Opening Contributor 8.4.1 FP2 web application via web-based SSL VPN (Passport)

[jeffowentn]

I have a user that needs to connect to our Contributor applications via a web-based SSL VPN (we use a tool called Passport).  We have the URL configured in Passport with port 80 opened up.  Does anyone know if we need to have any other ports opened up between the user's machine and our environment?  He has installed the CognosRCP.msi and the Contributor.msi under his profile with local admin rights, but he continues to get an error message:

(from the provagent logs)

'Unnable to download http://......../cognos8/rcp_updates/provagent_8.4_app.xml: '



The planning gateway is installed on both gateway servers.

Other users are able to get in, just fine.  This particular URL/IIS is configured for basic authentication users.  This is the first time we've tried connecting through Passport, though.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Jeff

[jeffowentn]

Does anyone know if we need to have ports other than 80 opened on the end-user's machine for them to connect/work with Contributor web in Cognos 8.4.1 FP2?

Jeff

[ericlfg]

Hey Jeff,

Yes, off the top of my head, I believe there are a few ports in the 9000 range that need to be opened / free.  If I recall correctly, I believe this is because of the way the contributor client looks for and receives updates.  If you have the automatic download and update features disabled, you may not receive any errors, might be worth a try.

Cheers

[jeffowentn]

Eric,

Thank you.  Is there anyway to determine which ports in the 9000 range, or do I just need to have our network team open up all ports in the 9000 range?

Jeff

[ericlfg]

I believe it should be the same ports as your dispatcher URIs: 9300, but there may be a number of others.  Since it's been a while since I've looked at this, you may want to do a fiddler or wireshark trace to see which ports are used when your user tries to access the portal.

[jeffowentn]

Thanks, Eric.

We were able to open up ports 80 and 9300 for each of the IP's associated with that environment.  That was sufficient.

Jeff