Remote Tool Concepts

The following concepts are used in the Remote tool.

Client and Server

The Remote tool uses a client-server paradigm that avoids the words local and remote, which are relative terms that can be confusing when there are multiple users and multiple computers.

Commands that you type at the client and server computers appear in the Command Prompt windows of both computers.

The Server

The server is the computer on which the console program runs. The Remote Server is the instance of the Remote tool running on the server. The server establishes and names the remote session (named pipe), issues the command to start the console program, and determines who is permitted to connect to the session.

The Client

The client is a remote computer that sends commands to the console program. The Remote Client is the instance of the Remote tool running on the client computer. The client connects to the remote session that the server established and uses the remote session (named pipe) that the server created to send commands to the console program that runs on the server.

The Remote tool supports multiple clients in each remote session. Each client is running one Remote Client. All of the clients can send commands to the console program running on the server, and all of the clients can see the commands sent and output displayed.

Visible Session

When remote sessions are visible, they appear in the list of remote sessions on the computer. To display the list, use the Remote Server query command (/q).

By default, only debugger sessions are visible, that is, sessions in which the value of the Command parameter include the words kd, dbg, remoteds, ntsd, or cdb; otherwise, the session is not visible. The Command parameter is part of the Remote tool command on the server.

To make a session visible, add the /v parameter to the Remote Server command. To make a debugger session invisible, add the /-v parameter to the command.

For help with the Remote Server query command, see Remote Server Query Command.