Wrote little tool for restarting crushed VNC Service...

TheNETCoder · Post by **TheNETCoder** » 2005-10-23 05:21

Hi,

i use ultravnc for a while and sometimes the service crushes without
any reason. A few days ago i was administering a remote machine
and the vnc service stopped with an exception and i lost the connection.
Then over 30 User where not able to connect to the remote machine,
because i couldnt finish my (administrative) task. The remote server
(Windows Server 2003) was located over 200 kilometers away from me
and there where no other remote tools activated except the vnc-service
that was no more accessible. Rexec Service was disabled and Telnet too.
This was a very painfull situation, because there was no other
administrator for over 8 hours and i was not there!
Then i decided to write a little tool, that restarts the vnc-service when
it stops for whatever reason it does so. Now i want to publish this tool
for free (GNU GPL). How can i do this and where can i do this...?

I am sure, that this tool will help other guys who faced a similar situation.
VNC DEAD -> NO ACCESS -> STRESS

Best Regards

Kerem Gümrükcü

OhMyGoat · Post by **OhMyGoat** » 2005-10-23 05:49

just upload it somewhere and post the url here. by the way you can configure winvnc server to automatically restart if it crashes.

OhMyGoat · Post by **OhMyGoat** » 2005-10-23 05:51

sorry if ask you this but why the heck are you using winvnc on a remote win2003 server? you can enable remote desktop on that, and i can assure you that i never seen one crashing... you can enable it in the same place where the xp pro remote desktop is enabled (system properties)

TheNETCoder · Post by **TheNETCoder** » 2005-10-23 06:58

Hi OhMyGoat,

we (our developer team) do not (always) use the RemoteTools from MS
because of the fact, that we prefer open source and not only ms
products. And when you look and RD-Tool from MS you can see, that it
needs a lot of Bandwith (even when you disable nearly all interfaces&misc)
We also have linux and other machines to handle with vnc. This is where
the RD-Tools from MS go under.

And yes, you are right: You can configure any service that way, that
it can be restarted when it fails to start or crashes under the services
control manager or over the services managemend console.
Why didn't i had that idea, insted i programmed this tool.......damn!
But its already done and it works...next time i ask you

But if you are still interested, i can send it to you...

But how can you "restart" a service when it crashes and the os locks
the executable image with a debugger or some other intercepting
application?

Best Regards

Kerem Gümrükcü

OhMyGoat · Post by **OhMyGoat** » 2005-10-23 09:02

ms software uses bandwith only the first time you use it but the following times it uses the internal cache that it builds so it will use a lot more bandwith. i use it on gprs connection and i can tell you that it works a lot better than vnc even with themes enabled.

the service won't restart if a debugger attaches to its process and another winvnc won't start because it still sees the other winvnc instance. in those cases there's nothing to do the only thing you can do is to disable all debuggers.

you should try to see if singleclick has those instance limit if it doesn't you could try installing my freeware utility vnc central and use it to launch single click if the winvnc hangs. however i think that leaving ms remote desktop always enabled as an alternative to control the computer is the best way.

TheNETCoder · Post by **TheNETCoder** » 2005-10-23 09:25

Hi,

i wrote i kind of "Debugger-Hook", that replaces the systems debugger
and routes any exception except the vnc service to the std debugger,
wich has been replaced by my debugger.
the vnc process (in case of exception) wont be debugged and will be
restarted if it crashes...

I think this is the best way to bypass the debugger and still provide
debugging for other executables. Special solutions for special cases...

By the Way: You wrote vnc central....very good work!

Best Regards

Kerem Gümrükcü

OhMyGoat · Post by **OhMyGoat** » 2005-10-23 10:00

it would be nice if winvnc had an exception catcher to catch all the uncatched exceptions and relaunch itself without having the debugger to start there wouldn't be need of external utilities then

TheNETCoder · Post by **TheNETCoder** » 2005-10-24 00:46

Yes, thats true, but you know as i do: Nothing
and Nobody is perfect

spuri · Post by **spuri** » 2006-03-22 15:21

We use a short script. Kill and start vnc service in every 2 hours.
Ugly but works fine.

UltraVNC

Wrote little tool for restarting crushed VNC Service...

Wrote little tool for restarting crushed VNC Service...

Where to enable Restart?

Yes...

scrip