Resource Kit Utilities

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The Microsoft BackOffice 4.5 Resource Kit offers the three utilities described below to facilitate the configuration of the Remote Tools Client Agent.

Remote Control Settings (RCCliopt.exe)

This utility actually performs two tasks. It can be used to set the default protocol or LANA number (if the protocol is NetBIOS) for each client agent by sending this utility as an SMS package or running it on individual clients. It also has the capability of disabling the client update process so that you can set individual options, such as Permission Required, for each client, without fear that the Hardware Munger or Security Munger will reset the client agent settings to their original values.

Set NIC (Multinic.exe)

This utility allows you to identify which NIC the Remote Tools Client Agent will bind to on a client with more than one NIC. Again, this utility overrides the process followed by the Hardware Munger when determining which NIC takes precedence for Remote Control.

Stop Remote Control (StopRC.exe)

This utility allows you to stop and start the Remote Tools Client Agent on a 32-bit client to force it to reestablish a valid TCP/IP address to listen with. This utility is useful for clients currently connected to the network through RAS because SMS components start before the RAS IP addresses are assigned. Thus, the agent will be incorrectly listening with IP address 0.0.0.0. The Stop Remote Control utility forces the agent to stop and then restart once you determine that the client has a valid IP address assigned.

REAL WORLD  Using RCCliopt.exe

It's not uncommon within a network environment using SMS to include various Windows NT servers as SMS clients. The benefits of being able to use Remote Tools to monitor, manage, and diagnose our servers are obvious. And because Remote Tools settings are sitewide settings, if we require permissions as a Remote Tools Client Agent setting, then all our SMS clients—including our servers—will receive the same setting.

Not many of us have administrators logged in and sitting in front of our servers. When that permission dialog box pops up on a server, who is going to click Yes to allow the Remote Tools session to be initiated? You could always change the Permission Required setting, but that would turn off the option on all your users' desktops, which might not be your intention either.

In SMS 2.0, you can enable or disable sitewide remote control security settings using one of two methods: you can either modify the registry on each server or run the RCCliopt.exe utility at the server.

In each 32-bit client's registry, SMS creates the following key when the Remote Tools Client Agent is installed: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMS\Client\Client Components\Remote Control. This key contains all of the client agent settings. A hidden registry value named UpdateEnabled is also added, with a default value of Yes. This value needs to be set to No to prevent the Security Munger from ensuring that sitewide settings are forced to each client.

Refer to Chapter 2 for details on the process for adding values to the registry. We don't review the process here—except to remind you to do so with extreme caution. You must add the UpdateEnabled string value parameter to the registry key with the value set to No on each server that needs to be configured individually. This process entails going to each server and modifying the registry.

The RCCliop.exe utility is a command-line utility that can be run at each server to safely modify the registry entry for you. Execute it at the server with the command-line option RCCliopt No. Then, in the Control Panel, double-click on the Remote Control applet to reset the permission required option to No. The RCCliopt.exe utility can be sent to each affected server as an SMS package that is part of a script that performs the entire process, resetting the values for you without requiring a stop at each server.