I'm working on an efficient solution to copy big files in the same remote machine, let's call it FILESERVER. Then, from another server (WEBSERVER) I want to issue copies of these files remotely, so I tried to copy/paste files in the same remote shared folder with Windows Explorer and I noticed it doesn't need to move the file contents through the network, so I thought using shared folders and simply copying files from WEBSERVER could make it.
So, I gave it a try with the following code.
File.Copy("\\FILESERVER\FOLDER\bigfile", "\\FILESERVER\FOLDER2\bigfile");
This works, but I noticed that it is actually moving the file contents through the network and that's exactly what I wanted to avoid. I don't want to have to implement a server in FILESERVER to receive commands to copy files if I can do it with a built-in Windows mechanism. So the behaviour I would like to implement is the same Explorer does, invoking it from my c# code. So, is possible to do this in .NET?
EDIT:
I tried XCOPY command and at first seemed it didn't use the network.
But after some reboots to ensure it wasn't any OS caching involved, I noticed that when I execute XCOPY from cmd it doesn't show any I/O in Process Explorer/taskmgr, but, when I execute this command from my C# code it does. So I think it does use the network to fetch/write the file contents but for a weird reason it's not reported in these diagnostics tools (taskmgr / Process Explorer).
use PSEXEC and run the copy with local folder paths on the remote machine.
Definitely WMI is a good way to do it. I finally managed to do it with the following code and the CopyEx method to copy directories recursively.
var classInstance = new ManagementObject("\\\\FILESERVER\\root\\cimv2", "Win32_Directory.Name='c:\\path\\to\\directory1'", null);
var copyExInParams = classInstance.GetMethodParameters("CopyEx");
// Add the input parameters.
copyExInParams["FileName"] = "c:\\path\\to\\directory2";
copyExInParams["Recursive"] = true;
copyExInParams["StartFileName"] = null;
var copyExOutParams = classInstance.InvokeMethod("CopyEx", copyExInParams, null);
It's important to notice that paths must be in the remote machine format. I can't prove it but maybe Windows Explorer is taking advantage of WMI to copy files in the same remote machine in shared folders to prevent useless network traffic. I haven't found a way to do it directly with UNC. Even though this suits my use case.
Related
I tried to create a C# Windows Forms tool to copy entire content from my local machine to another machines on the domain.
The problem that most solutions to copy just file not entire directory is not working.
I can't using Impersonation to change user context and then use File.Copy() to copy content cause the users on the remote machines different than the user on my local machine.
using ( new Impersonator( "yourUsername", "yourDomain", "yourPassword" ) )
{
// The following code is executed under the impersonated user.
}
Also to use File.Copy() like that:
File.Copy(
#"C:\Users\user\Desktop\file.txt",
#"\\remote\Users\user\Desktop\file.txt"
);
the remote path should be a shared path, and this is not the case here as i have a credentials to servers but want to copy the directory to specific not shared location.
I found another solution that uses PSexec tool to activate listener on the server and then send files to it from my local machine (Socket programming) but it's not stable: you can find it here
I also think about writing a powershell script that can do that and i run it from my C# program.
So is it another solution for doing that in a correct way, Copying entire directory/directories from local to remote machines.
I have some VB6 .ocx files that I would like to register. These .ocx files would be on a remote machine.
What is the best way to register these .ocx files programatically?
string arg_fileinfo = "/s" + " " + "\"" + "\\<remotemachine>\\<directory>\\<ocx>" + "\"";
Process reg = new Process();
//This file registers .dll files as command components in the registry.
reg.StartInfo.FileName = "regsvr32.exe";
reg.StartInfo.Arguments = arg_fileinfo;
reg.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
reg.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
reg.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
reg.Start();
reg.WaitForExit();
reg.Close();
I'm not getting any errors but it isn't registering the .ocx either. Any ideas?
