I have to copy a file from a windows 2008 server to one or more windows 2008 servers. I have accounts on the target machines with enough privileges to let me use powershell remoting and use wmi. The remote machines do not run ftp, ssh or similar file transfer mechanisms. I am not allowed to install software or run new services on the target server. I can run services on the source server.
The file copy action must be initiated from the source server. i.e. I cannot manually logon to the target machines and initiate the copy - though an automated way to do this is acceptable.
Is it possible to use WMI or PowerShell Remoting to push or pull the file from the source to the target ? Is it possible to invoke some sort of built in http client or invoke the BITS service/agent on the remote servers to pull files from the source server ?
Other suggestions please.
Yes it is possible to copy files using the constraints you've been given. Basically, you will need to ensure the source server has a file share that's accessible by the target host. You will then need to follow the process created by Frank White, here on SO, and fully fleshed out and referenced here, though you'll have to translate from VBS to PS1:
Trying to copy file from one XP PC to another using WMI, since RPC and UNC are not available
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Our team has ~80 Windows development machines, and activities of each developer are logged as text files on the local storage of those machines.
To analyze the logged activities, I want to gather all log files from those machines. Additionally, the log files are updated constantly, so It is desirable to gather files with the command-line from my machine.
I’ve searched and found some solutions, but all of those are not suitable for our situation:
We cannot use PsExec, because tcp/135 and tcp/445 are both closed (countermeasure for WannaCry).
Administrative share is disabled.
telnet service is not up and is banned by security reasons.
WinRM is disabled on those machines by default.
It is difficult to install new software like OpenSSH on those machines (because of the rule of this project)
RDP is the only way to connect those machines. (I have an account on all machines)
How can I copy files from remote Windows machines with command-line through RDP?
Or, at least, is there any way to execute a command on remote Windows machines with command-line through RDP?
I think you can do this, though it is very hacky :)
For a basic setup, which just copies files once, what you would need to do is
Run a script in the remote session when it logs in. I can think of three ways to do this:
Use the "Alternate Shell" RDP file property. This runs a specified program in place of explorer.exe on login; you can use it to run "cmd.exe /c [your script]" for instance.
If that doesn't work (e.g. the remote machine doesn't respect it), you might be able to use a scheduled task that runs the script on login, but perhaps only for a specified user, or maybe the script could check the WinStation type to make sure this is actually an RDP connection before doing anything.
It's also possible to do this by connecting in RemoteApp mode and using the script as your "application", but that only works for Server and Enterprise editions of Windows.
Enable either drive redirection or clipboard redirection on the RDP connection, to give you a way to get data out.
Drive redirection is much simpler to script; you just have the remote script copy files to e.g. "\\tsclient\C\logs".
Clipboard redirection is theoretically possible - you have the remote script copy, then a local script paste - but would probably be a pain to get working in practice. I'm only mentioning it in case drive redirection isn't available for some reason.
You would probably want to script to then log the session off afterward.
You could then launch that from command-line by running "mstsc.exe [your RDP file]". The RDP files could be programmatically generated if needed (given you're working with 80 machines).
If you want a persistent connection you can execute commands over, that's more complicated, but still technically possible. Two ways I can think of:
Use the previous method to run a program on logon, but this time create a custom application that receives commands using a transport that isn't blocked and executes them in the session. I've done this with WCF over HTTP, for instance; it's not secure, of course.
Develop and install a service on the remote machine that opens an RDP virtual channel, and a corresponding RDP client plugin that communicates with it. You can then do whatever you want across the connection. While this solution would be the most likely to work, it's also the most heavyweight and time-consuming to implement so it's probably a last resort.
Recently we bought dedicated server with Windows.I really surprised windows allowing me to copy files(CTRL+C) from my local system and paste files(CTRL+P) in dedicated server.Vice versa.
Before we tried Linux dedicated server.If you want transfer file from local system(Windows) to dedicated server(Linux),I need to use FTP.But in windows server all these are not needed.
I have a curiosity to know,How the procedure is working internally.For this I search allot,But I didn't found clear materials.So If you know any good material,suggest me.
Thanks.
I'm not sure what your question is precisely. Are you using remote desktop to log into your windows server, and then copying and pasting files between your local system and the remote server? If that's the case, then the copying and pasting is happening within your "remote desktop" client. It's not really related to your server's operating system, per se.
I am working with some applications which are located on remote windows server. In that case I need to login remotely to this machine (using remote desktop). Having two desktops (local and remote) on one monitor is uncomfortable (I need to all the time switch between them).
Is there any similar tool to xming? I will be better for me using remote applications like a local (integrated with my local desktop).
Good day Pawel.
Could you specify your situation?
1. If you need to call and retrive exit codes from windows objects(programms and etc) remotely try to use WMI
2. If you need to execute your code remotely try to use some kinds of frameworks for example Pyro(it's implemented in Python programming language)
3. in case of using file systems locally you neede to can create share on client machine and mount it in your host machine
Best Regards,
Dmitry.
my project is a PHP web application. This applies to my test server (local), not production server! I am also the solo developer on this project (however, that may change in the very far future). Also, all my source code is committed to a repository and the production server gets the source code from the repository.
