Introduction to remoting functionality

XL Deploy and XL Release both have remoting functionality that enables them to manipulate files and execute commands on remote hosts. This functionality is provided by a plugin called the Remoting plugin, which uses the open-source Java framework Overthere.

Features

The remoting feature in XL Deploy and XL Release:

  • Supports SSH for connectivity to Unix, Microsoft Windows, and z/OS hosts
  • Supports CIFS, Telnet, and WinRM for connectivity to Windows hosts
  • Allow SSH jumpstations and HTTP proxies to be used to access hosts to which a direct network connection is not possible; CIFS, Telnet, and WinRM can be tunneled through an SSH jumpstation as well
  • Implements all connection methods internally, so no external dependencies are required; an exception is the WINRM_NATIVE connection type, which uses the Windows winrs command, but you can use a winrs proxy for this connection type when XL Deploy or XL Release runs on a Unix host

Host types

The remoting feature supports the following protocols for accessing target hosts:

Host type Description
localhost Connects to the local host (the host that runs XL Deploy or XL Release).
SSH Connects to a Unix, Microsoft Windows, or z/OS host using the SSH protocol. For Windows, OpenSSH on Cygwin (such as Copssh) and WinSSHD are supported.
CIFS Connects to a Windows host using the CIFS protocol for file manipulation and WinRM or Telnet for process execution. This protocol is not supported for Unix or z/OS hosts.
SMB Connects to a Windows host using the SMB protocol file manipulation and WinRM or Telnet for process execution. This protocol is not supported for Unix or z/OS hosts. This protocol is available in XL Deploy 5.5.6 and later. It is not available in XL Release.

For detailed information about host CI types, refer to the Remoting plugin reference for XL Deploy.

Connection types

For SSH hosts, CIFS hosts, and SMB hosts, you can select a connection type that determines how XL Deploy or XL Release connects to the host.

SSH connection types

The following connection types are available for SSH hosts:

Connection type Description
SFTP Uses SFTP to transfer files to a Unix host or a z/OS host. Requires the SFTP subsystem to be enabled, which is the default for most SSH servers. This is the only connection type available for z/OS hosts.
SFTP_CYGWIN Uses SFTP to transfer files to a Windows host running OpenSSH on Cygwin. This connection type can only be used for Windows hosts.
SFTP_WINSSHD Uses SFTP to transfer files to a Windows host running WinSSHD. This connection type can only be used for Windows hosts.
SCP Uses SCP to transfer files to a Unix host. The is the fastest connection type available for Unix hosts.
SUDO Like the SCP connection type, but uses the sudo command to execute commands and to copy files from and to their actual locations. Requires all commands to be executed to have been configured with NOPASSWD in the /etc/sudoers configuration file. If this connection type is selected, the sudoUsername property should be set to specify the user that does have the necessary permissions.
INTERACTIVE_SUDO Like the SUDO connection type, but does not require the NOPASSWD option to have been configured for all commands. It enables detection of the password prompt that is shown by the sudo command when the login user (username) tries to execute a command as the privileged user (sudoUsername) when that command has not been configured with NOPASSWD, and causes the password of username to be sent in reply.

Note: Because the password of the login user (username) is needed to answer this prompt, this connection type is incompatible with the privateKeyFile property that can be used to authenticate with a private key file.

For detailed information about connection types, refer to the Remoting plugin reference for XL Deploy.

CIFS connection types

The following connection types are available for CIFS and SMB hosts:

Connection type Description
WINRM_INTERNAL Uses WinRM over HTTP(S) to execute remote commands (a Java implementation of WinRM that is internal to XL Deploy and XL Release is used). The port property specifies the Telnet port to which to connect. The default value is 5985 for HTTP and 5986 for HTTPS.
WINRM_NATIVE Like WINRM_INTERNAL, but uses the native Windows implementation of WinRM (the winrs command). If the XL Deploy or XL Release server is not running on a Windows host, a winrs proxy must be configured.
TELNET Uses Telnet to execute remote commands. The port property specifies the Telnet port to which to connect. The default value is 23.

Exposing additional Overthere properties

Most of the Overthere connection properties defined in the Overthere documentation are available as regular properties or as hidden properties on the overthere.SshHost, overthere.CifsHost, and overthere.SmbHost configuration item (CI) types. If you need access to additional properties, you can create a type modification in the SERVER_HOME/ext/synthetic.xml file like this:

<type-modification type="overthere.SshHost">
    <property name="listFilesCommand" hidden="true" default="/bin/ls -a1 {0}" />
    <property name="getFileInfoCommand" hidden="true" default="/bin/ls -ld {0}" />
</type-modification>