Remote System Explorer. Expand Windows to invoke a dialog and configure a connection.
  3. In the Host Name field, enter the name or TCP/IP address of your remote Windows server, for example, jsandler. The value you enter in this field is automatically copied into the Connection name field, which displays in the Remote Systems view and is unique to the connection.
  4. Enter a Description(optional); the description appears in the Properties view after the connection is created.
  5. Click Finish to define your system.

What to do next

Note: To check your port number, right-click your connection or subsystem from the Remote Systems view and select Properties. Click Subsystem to see the relevant information. If your port is "0," then your Remote System Explorer communications server will pick any free port on the Windows server. If you specified a port number when starting the server, you need to enter it here, for example, to work with a firewall.

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