I do my development in Windows while my test server runs on Ubuntu (perhaps you can also recommend me another distro that is easy to use and can serve as a good web server). I need an elegant way to interface between the two environments. Currently, I do my coding in Windows and then FTP the changed files to the test server. However, this is quite cumbersome and tedious since I have to manually go to my FTP client each time. Suggest me something elegant please! Perhaps FTP sync? or OpenVPN (where the root www directory on test server is acts like a folder in Windows)? Thanks for your awesome time!
Easiest would be in Ubuntu, right click a folder then click "Sharing Options", then share the folder. In Windows, connect to the share, and work on that copy.
If you're using version control, using continuous integration like Hudson ( http://hudson-ci.org/ ) would help if you create a task that builds/exports the website for the testing server. This approach would be better in the long term, but you'll waste a day setting it up initially.
I prefer SFTP to FTP.
That said, ExpanDrive lets you map SFTP servers to local drive letters, which then means you can use any text editor to access your files directly on the test server, or use other mechanisms to keep the files in sync. Since they show up as two local drives, you can use just about any product out there.
If you want to use FTP, you can just map the drive in Windows Explorer. If you open up My Computer, then go to Tools > Map Network Drive, you can map a FTP server folder to any local drive. Just type in the address as the folder, ie. ftp://mscharley#192.168.0.10/htdocs
This will atleast save you a trip to the FTP client...
Is there any reason you couldn't just test on your local computer? At my job, we all develop and do developer testing locally, most of us using Windows. Our production and test servers are all linux based. Working locally is really nice, because you don't need to worry about making changes on the server with every small change.
Another option would be to create a checkout or working copy of your code on the server, and then run svn up or svn export (or equivalent using your version control software) each time you change the code on the server (assuming you are sshd into the server). This is kind of slow, but it's easy. The other option would be to write a script that goes through the svn logs for the recent commit and only exports or updates the ones that changed. This is much faster, and for all I know, there is already something out there that this.
Finally, some IDEs allow you to edit files live over ftp\sftp. Basically the IDE downloads a copy of the code and then reuploads it when you save.
Currently I develop on windows (PHP) as well and deploy on a Linux box for testing and production. This is how I do it.
Set up a local development server with e.g. WAMP.
Set up your code base in version control, e.g. Subversion.
Checkout your code base onto the testing/staging server, not just only on your local dev. environment.
In the early stages of development you want to deploy to the testing environment A LOT to sort out any discrepancies between your windows and linux environments. When your programming efforts turn more into program flow type programming this constant testing will probably slow down. But still take the effort to test on a regular basis.
To test your code base on staging do an svn update. I just log in with an SSH session to do this. A key thing here to note is that you do not have to make any config changes to your code base. If you do need to make config changes to your environment on staging it worth while spending the time to SCRIPT this process rather than this being a manual process.
Do the same for production. I use an Subversion check out on production as well. Make sure you set you .htaccess file to deny access to your hidden .svn folders and script the deployment especially if there a config changes necessary.
Some ideas:
Use a server environment under windows (e.g. EasyPHP).
Use a development tool that can save over FTP (e.g. ultra edit).
Use a network drive connected to the remote machine via FTP.
Use a network drive connected to the remote machine via Samba.
Run a linux distro inside a virtualization tool (e.g. virtual box) and write from the windows host to a share directory of the guest host.
Use dropbox to sync files between machines (there is more a hack than an "enterprise" solution).
I am developing some Python programs that I'm running on a remote Ubuntu Linux server (hosted on Slicehost). I would like to work on the source in an IDE on my Windows Vista PC, and have all file modifications sent directly to the Linux box without my intervention (i.e. without having to manually SFTP the files each time I change them). What is the very easiest way I can do this?
WinSCP includes a basic remote file editor, though if you want to use a proper IDE for your development this won't be much help.
I'd suggest you run a version control system like subversion, which would allow you to write a post-commit hook to automatically rsync your code the server with each commit.
Use PuTTy and SFTPDrive.
PuTTy is an SSH client, and SFTPDrive ($39 USD) will allow you to mount your remote file system locally as a drive letter.
Install Samba and OpenVPN on the server, and OpenVPN on the client. Setup Samba to share the directory tree you're interested in, and access it over the VPN for security. Perhaps Vista has non-sucky WebDAV support by now, and you could use WebDAV over HTTPS, but it was always crap under XP.
Ben's suggestion of a local dev environment using a VM is also a winner.
You could install cygwin and then have rsync run on cron every minute.
Or you could use Netdrive to access the server via FTP like a local disk:
http://tech.xptechsupport.com/netdrive-turn-your-ftp-into-a-drive-letter.html
Or you may be able to achieve something similar using cygwin and FUSE - you can on linux, but never tried it on cygwin.
Also, would it not be easier to set up a full dev environment locally? Maybe using a virtual machine? It'll be much quicker for testing. And then you can set up a shell script to transfer the current version to the slicehost server.