Before you can use SMS Remote Tools, you must establish a connection with the client. There are two ways to establish a Remote Tools connection:

• By using the SMS Administrator console

• By running Remote.exe directly from the command line

In the SMS Administrator console, you can establish Remote Tools connections with up to four different clients at a time. You cannot establish more than one Remote Tools connection to any one client at a time. For example, you might control two clients remotely at the same time or control one client remotely, while transferring files to another client.

To establish a Remote Tools connection, you must have Use Remote Tools and Read permissions for the collection that contains the client. If you are not a local administrator, you must also be included in the Permitted Viewers list, which is on the Security tab in the Remote Tools Client Agent Properties dialog box. For clients outside the SMS site boundaries or authenticating domain, correct security credentials must be provided before you can establish a Remote Tools connection to those clients. For more information about Remote Tools security, see Chapter 5, "Understanding SMS Security," in the MicrosoftSystems Management Server 2003 Concepts, Planning, and Deployment Guide.

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Establishing a Remote Tools Connection by Using the SMS Administrator Console
Establishing a Remote Tools Connection by Using Remote.exe

Establishing a Remote Tools Connection by Using the SMS Administrator Console

You can establish a Remote Tools connection to a client in the SMS Administrator console.

To establish a Remote Tools connection in the SMS Administrator console

1. In the SMS Administrator console, navigate to Collections.

   Where?

   Systems Management Server > Site Database (site code - site name) >Site Hierarchy>Collections>collection containing client

2. Locate a collection that contains the client to which you want to connect.

3. Right-click the client, point to All Tasks, and then click Start Remote Tools.

For more information about using the Remote Tools window, see the "Using SMS Remote Tools to Support Clients" section later in this chapter.

If you cannot establish a Remote Tools connection to the client, ensure that Remote Tools is enabled on the SMS site server and that the Remote Tools Client Agent is successfully installed on the client. Also, ensure that you have Use Remote Tools security credentials to the collection containing the selected client.

Establishing a Remote Tools Connection by Using Remote.exe

All Remote Tools functions are also available by running the Remote.exe program directly from the command line to establish a Remote Tools connection. This is useful if you are developing applications that require SMS Remote Tools functionality.

This program is located in the %SystemRoot%\SMS\Bin\I386 directory for a primary or secondary site installation, and in the %SystemRoot%\SMSADMIN\Bin\I386 directory for an SMS Administrator console installation.

Remote.exe uses the following syntax:

Remote <Protocol_Type> <Address> \\<Site Server Name>\ [/SMS:NOSQL]

Where:

• Protocol_Type is 1 for IPX, 2 for TCP/IP, or 3 for NetBIOS.

• Note

  • A value of 0 introduces a special case, described later in this section.

• Address is a valid IPX network number, IP address or client name, or NetBIOS name.

Examples:

C:\SMS\BIN\I386> REMOTE 2 172.16.0.0 \\BIG_SERVER\

C:\SMS\BIN\I386> REMOTE 3 DUBN_NETBIOS \\BIG_SERVER\

• Note

  • The Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) and NetBIOS protocol types apply only when you conduct remote sessions on SMS 2.0 clients. SMS 2003 clients use only TCP/IP.

• Site Server Name is the site server name of the site to which the client belongs.

When you use Remote.exe with an explicit Protocol_Type of 2 (TCP/IP), SMS resolves a client name to its IP address and then uses that address to attempt a connection. Name resolution is not attempted when you use Remote.exe with an explicit Protocol_Type of 1 (IPX) or 3 (NetBIOS).

When you use the following syntax: Remote 0 <Resource_ID> or Remote (with no options), Remote.exe attempts a connection for all available protocols. To determine a client' Resource ID number, right-click a client in the SMS Administrator console under Collections, and then click Properties. The Resource ID field for the client appears in the < Client> Properties dialog box. You can also obtain a client's resource ID by using a custom query run through Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).

To connect to a client by using its resource ID, use the following command syntax:

Remote 0 <Resource_ID> \\<Site Server Name>\

Example:

C:\SMS\BIN\I386> REMOTE 0 2 \\BIG_SERVER\

When you use 0 in the first parameter, Remote.exe attempts to connect by using all available protocols for the target client.

The Site Server Name parameter is the site server name for the site to which the client belongs.

The SMS:NOSQL option is used in place of the Site Server Name option to allow direct connection to the client without using data in the SMS site database. This is useful if the client's name resolution is not current, or if the client's IP address is not updated in the SMS site database. An address type of 0 is not valid when used in conjunction with the SMS:NOSQL option.

Example:

C:\SMS\BIN\I386> REMOTE 2 172.16.0.0 /SMS:NOSQL

If you use Remote.exe with no command-line options, the Remote Tools Address Connection dialog box appears. You can use this dialog box to enter the following parameters:

• Address type (NetBIOS name, IP address, or IPX address)

• Address (any valid NetBIOS name, IP address or client name, or IPX network number)

When you have entered the parameters, click OK to connect to the client. A connection to the client is established if the following conditions are met:

• The Remote Control Agent (Wuser32.exe) is running on the client

• The SMS Administrator console and client share a common protocol

Note

• SMS 2003 Remote Control clients listen only for TCP connection attempts. NetBIOS and IPX connections are made by Remote.exe for backward capability with SMS 2.0 clients.

After a Remote Tools connection to the client is established, you can perform any of the Remote Tools functions on the client. For more information, see the "Using SMS Remote Tools to Support Clients" section earlier in this chapter.

For More Information

Did you find this information useful? Please send your suggestions and comments about the documentation to smsdocs@microsoft.com.