RDS: Server name or address could not be resolved...

This problem has plagued me for ages. After setting up a new site on my server, I could never reliably connect to any of the sites with RDS. Only a very few of the first sites that were set up on the server. I've been back and forth with Dreamweaver engineers and no one could ever seem to solve the problem. I spent an hour going through Google this evening, and no one had a sure fire fix for this ridiculously unhelpful error message...

Well I finally just decided to take a step back and take a better look at what was going on. I went back and looked at the installation log file that ColdFusion created when I installed it on my IIS box. I started following the same steps on my new site that I was having issues with. I had already added the CFIDE directory, but when I logged into my new site through /CFIDE/administrator, there was no RDS Password option available. When I logged in through one of my early sites on the box, sure enough, there was the RDS Password option. Both of these sites were using the same virtual CFIDE directory, so it wasn't a missing/corrupt file in the CFIDE directory.

Finally, it jumped right out and slapped me in the face. None of my new sites had the JRunScripts virtual directory... I mapped the JRunScripts virtual directory to C:\CFusionMX\runtime\lib\wsconfig\1 [with Execute Permissions set to Scripts and Executables (not Scripts Only my friends...)] and wallah! The RDS Password option popped up on my new site, and sure enough, I connected through RDS with absolutely no problem... I can't believe how long it's taken me to figure this one out, and it was something so silly. Hopefully this shows up high enough on Google so that someone else doesn't have to deal with it :).

Posted by Daniel Short on Nov 10, 2005 at 12:00 AM | Categories: ColdFusion - Dreamweaver - Rambling -

4 Comments

SpaceCity

SpaceCity wrote on 02/01/06 2:32 PM

What no reponses in 3 months?! I am having the same problem, at least I am getting the same error. I'm brand new at CF so your explanation went right over my head. I have CF7 installed and am using IIS to house all the sites I work on. I'm following along in the book "Macromedia ColdFusion MX Development with DreamWeaver MX" didn't get far before I got the error. Anyway, all of my sites are within the c:/inetpub/wwwroot directory. When i open up IIS, all sites as well as the JRunScripts folder are all within the "web sites/default web site" folder in IIS. What is it that I need to map and where do i do that? Thanks.
Daniel Short

Daniel Short wrote on 02/01/06 2:32 PM

You need to map JRunScripts to C:\CFusionMX\runtime\lib\wsconfig\1|2|3|etc... Then make sure it has "Scripts and Executables" enabled, and you should be good to go.
Todd

Todd wrote on 03/31/06 3:43 AM

Thank you Dan, This has been driving me crazy for weeks. Your solution immediately solved the problem. Genius!!
Daniel Short

Daniel Short wrote on 03/31/06 3:43 AM

Glad it helped :).