How to: Set Up Remote Debugging

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To enable remote debugging, you install or share remote debugging components on the remote computer that contains the application to be debugged. If your computers are protected by a firewall, you must take extra steps to enable communication between the remote computer and the computer that is hosting Visual Studio. You must also ensure that the debugger can locate the symbol files for the process to be debugged and that you have the correct permissions to access the process to be debugged.

In This Topic

This topic contains the following sections:

Set Up Permissions

Locating Symbol Files

Set Up the Visual Studio Host Computer

Set Up the Remote Computer

Configure the Firewalls

Set up Permissions

The following permissions are required for remote debugging:

For information about the permissions needed to debug Transact-SQL, see How to: Enable Transact-SQL Debugging

Locating Symbol (.pdb) Files

Symbol files contain the debugging information for compiled executables. The symbol files of the application to be debugged must be the files that were created when the application executables were compiled. The symbol files must also be located where the debugger can find them.

• The symbol files for native applications must be located on the Visual Studio host computer.

• The symbol files for managed applications must be located on the remote computer.

• The symbol files for mixed (managed and native) applications must be located on both the Visual Studio host computer and the remote computer.

For more information, see Managing Symbols and Source Code.

Set Up the Visual Studio Host Computer

If the Visual Studio host computer is protected by a firewall, you must configure the firewall to allow Visual Studio to communicate with the remote computer. If your network requires that communication be performed using IPSec, you must open additional ports in the firewall. The procedures that you use to configure your firewall depend on the version of the Windows operating system. For more information, see the topics listed in the Configure the Firewalls section.

If the Visual Studio host computer is not protected by a firewall, no additional steps are necessary.

Ports to open on the Visual Studio computer to enable remote debugging

Set Up the Remote Computer

To enable remote debugging, you can either:

• Install the remote debugging components on the remote computer and launch the Remote Debugging Monitor (msvsmon.exe) when you start debugging- or -

• Run the Remote Debugging Monitor remotely from a share.

If the remote computer is protected by a firewall, you must configure the firewall to allow the Remote Debugging Monitor to communicate with the Visual Studio host computer.

• If your network requires that communication be performed using IPSec, you must open additional ports in the firewall.

• If you are debugging a process on a web server, you must open an additional port.

The procedures that you use to configure your firewall depend on the version of the Windows operating system. For more information, see the topics listed in the Configure the Firewalls section.

Ports on the remote computer to open to enable remote debugging

Limitations of sharing remote debugging components

Although running the Remote Debugging Monitor from a file share is the easiest way to enable remote debugging, this method has the following limitations:

• The Remote Debugging Monitor cannot run as a service from a share on the remote computer. You must install the remote debugging components as a service if you want to do either of the following tasks:

  • Start an ASP.NET web application with debugging from Visual Studio.

  • Step into a hosted serviced called from a WCF client.

  However, you can attach the debugger to ASP.NET web applications and to WCF services.

• If Visual Studio is installed on a 32-bit computer, only the 32-bit version of the Remote Debugging Monitor is installed. In this case, you must install the remote debugging components if you want to debug a 64-bit application on the remote computer.

Installing the remote debugging components

You can run or download the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Remote Debugger setup program from the Microsoft download center. The setup program is also available on the Visual Studio installation media in the vs\Remote Debugger folder. Choose the setup program that matches the operating system (x86, x64, ia64) on the remote computer.

After the setup program runs, the Visual Studio Remote Debugger Configuration Wizard is launched.

1. On the second page of the wizard, you can choose to run the remote debugger as a service. You can also specify credentials for the service.

2. On the third page of the wizard, you can select the network locations that can communicate with the remote debugger through the Windows firewall.

The remote debugging components are installed on the remote computer in the

• C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Remote Debugger folder on x64 computers.

• C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Remote Debugger folder on x86 computers.

Running the remote debugging components from a share

The remote debugging components are installed on the Visual Studio computer in the

• C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Remote Debugger folder on x64 computers.

• C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\Remote Debugger folder on x86 computers.

Use the procedures described in Configure the Firewalls to enable the program and ports of the remote debugging monitor to communicate with the Visual Studio computer.

Configure the Firewalls

The following table provides links to topics that describe how to configure the firewalls on specific operating systems for both the Visual Studio host and remote computers. Although the programs and ports that are opened are the same for all versions of the operating system, the procedures vary. Choose the topics that match the operating system of the computer.

See Also

Other Resources

Remote Debugging Setup

Debug Settings and Preparation

Change History