Work with Remote Locations

The Work with Remote Locations display shows all remote locations that have been created and provides options for their maintenance. Select option 4=Work with Remote Locations from the Configuration menu.

A remote location represents a specific environment on a specific system with which you want to be able to communicate. Manually adding a Remote Location involves assigning a unique location name and specifying an IP Address or host name and port via which data can be transmitted.

A remote location is usually on a remote system, however, you may want to create a remote location on your local system as a way of being able to communicate between different environments on the same system.

NOTE: The special location *SYSTEM is used to declare the IP Address and Port that remote locations should use in order send data to this system. The IP Address and Port specified in remote locations declared in other locations that refer to this location. A host name cannot be applied to the special location; *SYSTEM.

Automatic Configuration

Automatic Configuration is controlled by system default HAL/NETAUTOCFG. If this is set to *YES, remote systems are automatically configured the first time that network data is received. If this setting is *NO, the local system rejects any network data that it receives from undeclared systems.

NOTE: See Automatic addition of a Remote Location for more information.

Automatic Configuration with Dynamic IP Addresses

In a network where devices have dynamic IP Address assigned, automatic configuration has the ability to change the IP Address on existing Remote Locations.

Remote Locations have a parameter; ‘Allow automatic update’ which can be set to *YES or *NO. If set to *YES and a device connects which matches:

  • Remote Location Name

  • System Type

  • Remote Location Description is the auto-config default (including the word *AUTO in the correct place)

the IP Address is updated if it is different. That Remote Location is then used rather than a new Remote Location being created. In all other scenarios a new Remote Location will be created.

To control the initial value of the ‘Allow automatic update’ parameter on Remote Locations, a new system default has been added; HAL/NETAUTOCFGUPD. When a new Remote Location is created the ‘Allow automatic update’ parameter is set to the value defined within the system default.

NOTE: The ‘Allow automatic update’ parameter does not appear within F6=Add when manually creating a new Remote Location as auto-config has not been involved in the creation of the Remote Location.

 

Using Remote Location Host Name instead of an IP Address

Instead of entering an IP Address, it is also possible to enter a host name (except for the special location; *SYSTEM) for any added remote location. A host name can be either the full internet domain or an alias of up to 255 characters.

When a host name is entered it must be able to resolve the host name to an IP Address and then resolve the IP Address back to the host name. In order for this to work successfully, the host name must either be added to the TCP/IP Host table (using ADDTCPHTE) or it must be defined on one of the domain name servers specified on the CHGTCPDMN command. If defined by the latter method, the IP Address may or may not be dynamic.

When adding a remote location, the ‘Description’ and ‘Host name’ parameters both default to the name of the remote location if they are left blank. If the host name specified (or to which it has defaulted) is found to be a valid host name alias, it is automatically replaced by the primary host name for that alias. If you want to enter a remote location name that does not match the primary or alias of the system, then you must key in the host name manually.

Outbound Traffic

There are three possible alternatives for outbound traffic:

  • If a remote location uses a specific IP Address, the system always used that IP Address

  • If a remote location uses a host name and the location is already in ‘CON’ status (as shown on the Work with Remote Locations main display), the system uses the last known IP Address for that location (saved when the status changes to ‘CON’)

  • If a remote location uses a host name and the location is not already in ‘CON’ status, the system resolves the host name to an IP Address in case it is a dynamic address, and then uses the IP Address obtained. If the host cannot be resolved because, for example, the entry has been deleted from the host table or the domain server cannot be contacted, the connection fails and an error is logged. However, the connection is retried later.

Inbound Traffic

The incoming data identifies itself by its return IP Address and Port Number. The system scans for this IP Address and port in the remote locations which have a specific IP Address, or which use a host name and that are in ‘CON’ status. Remote locations not in ‘CON’ status are ignored in case they use dynamic addresses that may have changed. If a match is found, the system has identified the sender.

If a sender was not identified, the system next attempts to resolve the IP Address to a host name. If successful, the system then looks for remote locations with the specified host name and port. If a match is found, the system has identified the sender.

If an error occurred during the resolve, other than ‘no host name found for this IP’, the sender is *UNKNOWN and the inbound traffic is rejected, otherwise:

If auto-config is off, the sender is *UNKNOWN and the inbound traffic is rejected, otherwise:

A new remote location is auto-configured. If the system resolved the IP Address to a host name but didn’t find a match, the new location is created using the host name resolved. If no host name was found for the IP Address, the new location is created using the specific IP Address.

Parameters on the Work with Remote Locations display

The following parameters are available on the Work with Remote Locations display.

Remote location

This is a unique symbolic name that represents a remote location. It is recommended but not mandatory, to use the remote systems network name as the remote location name.

Type

Identifies the type of system being defined.

*I5 IBM i or i5 system
*PC PC system installed with Halcyon Ente
Host Name or IP Address

If IP Address used, this parameter displays the IP Address of the remote system which contains the remote location. If the remote location is another environment on the local system, use IP Address 127.0.0.1.

If host name is used, it can be either the full internet domain name or an alias.

In either case, it comprises one or more components separated by dots and must start with A-Z or 0-9 and end with A-Z or 0-9. Middle characters also allow dash and underscore. Each component can be up to 63 characters in length and the whole host name can be up to 255 characters in total.

NOTE: See Using Remote Location Host Name instead of an IP Address.
Remote Port

Displays the port number used to communicate with the remote location. If the remote system contains multiple environments, each environment uses a different port.

NOTE: Ensure that the correct port is specified as defined in *SYSTEM in the relevant environment. See also Remote Port Settings .
Description

Displays a textual description of the remote location.

Status

Specifies the connection status of the remote location.

Active The local system is active (Network Send, Network Receive and Action Monitors are running
Stopped The local system is not active. In this case, no status is shown for remote locations
Con-nnn The remote system is active. The value indicates the average connection time in seconds for the last 10 successful connections
Off-Line The remote systems network support ended normally. This status is only shown if the remote system broadcast that it was going off-line before ending network support
Failed The remote system cannot be contacted