Trouble finding remote server on a VPN

[wilddingo2]

Hi, we are trying to evaluate Plastic SCM 4.1 for our small company.  We downloaded your Community Edition (version 4.1.10.388).  I was able to get it working with the client and server both on my Windows7 laptop, and SQL Server CE for the backend.  I like how it works and how it looks.

 

Next we want to try with a Plastic Server on our business servers (Windows Server 2008 R2) and SQL Server 2008 R2 for the repository.  After several days of trying different things and reading through your forum, we finally got that backend to work.

 

However, we still have a hurdle to overcome.  We cannot get our local plastic client to discover the remote Plastic server.  We are using a VPN (SonicWall) and are able to ping the app server ok.  I don't know much about administering servers (we outsource that) but i read that I could use netstat -a, and it seems to show that port 8087 is listening on that server.  Still, the plastic client cannot find the remote server, and if I type in the hostname and port 8087, we get the error "User unknown" ...and a long guid follows (as several others have mentioned in the forum).

 

Our configuration is to use "Active Directory integrated security".  I also tried changing it to "LDAP Authentication" as described in another post, stopping and restarting the plastic server, but still get the same message.

 

Any help you can give us would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Glenn

 

[calbzam]

Hello Glen,

 

it seems that for some reason the Plastic SCM server is not able to connect with the AD server, is the Plastic SCM server and the AD server installed on the same machine?

 

Please try the following:

 

1) Stop the Plastic SCM server service.

2) Open the Server configuration wizard.

3) Click next until you get the authentication page.

4) Select the LDAP mode and click next.

5) Now complete the fields needed for your AD server. Don't forget to select the server type, in your case it will be "Active Directory". Finally click in the "Test connection" button, tell me if it works.

[wilddingo2]

Calbzam, thanks for the quick reply.  The above connection test works, but was working before as well.  I don't think the problem is with the Plastic SCM Server connecting to the AD server.  (They do reside on different machines - an app server and a domain-controller server) I think the problem is with my distributed Plastic client being able to 'discover' or communicate with the Plastic Server when it resides on our "office" application server box.

 

Our infrastructure guy tells me that once I launch my VPN connection from my laptop, the firewall shouldn't be getting in the way, because my laptop would appear to be inside our network.  So I'm not sure what is preventing my "home" client from finding the "office" Plastic server.

 

Any other suggestions to try to debug this?

 

Thanks,
Glenn

[wilddingo2]

Just for testing sake, I changed the "office" Plastic server authentication mode to 'user/pw', and then made the same change to my "home" Plastic client.  I used the command-line cm checkconnection, and it appeared to work.  However, when I try to use the Plastic GUI client, I get the error... "The client authentication mode (ADWorkingMode) doesn't match the server authentication mode (UPWorkingMode). Plastic client can't continue and will be closed."  However, I have used the client configuration wizard several times and it shows that it should be using the user/pw mode, and the client.conf file shows that too.  How can I get it to pick up the correct authentication mode?

 

This mode isn't preferable, but if it works, we might use it.

 

Content of the server.conf file on the "office" server:

 

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ServerConfigData xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <Language>en</Language>
  <WorkingMode>UPWorkingMode</WorkingMode>
  <SecurityConfig>ActiveDirectory:dts-colo-dc1:389:glenn.scanlon@dts-tm.int:3fkWvzBbRhhECj7nWLdQOvXsTvJotDX8:dc=dts-tm,dc=int</SecurityConfig>
  <BufferPoolSize>0</BufferPoolSize>
  <AuditLogLevel>1</AuditLogLevel>
  <AuditLogFile>audit.log</AuditLogFile>
</ServerConfigData>

 

content of the client.conf file on my "home" client:

 