If you want to register a remote file for use on a local machine, there is nothing special required for registering a file on a UNC path, but you do need to make sure that the UNC path or mapped drive is still available to all users, especially the user that is running regsvr32. Presumably, this will be the local admin which (by default on Windows Vista+) will require elevation which can disconnect network connections.
Also note that your example is missing the extra \ from the beginning of the UNC path. Your code will result in arg_fileinfo containing /s "\<remotemachine>\<directory>\<ocx>".
You can add the extra \, or use the # decorator which makes it a lot clearer when entering Windows paths:
string arg_fileinfo = "/s \"" + #"\\<remotemachine>\<directory>\<ocx>" + "\"";
Or just use it for the entire string and the alternative quote escaping method:
string arg_fileinfo = #"/s ""\\<remotemachine>\<directory>\<ocx>""";
Take this as a warning you're free to ignore (because I know you will anyway):
Doing this isn't a good practice. Just to begin with "run from network" PE files (EXE, DLL, OCX) need to be specially linked for it or you risk high network activity and crashes due to intermittent network interruptions. And registering anything not on the boot drive or at least a local hard drive isn't sensible anyway. Doing any of this ranks high on the "poor practices" list even though it might seem to work most of the time.
Why not just do normal deployment following accepted practices?
My guess would be that you are doing a lot of Mort development, throwing together version after version of some program hoping one of them will eventually "stick." So you want to dump some or all of it onto a network share, thinking "Installation? Installation? We don't need no steenking installation. I can just plop new files out there and have everything magically work with no effort."
I'll assume you don't have the luxury of a managed network you can use to push out updates via Group Policy, and that you aren't creating the necessary MSI installer packages handling the Product and Upgrade Codes in them.
One alternative would be to use reg-free COM, which will solve a lot of small issues for you.
Now, you could do this and still ignore the hazards of PE files run from a network share, or you could bypass that using a small launcher program. That launcher could check a network share for a new version, and if found copy the newer files to the local PC before starting the actual application and terminating. This is basically an auto-updated XCopy Deployment technique.
You can get as fancy as need be. For example if your application accepts command line parameters it might do the new version check itself and if found then start the small updater (passing it the command line parameters), then terminate. The updater app could restart and pass those parameters to the new version.
But yes, life as Mort (or even an official on-the-payroll developer) can be a pain. It can be extremely difficult to get the attention of your friendly neighborhood box jockeys to do things properly even if you are working in a managed corporate LAN environment. That goes double if your application isn't part of some highly engineered sanctioned Major Project.
I had to do this several years ago. As best I can remember, UNC names wouldn't work, a mapped drive letter was required. Whether it was strictly a regsvr32 issue, or was caused by something else (e.g. Windows 95) is lost in the fog of time.
If you want to register the file for use on the remote machine, you you need to run the code on that remote machine.
You can either do this by physically sitting in front of the computer, using remote control software, or a remote admin tool like psexec.exe.
I have a set of commands like:
C:
cd Project
testproj.exe
My system gets these commands one by one from a remote system.
I need to execute each command in cmd.exe on receiving the command from the remote system. How to execute these using .NET?
I also need to return the result of testproj.exe to the remote machine. How to take the result after running command?
Process.Start cmd.exe, and hook StandardIn, StandardOut, and StandardError. Then, when a command comes in, just write it to StandardIn and read StandardOut/Error for the return. The whole thing shouldn't be more than 15 LOC.
That being said, just installing the Telnet Server would probably be easier - as it sounds like that's what you're essentially replicating....
var process = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start( "testproj.exe" );
process.WaitForExit();
var result = process.ExitCode;
This won't really honor things like "C:" or "CD path". Instead you'd want to create a batch file in a temporary folder then call the batch file.
Take a look at System.Diagnostics.Process. You can redirect stdout/stderr somewhere to get the output.
The C: and cd Project operations can be done inside the lanching application using the Directory class using the SetCurrentDirectory method.
