question - system administrators (windows)

[FoBoT]

i need some input, hopefully from some windows system administrators

i have a strange network setup at work, i won't go into details , the main point is that i have to run DF in offline/no internet mode and harvest the clients/results and move them to another network for upload

i have written some VBScripts to place and retrieve my DF clients on the target machines, no problem

i can monitor the existance of the "foldtrajlite.lock" file to see if they stop and/or to see when the are ready to be picked up for upload and i can pull copies of the progress.txt file for status. all good

my problem : i need an easier way to start my script on the target box, i have TS/RDP access to the target pc's , but it takes too much time to start a remote desktop session, launch the script, and then disconnect (for the # of boxen i have)

i have found some utilities on the Windows 2000 Resource kit
"remote command service" and "remote console service" , these appear to need a piece preinstalled on the remote server, i could do that through TS/RDP but, it would take too much time. i also found some references to the WSH being able to do "Remote scripts" , this seems to require at least a registry entry on the remote server.


these servers are due for upgrade to windows server 2003 in a few months, so instead of making changes to them , i am going to just build my W2K3 Server image with this "missing" piece in place up front.

so my real question is:

what tool/thing can i put in place on my W2K3 Server image to allow me to remotely start/stop WSH VBScript's ?
can .Net do this for me? it is preinstalled on 2003, so maybe i just need to convert the .vbs scripts to the .Net framework/whatever?

thank you

p.s. if you can point me to some Windows Server 2003 and/or .Net websites that i can go through, that would be nice :)

[IronBits]

Take a look here, see if it helps...
http://beta.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Programming_Languages/Visual_Basic/Q_20703274.html
The key issue above is permissions need to be changed...

It seems to me it would be easier if you ran a schedule on each remote box...
remove the *.lock file, wait for the foldtrajlite.ex process to be gone, or progress.txt for that matter
then robocopy the DF dirctory to a pre-defined path \\servername\sharename\location
remove handle_*.* , fold_*.bz2 , and filelist.txt
then start the client again ;)

At the 'location' do the upload thing.
Standard error checking to make sure it was succesful first of course ;)

robocopy will only copy the files that are missing or changed, so once it runs the 1st time, it will actually only copy handle_*.*, fold_*.bz2 and filelist.txt reducing bandwidth.

"handle" is what you see when you type handle.txt :)

Hope it helps!

[FoBoT]

i have full administrator control on the remotes

i use robocopy all the time, it is very nice. my scripts to place/retrieve the DF client use robocopy

it looks like that link is saying to use a web page to launch the remote script, interesting idea, i will try that out. then i could use a script here to hit the URL on the remote to light it off/shut it down

i can't use a preinstalled scheduled task on the remotes, it has to be started and stopped each time i put the client on/off the remote

also, the remote can't send stuff back to me, the routing/firewalling of these subnets is such that i have one way access, i can reach them, they can't reach me (i know its crazy, but the WAN guys have control of that part, i only control the remote servers, they are nutty)

thanks for the idea :)

[FoBoT]

i been thinking about this :idea:

i think the web interface is the way to go

and, i am going to attempt to create "WebdfGUI" , similar functionality to dfGUI, but on a web interface

it will be built on Windows Server 2003, so it should run fine on XP also, using VBScript/WSH and IIS 6 - ASP - .Net , or something :looney:

and i would think that converting/porting it to php/apache could be done, i just don't want to install too much extra stuff right now

hope this works

[IronBits]

Nothing with .NET please, but the rest of it sounds great! :D

/me sits patiently for the release...

Is it done yet? :Pokes: :)

[rsbriggs]

Might just as well get used to .NET if you are going to run Windows anything. The majority of Window development is taking place in C# these days, and .Net in one form or another has been wrapped into every Microsoft product released since 1999. (And you'll find it's an integral part of all Windows platforms now - it's built into Server 2003, it's not an optional add-on anymore.)

Many more web pages than you might realize are built with ASP.net these days. And, know what? It's great to program in !!

[IronBits]

Bah.
/me misses DesqView and DOS and < 1mb .exe :(

[FoBoT]

i know how to do vbscript and if .asp can fire them off, i think that is the simplest approach

it is really just a matter of configuring IIS to allow it all, i think :scratch: we'll see

[rsbriggs]

Originally posted by IronBits
Bah.
/me misses DesqView and DOS and < 1mb .exe :( And TSR SideKick for doing pop-up editing. Sigh......