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ClientConfigData xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <Language>en</Language>
  <WorkspaceServer>DTS-COLO-APP01:8087</WorkspaceServer>
  <WorkingMode>UPWorkingMode</WorkingMode>
  <SecurityConfig>glenn.scanlon:j6r2W+CtudSzH/KmbgsGC4TQwPZ0EpU+</SecurityConfig>
  <CurrentWorkspace>c:\Code\TM1 with subfolders</CurrentWorkspace>
  <MergeTools>
    <MergeToolData>
      <FileExtensions>.doc;.docx</FileExtensions>
      <Tools>
        <string>"C:\Program Files\PlasticSCM4\client\diffscripts\merge-doc.exe" "@destinationfile" "@sourcefile"  "@output"</string>
      </Tools>
    </MergeToolData>
    <MergeToolData>
      <FileType>enTextFile</FileType>
      <FileExtensions>*</FileExtensions>
      <Tools>
        <string>mergetool -b="@basefile" -bn="@basesymbolic" -bh="@basehash" -s="@sourcefile" -sn="@sourcesymbolic" -sh="@sourcehash" -d="@destinationfile" -dh="@destinationhash" -a -r="@output" -t="@filetype" -i="@comparationmethod" -e="@fileencoding" -m="@mergetype"</string>
      </Tools>
    </MergeToolData>
    <MergeToolData>
      <FileType>enBinaryFile</FileType>
      <FileExtensions>*</FileExtensions>
      <Tools>
        <string>binmergetool -b="@basefile" -bn="@basesymbolic" -bh="@basehash" -s="@sourcefile" -sn="@sourcesymbolic" -sh="@sourcehash" -d="@destinationfile" -dh="@destinationhash" -a -r="@output" -m="@mergetype"</string>
      </Tools>
    </MergeToolData>
  </MergeTools>
  <DiffTools>
    <DiffToolData>
      <FileExtensions>.doc;.docx</FileExtensions>
      <Tools>
        <string>wscript.exe "C:\Program Files\PlasticSCM4\client\diffscripts\diff-doc.js" "@sourcefile" "@destinationfile" //E:javascript</string>
      </Tools>
    </DiffToolData>
    <DiffToolData>
      <FileExtensions>.xls;.xlsx</FileExtensions>
      <Tools>
        <string>wscript.exe "C:\Program Files\PlasticSCM4\client\diffscripts\diff-xls.js" "@sourcefile" "@destinationfile" //E:javascript</string>
      </Tools>
    </DiffToolData>
    <DiffToolData>
      <FileExtensions>.ppt;.pptx</FileExtensions>
      <Tools>
        <string>wscript.exe "C:\Program Files\PlasticSCM4\client\diffscripts\diff-ppt.js" "@sourcefile" "@destinationfile" //E:javascript</string>
      </Tools>
    </DiffToolData>
    <DiffToolData>
      <FileType>enTextFile</FileType>
      <FileExtensions>*</FileExtensions>
      <Tools>
        <string>$internal_tool</string>
      </Tools>
    </DiffToolData>
    <DiffToolData>
      <FileType>enBinaryFile</FileType>
      <FileExtensions>*</FileExtensions>
      <Tools>
        <string>binmergetool -s="@sourcefile" -sn="@sourcesymbolic" -d="@destinationfile" -dn="@destinationsymbolic"  -a -t="@filetype" -i="@comparationmethod" -e="@fileencoding"</string>
      </Tools>
    </DiffToolData>
  </DiffTools>
  <SetFilesAsReadOnly>yes</SetFilesAsReadOnly>
  <SetRevisionFileDate>no</SetRevisionFileDate>
  <SupportSmbWorkspaces>no</SupportSmbWorkspaces>
  <PerformAddPlusCi>no</PerformAddPlusCi>
  <CheckFileContentForChanged>yes</CheckFileContentForChanged>
  <CaseSensitiveFsOnMac>no</CaseSensitiveFsOnMac>
  <SameItemDifferentCaseError>no</SameItemDifferentCaseError>
  <CacheServer />
  <CheckinQueuesSize>50</CheckinQueuesSize>
</ClientConfigData>

[manu]

Ok.

 

test if you are having a "profiles.conf" file in your "C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Local\plastic4" directory. If you find any please remove it and try again.

 

tell me if it works.

[wilddingo2]

Manu, yes, that fixed it.  Thank you.  I remember creating some profiles when I wanted to see some of your replication features.  I just didn't know they would be used at the GUI startup.  So I am now able to connect my "home" plastic GUI client with the "office" Plastic Server, as long as the authentication mode is user/password. I will continue to evaluate PlasticSCM in the "centralized" development model.  I believe I'll have some questions shortly, but I may post those under one of your other forums since they aren't necessarily related to installation.

[manu]

Cool!

 

Don't hesitate to post your questions.