Projects developed on a remote UNIX machine

You use a COBOL Application debug configuration to debug projects developed on a remote UNIX machine. Depending on your connection type, you may need to configure an X window implementation before you can debug the remote application, so that the output of a remote application running on a UNIX machine can be viewed on your local machine. If you are using an SSH connection type, you do not need an X window implementation (although you can still use one if you wish); with an SSH connection type, you can direct the remote program output to the Console view in the IDE instead.

Micro Focus Reflection Desktop for X is provided as part of Visual COBOL. Find the Reflection Desktop for X documentation on the Micro Focus OpenText Support for Micro Focus Products dropdown menu.

If you require an X window implementation, ensure the local X11 server can receive connections from the remote machine. You can do this using the xhost + command or by enabling SSH port forwarding. Alternatively, enable TCP/IP connections for X11 by setting a value in a configuration file in a manner appropriate to your operating system. For example:
  • Red Hat: run the gdmsetup utility and deselect Deny TCP connections to Xserver in the Security tab (this configures DisallowTCP=false in /etc/gdm/custom.conf)
  • SUSE: set DISPLAYMANAGER_XSERVER_TCP_PORT_6000_OPEN="yes" in /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager

Remote UNIX machines running behind a firewall

If the remote machine is running behind a firewall but is accessible via SSH, you need to use a proxy server to handle traffic to the remote machine. Visual COBOL supports the SOCKS5 internet protocol. This enables you to route network traffic through SSH to the remote machine. To use SOCKS with a proxy server perform the following steps:

  1. Click Window > Preferences > General > Network Connections.
  2. In the Active Provider list, select Manual.
  3. In the Proxy entries table, click the SOCKS row.
  4. Click Edit.

    This opens the Edit Proxy Entry dialog box for the SOCKS schema.

  5. In the Host field, type the host_name where your proxy server is running.
  6. In the Port field, type the port_number used by your chosen proxy client.

    If your proxy server is configured to request authentication you need to specify the details:

    1. Check Requires Authentication.
    2. Type the username in the User field.
    3. Type the password in the Password field.
  7. Click OK.

If you are going to use the COBOL Application debug configuration you also need to use SSH port forwarding to route X Server display to the local machine. This means you need to specify the remote machine port (rather than the local machine port) when specifying the display in the preferences:

  1. Click Window > Preferences > Micro Focus > Debug.
  2. Type the display details in the Default X Server (DISPLAY) field - for example localhost:10.0.

    The value following localhost comes from /etc/ssh/sshd_config - X11DisplayOffset and is incremented for each additional user.

  3. Click Apply and Close.

See To create a connection to a remote UNIX host running behind a firewall for details of how to use SOCKS with PuTTY as the proxy server.

Parent topic: Debugging using a remote machine