Then just use the Process class to launch the testproj.exe executable.
Instead of trying to support all the commands of DOS, just have a small subset implemented which will guarantee nothing can go wrong. Like Don't allow DELETE, RD, FORMAT etc.
So, basically you would only have a subset of DOS commands. Once you have the command set, you can code for those specific commands using a extension mechanisms or as pluggable modules.
This will also helps you safe guard your machine from malicious attacks and worst to happen is there could be data sent out but from machine, the data / system can never be harmed.
UPDATE: The implementaion of specific commands is left to you. You could use .NET API or have System.Diagnostics.Process
I need to transfer text files located at a location from one machine to another machine through .NET for every one second.
Later again i require to transfer vice-versa.
Please help me how to acheive through C#.NET
You can also use Computer class and a Timer for moving file every 1 sec
In case the machines are on the same network, you might also try and work with network shares. Then you could use \\machine\folder as destination folder for your files using the normal File.Copy method.
To transfer a file from machine A to machine B you could use the Copy method. Assuming you have administrative privileges on machine B you could use the following code to copy a file every second from machine A to machine B:
ThreadPool.RegisterWaitForSingleObject(
new ManualResetEvent(false),
(state, timedOut) =>
{
// TODO: error handling
File.Copy("c:\someFile.txt", "\\machineB\c$\someFile.txt", true);
},
null,
TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1),
false);
If you don't have administrative privileges on machine B you could use shares:
File.Copy("c:\someFile.txt", "\\machineB\someShare\someFile.txt", true);
If you have an FTP server on each machine, you can use a C# FTP Client Library.
You may also want to consider one of the P2P libraries out there (no FTP server required).
Whether you can transfer the files in the time available depends on the file size and bandwidth more than the means you use to transfer the files, though some protocols have more overhead than others.
I have a developer tool that I want to run from an internal site. It scans source code of a project and stores the information in a DB. I want user to be able to go to the site, chose their project, and hit run.
I don't want the code to be uploaded to the site because the projects can be large. I want to be able to run my assembly locally on their machine. Is there an easy way to do this?
EDIT: I should note, for the time being, this needs to be accomplished in VS2005.
EDIT 2: I am looking for similar functionality to TrendMicro's Housecall. I want the scan to run locally, but the result to be displayed in the web page
You could use a ClickOnce project (winform/wpf) - essentially a regular client app, deployed via a web-server. At the client, it can do whatever it needs. VS2005/VS2008 have this (for winform/wpf) as "Publish" - and results in a ".application" file that is recognised by the browser (or at least, some browsers ;-p).
You might be able to do the same with Silverlight, but that has a stricter sandbox, etc. It would also need to ask the web-server to do all the db work on its behalf.
I want to be able to run my assembly
locally on their machine
Sounds like you want them to download the tool and run it from their local machine, does that work for you?
Any code can scan files given the location and permissions. For a website to open an exe on a different machine and permit that to run and get access to the files contained on the web server would require a horrifically low level of security that would mean the entire system is practically completely open to attack. If your system is completely behind a firewall and hence protected from outside intererance then you want to look more at the permissions and less at the code.
To run an exe on a machine try following notepad example, though you may have to use a specified directory as well
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo("notepad.exe");
psi.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
Process p = new Process();
p.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
p.Exited += new EventHandler(ExitHandlerToKillProcess);
p.StartInfo = psi;
p.Start();
and when done dont forget to kill the Process. Alternately use javascript. Either way watch the security permissions and remember the risks of doing this.
I would probably write some sort of command line tool or service that does the processing and extraction of project data. Then I would use a page to update/register projects that the web server and the command line tool both have common access to. then at specified times either manually or via cron or similar mechanisms extract the data to your database. once you have this, you just use the website to display last extraction times and the extracted data.
if the projects/end users are on a different subnet etc, then you will need the end users to run the tool and then have it post the data into the database.