Using FTP and Network Utilities

On occasion, both developers and DBAs need the ability to work with remote servers. For example, the PL/SQL source code may be under version control under SCCS on UNIX. So in order to perform their programming assignments, a developer may need to log in to the UNIX server to check out PL/SQL code and then FTP the files down to their PC for development work within TOAD. Then when they're finished, they would need to FTP the files back up to the server and check them back in. Rather than requiring use of separate tools, TOAD now supports these functionalities. The idea is that TOAD should support the complete development life cycle, which quite often includes such steps. Thus TOAD offers the FTP screen and Network Utilities to meet these needs.

The FTP screen is shown in Figure 9.39 and is located on the main menu at File, FTP. The first thing you must do is to connect to your FTP server by clicking the Connect button, which opens the Server Settings window for the connection information.

Figure 9.39. TOAD FTP ”connection information.

After you've entered this information, clicking the OK button causes the FTP connection to be established and results in the right side of the screen being filled as shown in Figure 9.40. To move files, you merely select a file and either click the < and > buttons or drag and drop the files from one side to the other. Note the buttons to the right of both the local and remote file listings. These buttons permit typical directory and file operations such that the FTP interface can be used as sort of a poor man's explorer ”even for a remote UNIX server.

Figure 9.40. TOAD FTP ”side-by-side display.

The Network Utilities screen is a multi-tabbed interface supporting the five key networking capabilities. The Telnet tab shown in Figure 9.41 provides basic telnet capabilities as a remote server command-line interface. It does not handle special control characters required for full-screen command usage (such as editing a file). You merely provide the host name or IP and click the Connect button to initiate a telnet session.

Figure 9.41. TOAD Network Utilities ”the Telnet tab.

The Rexec tab shown in Figure 9.42 provides complete rexec (that is, remote execution) capabilities. You provide the host name or IP, user id, password, and a command string, and then click the Execute button. It can handle multiple commands by including command separators. It can also handle command strings much longer than the text field provided. So it's not uncommon to copy very long commands from an editor such as Notepad and paste them into the command text field.

Figure 9.42. TOAD Network Utilities ”the Rexec tab.

The last three Network Utilities tabs are very simple, yet useful. The Ping tab shown in Figure 9.43 provides a GUI for basic network ping testing. You simply enter the host name or IP and click the Start button. It will repeat the test every interval time period until the Stop button is clicked.

Figure 9.43. TOAD Network Utilities ”the Ping tab.

The TNS Ping tab shown in Figure 9.44 provides a GUI for basic Oracle TNS ping testing. You merely enter the database SID you want to verify is listening and click the TNS Ping button.

Figure 9.44. TOAD Network Utilities ”the TNS Ping tab.

Finally, the IP Addresses tab shown in Figure 9.45 provides a simple name and IP search capability. You enter the host name or IP and it finds the complete host information. In the example, entering a host name of Solaris and clicking the Find button identifies that the correct IP address is 192.168.0.6 .