[Info-vax] rsh - Unix>vms - please help Mr. Roepcke

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2016-11-05 06:59:33 +0000, rbpkirow at gmail.com said:

You're replying to a comp.os.vms newsgroup postiong from ~twenty years ago.

It's not clear if you're Mr. Röpcke and this old posting was from this 
same configuration, or if you're somebody else and some other 
configuration with a possibly-different rsh issue...

> I have another problem when executing rsh from linux to run a comman on vms.

Which Linux version, and which version of OpenVMS and TCP/IP Services?

Is this system using a hardware emulator and an emulated network 
involved, or is OpenVMS booted directly on VAX, Alpha or Integrity 
Itanium hardware?

> I receive the following error:
> Protocol error, server closed connection.

What sort of network connection is in use?   Local connection via LAN, 
or something going to a remote server or other more complex network 
configuration?   Or is there an emulated network involved here, 
operating inside one of the various hardware emulators available?

> On VMS I have added the proxy for my user and the ucx for the server
>     Add proxy user...
>     ucx set host linux

Does ssh, telnet or some other service connect and work as expected?   
Is this specific to rsh, or more generic?

> On linux I have added the vms IP in hosts file

Consider getting local DNS configured and going?    Both OpenVMS and 
Linux servers support that, and it's far easier than working with hosts 
files.   That's not related to this issue, though missing host name 
definitions have occasionally caused weird problems secondary to the 
logging that goes into accounting or elsewhere; the reverse look-ups on 
the target server.

> If I try:
> rsh -l myuser vms_IP "dir" --> I receive protocol error
> If I tryrsh -l anotherUser vms_IP "dir" --> I receive Permision denied

is the rsh server on OpenVMS configured and started properly?   (The 
TCP/IP Services product design here is bad — the design wasn't bad 
decades ago, but the trade-offs have changed and neglect set in far too 
long ago — and the design leads to more than a few problems, 
configuration errors and even shows some outright bugs in the 
longstanding configuration scripts.   In this case, stuff can 
mostly-work when not configured, but can fail oddly.  Compared to a 
more modern network configuration procedure or tool, the approach that 
TCP/IP Services has unfortunately preserved is a dog's breakfast.)

Permissions errors can sometimes be spotted from the accounting and 
auditing data on the server, as well.   One of the more common triggers 
for permissions-related errors at login are login and sylogin 
procedures that are protected against read (or execute) access, but 
ANALYZE /AUDIT and/or ACCOUNT can sometimes be used to learn some more 
details of the failure.

> 
> Can anyone help me for solving my protocol error?

Is there a particular reason you're using rsh?   ssh would be more 
typical, and current OpenVMS and TCP/IP Services supports that.

You don't indicate OpenVMS release and the TCP/IP Services version.   
The posting you're replying to from a couple of decades ago points to 
OpenVMS V6.2 and that's a OpenVMS release that operates on both VAX and 
Alpha, and it's now very old.   TCP/IP Services releases prior to V5.0 
are also problematic.   OpenVMS V6.2 and something that identifies 
itself as UCX — that was used with TCP/IP Services prior to V5.0 — is 
probably not a combination that works all that well — or all that 
securely — in modern networks, unfortunately.   If it's an option, you 
want OpenVMS V8.4 with current patches, and TCP/IP Services V5.7 with 
current patches.   Hobbyists have access to fairly recent software.


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