Configuring the firewall on a Windows XP NetWorker client

Published 11 Apr 2005 Read time 3 min(s) 24 sec(s) (2364 views). NetWorker

This problem has already been described in Legato Technical Bulletin #399. However, In addition to that bulletin here is some additional information which might be useful.

The installation of Window XP Service Pack 2 will install a new version of ICF (Internet Connection Firewall). This will be done automatically and without any feedback You do not even have the chance to change the default settings. Unfortunately, this will break a running NetWorker environment.

A Windows XP computer is supported as a netWorker client

Manual backups from the client will still work ...

... but server-initiated backups will fail

Z:\nsr\bin> savegrp -v -G xpprof
xpprof:D:\TEST level=full
04/03/05 04:32:32 savegrp: Run up to 4 clients in parallel
04/03/05 04:32:32 savegrp: xpprof:probe started
savefs -s test2003 -c xpprof -g xpprof -p -l full -R -v -F D:\TEST
04/03/05 04:35:21 savegrp: command 'savefs -s test2003 -c xpprof -g xpprof -p -l full -R -v -F D:\TEST ' for client xpprof
exited with return code 1.
04/03/05 04:35:21 savegrp: xpprof:probe succeeded.
* xpprof:D:\TEST rcmd xpprof, user root: `savefs -s test2003 -c xpprof -g xpprof -p -l full -R -v -F "D:\\TEST"'
* xpprof:D:\TEST 04/03/05 04:34:59 nsrexec: nsrexecd on xpprof is unavailable. Using rsh instead.
xpprof: Connection timed out
* xpprof:D:\TEST Network connection could not be established with client 'xpprof'
04/03/05 04:35:22 savegrp: xpprof:probe will retry 1 more time(s)
04/03/05 04:35:22 savegrp: xpprof:probe started
savefs -s test2003 -c xpprof -g xpprof -p -l full -R -v -F D:\TEST
04/03/05 04:38:15 savegrp: command 'savefs -s test2003 -c xpprof -g xpprof -p -l full -R -v -F D:\TEST ' for client xpprof
exited with return code 1.
04/03/05 04:38:15 savegrp: xpprof:probe succeeded.
* xpprof:D:\TEST 1 retry attempted
* xpprof:D:\TEST rcmd xpprof, user root: `savefs -s test2003 -c xpprof -g xpprof -p -l full -R -v -F "D:\\TEST"'
* xpprof:D:\TEST 04/03/05 04:37:54 nsrexec: nsrexecd on xpprof is unavailable. Using rsh instead.
* xpprof:D:\TEST 04/03/05 04:35:27 nsrexec: Diagnostic: Reverse DNS lookup failed for host xpprof, address 195.214.75.137
xpprof: Connection timed out
* xpprof:D:\TEST Network connection could not be established with client 'xpprof'
04/03/05 04:38:17 savegrp: xpprof:probe will retry 0 more time(s)
04/03/05 04:38:17 savegrp: xpprof:index started
save -s test2003 -S -g xpprof -LL -f - -m test2003 -V -l full -LL -W 78 -N index:5ccff6c9-00000004-424f148a-424f1489-
00010000-c3d64b84 Z:\nsr\index\xpprof
04/03/05 04:38:19 savegrp: xpprof:index succeeded.
* xpprof:index rcmd localhost, user root: `save -s test2003 -S -g xpprof -LL -f - -m test2003 -V -l full -LL -W 78
-N index:5ccff6c9-00000004-424f148a-424f1489-00010000-c3d64b84 "Z:\\nsr\\index\\xpprof"'
* xpprof:index mtimeasm -s Z:\nsr\index\xpprof\db6\424e8b18.rec
* xpprof:index mtimeasm -s Z:\nsr\index\xpprof\db6\424e8c4c.rec
* xpprof:index mtimeasm -s Z:\nsr\index\xpprof\db6\424e8dd0.rec
* xpprof:index mtimeasm -s Z:\nsr\index\xpprof\db6\424eb3b3.rec
* xpprof:index mtimeasm -s Z:\nsr\index\xpprof\db6\424ebad5.rec
* xpprof:index uasm -s Z:\nsr\index\xpprof\db6\
* xpprof:index Z:\nsr\index\xpprof\
* xpprof:index
test2003: index:xpprof level=full, 9 KB 00:00:01 7 files
...

This is not a NetWorker problem but an XP issue - the firewall on the XP client needs to be reconfigured.

In general, you can do this in different ways:

either for all domain-wide XP clients - If a domain is present
Or, individually for each XP client - If a domain is not available

Legato have developed a small routine called nsrfw to assist in resolving this issue. You can download this utility from ftp://ftp.legato.com/pub/NetWorker/Updates/WindowsXP/ProductAlert-XP/nsrfw.zip

NOTE: You will need to unzip the file to a temporary location before you can install it.

Installing nsrfw

To install the software, simply double-click the file nsrfw.exe. For example:

The installation is done in a second

Of course, the program will not change the NetWorker port configuration

However, automatic backups still fail with the same problem. Obviously, installing the software was not enough to resolve the issue - you must configure it also:

So I added the new firewall configuration:

This solved the problem