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We have a requirement (I believe as part of a post build/deployment verification test (BVT)) to test that remote server A can "connect" to remote server B.

I want to develop a console application using C# on my LOCAL developer VM. This should then "connect" to remote server A. It then needs to check that remote server A can "connect" to remote server B (via the original connection from LOCAL to remote server A).

Currently I have generated a simple "helper" exe that connects to remote server B (using a prior known connection string point to remote server B and SqlConnection classes). The exe is copied to remote server A as part of the build process (at the end). PSEXEC.exe on the build server then remotely starts the "helper" exe on remote server A and checks the %errorcode%. This then determines if the BVT should pass or fail (Then the "helper" exe is then deleted from remote server A).

FYI all machines run Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Enterprise and are on the same local domain. I am an administrator on all 3 machines.

Remote server A is a web server and remote server B is a SQL database server. The LOCAL machine will/does represent the build server. This test is simple as saying "can the web server connect to the database server". The difficulty is how to do that remotely.

I know I can just do System/integration/end-to-end testing (using Coded UI etc) and we are doing this but want to consider this requirement/test as well (as the servers and network configuration etc are a "shared responsibility" with an external party and we cant guarantee that anything has/will change without our knowledge (other than reacting via Service Desk processes))

The process I have adopted seems OTT but does appear to work (if I close ports etc). Is there a completely .NET way of doing it using TCPCLient classess or something etc? What about doing webservices and hosting them on the webserver and call them from the build server? Other ideas and things to consider more than welcome.

Soner Gönül
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Kyle
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  • I'd just write a BAT to ping both servers... – Alex Jan 14 '13 at 12:48
  • and invoke it on remote server A remotely from build server (local VM) via PSEXEC.EXE? How would i change protocol/port to ensure SQL (port 1433, 80 HTTP, 443 HTTPS are open via PING)? I believe I would have to use a similar tool to PING but dont know what? – Kyle Jan 14 '13 at 12:56

2 Answers2

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Why not create a test page on the web server that carries out an innocuous operation against the SQL server.

The page might execute a simple query (select top(1) name from person) for example.

I can see web-services tagged in your question. If you want to verify connectivity to a server hosting web services or between a server hosting web services and an underlying back-end server (database for example), the best way to be sure (in my opinion) would be to call an innocuous service that does a simple read. Retrieving WSDLs would not be enough.

Nick Ryan
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You can use Management objects to query and control computers and servers on your domain. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.management.aspx

SQL server includes some extra objects specific to managing SQL Server. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms220749.aspx

If you have Linqpad:

ManagedComputer mc = new ManagedComputer( "yourserver" );
mc.Dump();

otherwise create a console app and create an instance of ManagedComputer and use the debugger to query the computer's SQL server, to see the sort of information available.

As you can see its a big subject...

Mesh
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