VS REMOTE DEBUGGING ACROSS WORKGROUPS OR DOMAINS

Remote debugging in Visual Studio works great if both machines are on the same domain and/or workgroup. It also works dreamily if you're doing straight native C++ where you can use the TCP/IP as the debugging transport. The problem comes in when you need to do remote debugging for managed code across domains or workgroups. It doesn't work because .NET remote debugging relies on DCOM, which as a transport protocol does not jump workgroup or domain boundaries.

When I have to remote debug across domain/workgroup boundaries, here's what works for me. It's not an ideal solution but until Microsoft allows us to debug .NET code with pure TCP/IP this will get you at least started. Again, your mileage may vary and your network admins may not let you perform the following so you're on your own with these steps. Finally, I'm assuming you know how to set up remote debugging for the supported same domain/workgroup scenarios. If you don't you should read the documentation to understand what I'm talking about here.

The issue with DCOM is there's a security ramification where an account one domain does not have rights on the other workgroup or domain. The big trick is to do your remote debugging with local machine accounts. DCOM first attempts to make the connection with machine\username account and if that does not work, it falls back to the username using the hashed password. As long as the username and password on the both machines is the same, DCOM can make the connection.

On the machine where Visual Studio runs, called the local machine, open up an elevated command shell or PowerShell window with administrator rights and execute the following command. Yes, you can do the same through the GUI but this is much faster. Don't fear the command line!

net user username password /add

That creates the user account you're going to use for Visual Studio.

On the machine where your application runs, called the remote machine, open up an elevated command shell or PowerShell window with administrator rights and execute the following commands. Obviously you'll be using the same user name and password you entered on the local machine.

net user username password /add

net localgroup administrators remotecomputername\username /add

Read more: JOHN ROBBINS' BLOG

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