Unable to connect to Remote TestStand Engine -17851

[bestware]

Have got strange behaviour trying to execute remote sequence call. It works on certain combination of PC's, others don't! E.g. A to B (and vice versa) works, C to D works as well,but A to C or C to A or B to D comes with error -17851. As every station works at least with one partner, I expect all DCOM-settings and Remote Engine configuration are ok. All this PC's are on same network, same workgroup, same configuration as far as I can see. TestStand version is 3.5 on all the machines. Same Windows- and TS-user on all stations.

Any idea or experience available?

[Erik_Crank]

These remote execution problems can be difficult to diagnose.

It has been my experience that when your computers use a workgroup instead of a domain the users on each computer are unique even though they have the same name. In these situations DCOM uses the ANONYMOUS LOGON user to connect to the remote computer.

How did you configure DCOM settings? Did you use the Allow All Users Access from Remote Machines option on the TestStand Station Options dialog or did you manually configure settings? Which operating system (and service packs) are you using? What additional error information is displayed on the dialog that displays the -17851 error?

Message Edited by Erik Crank on 04-29-2009 10:03 AM

[James_Grey]

This is not necessarily relevant to your problem, but we recently discovered a missing step in our DCOM setup instructions. Might be worth a quick try. Here is this missing step:

For Remote Execution documentation, on page 5-20 insert the following step between step 9 and 10:

On the General tab of the NI TestStand Remote Engine Properties dialog box set the Authentication Level to None if the user is not a domain account.

[bestware]

Erik & James: Thanks for your quick reply!

Unfortunately none of your inputs could solve my problems.

@ Erik:

DCOM is configured for ANONYMOUS LOGON as well as for EVERYONE. Allow All Users Access from Remote Machines is activated!

OS is XP with SP3, TestStand = 3.5

Error details:

An error occurred accessing the Remote TestStand Engine on host 'altwl109'. You must install TestStand on the remote host and configure the REngine.exe program through dcomcnfg to permit access. CoCreateInstance returned '0x80070005':
Access is denied.

Error Code:

-17851; Unable to connect to Remote TestStand Engine.

This error message doesn't really hit the root cause, because TS is installed, REngine & DCOM are configured as recommended.

@ James:

Did suggested modification - no success!

Would be nice to have a tool outside TS, to trying to start REngine on remote PC, to got more information why it couldn't be started.

[Erik_Crank]

I don't know if this is the source of the problems you are seeing, but some changes in Windows XP SP2 caused problems with the Allow All Users Access from Remote Machines feature in TestStand 3.5 that we addressed in later versions of TestStand. Also the documentation for TestStand 3.5 does not address issues caused by Windows XP SP2.

I've attached the corrected relevant portion of the TestStand Reference Manual that you can use to verify that you have the settings correct on all computers. Follow the instructions starting on page 5-19.

A few key points:

1. If you set the Identity to "The interactive user" for the REngine application, a user must be logged onto the remote computer console (a remote desktop connect is not sufficient)

2. You must set the machine-wide permission limits to allow ANONYMOUS LOGON.

3. Firewall settings must be set to allow DCOM.

[bestware · Accepted solution]

SOLUTION FOUND: 

There must be a user with administrator pivileges logged on to the remote computer (as mentioned in Reference Manual) and - very important - there must be a password defined for those user.

If a user without password defined logs on, Windows blocks any remote access.

Thanks for your support!

[kiran002]

I am also facing the same trouble which you had faced. Did you troubleshoot it. Kindly, reply.

[bestware]

Please read solution description above!

[kiran002]

Hello everyone,

                When I tried running Rengine.exe and remote engine server.exe on the remote machine, and start calling the sequence to run remotely, I get the error already posted above. Despite that, I see Rengine is not connected on the remote machine. Can someone suggest me how to make sure Rengine is connected to my PC. Thanks.

Best regards,

KKK.