Connecting to Remote Data Sources

[schmedi]

Hi, I am trying to create a new DSN on a CF web server hosted with our ISP. My
problem is that the actual SQL Server database is located our local network.
The local server is running Windows 2000 Server with MX7 and SQL Server 2000,
the web server is running on Windows Server 2003 with MX 6.1

If have looked and searched through this forum, but couldn't find any
articles. Any help with the set up procedure will be highly appreciated!!

Regards
Ed

[mpwoodward *TMM*]

schmedi wrote:

> Hi, I am trying to create a new DSN on a CF web server hosted with our ISP. My
> problem is that the actual SQL Server database is located our local network.
> The local server is running Windows 2000 Server with MX7 and SQL Server 2000,
> the web server is running on Windows Server 2003 with MX 6.1
>
> If have looked and searched through this forum, but couldn't find any
> articles. Any help with the set up procedure will be highly appreciated!!
>
> Regards
> Ed
>

CF doesn't care where the database server is--based on what you're
describing, as long as your SQL Server database is accessible over the
internet it will work. You'll need to expose your database server to
the internet in order for your hosting company's CF server to be able to
hit it.

Matt

--
Matt Woodward
[email]mpwoodward@gmail.com[/email]
Team Macromedia - ColdFusion

[schmedi]

Hi Matt, thank you for the reply. Can you point me in the direction of a good
technote or tutorial that would give me some information on how to achieve
this. I am still fairly new to CF and have only worked with local data sources.

Any assistance, will be much appreciated!!

Tx
Ed

[mpwoodward *TMM*]

schmedi wrote:

> Hi Matt, thank you for the reply. Can you point me in the direction of a good
> technote or tutorial that would give me some information on how to achieve
> this. I am still fairly new to CF and have only worked with local data sources.
>
> Any assistance, will be much appreciated!!
>
> Tx
> Ed
>

Basically it's the same whether the datasource is local or remote. If
you create a local datasource for SQL Server you still have to point to
the "server" which is just localhost in that case. If you are pointing
to a remote server you just have to use the full domain name for the
server or an IP address and that's pretty much it. In other words, it's
just like creating a local SQL Server datasource, you just point to a
remote server.

Let me know if that doesn't make sense.

Matt

--
Matt Woodward
[email]mpwoodward@gmail.com[/email]
Team Macromedia - ColdFusion

[schmedi]

Hi Matt, thanks for explaining that a bit more, however I still can't connect.
I copied to the exact connection details of the local DSN setup in the CF
Administrator to the remote CF Administrator on our ISP's server, only changing
the server details to point to our local servers external IP address, like
below.
Name: MyDB
Database: TestConnect
Server: xxx.yy.zzz.aa
Port: 1433
Username: MyUsername

However the connection fails with the following error:

Connection verification failed for data source: SQLFunctions
[]java.sql.SQLException: Timed out trying to establish connection
The root cause was that: java.sql.SQLException: Timed out trying to establish
connection

I also tried changing the port number to 80 and 8080, with no luck. The local
DSN runs on port 1433.

We have a CF application running on the local server, which is externally
accessible, so the server is accessible. Could our firewall be blocking access
to the database or do we perhaps need to create another trusted SQL User? Do
you know of any test databases that I can try and connect to, to see if the
problem lies with our ISP?

Tx
Ed

[mpwoodward *TMM*]

schmedi wrote:

> Hi Matt, thanks for explaining that a bit more, however I still can't connect.
> I copied to the exact connection details of the local DSN setup in the CF
> Administrator to the remote CF Administrator on our ISP's server, only changing
> the server details to point to our local servers external IP address, like
> below.
> Name: MyDB
> Database: TestConnect
> Server: xxx.yy.zzz.aa
> Port: 1433
> Username: MyUsername
>
> However the connection fails with the following error:
>
> Connection verification failed for data source: SQLFunctions
> []java.sql.SQLException: Timed out trying to establish connection
> The root cause was that: java.sql.SQLException: Timed out trying to establish
> connection
>
> I also tried changing the port number to 80 and 8080, with no luck. The local
> DSN runs on port 1433.
>
> We have a CF application running on the local server, which is externally
> accessible, so the server is accessible. Could our firewall be blocking access
> to the database or do we perhaps need to create another trusted SQL User? Do
> you know of any test databases that I can try and connect to, to see if the
> problem lies with our ISP?
>
> Tx
> Ed
>
>
>

To me it sounds like that means your SQL Server isn't accessible over
the internet. Based on the situation you described earlier this is
probably more likely with your internal network (firewall blocking
traffic over port 1433, for example), so I'd check there first, then if
your network admins say everything's good on your end, check with the
ISP to see if there might be some issues there.

Matt

--
Matt Woodward
[email]mpwoodward@gmail.com[/email]
Team Macromedia - ColdFusion