From: Brian Candler <B.Candler@...>
Date: 2005-03-30T18:08:18+09:00
Subject: Re: FreeBSD Rubyists? Do Remote Objects work for you?

On Wed, Mar 30, 2005 at 10:09:55AM +0900, Miles Keaton wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 09:54:20 +0900, Mark Probert <probertm@acm.org> wrote:
> >  On Tuesday 29 March 2005 15:26, Miles Keaton wrote:
> > > /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/drb/drb.rb:724:in `open': druby://server:8787
> > > #<Errno::ETIMEDOUT: Operation timed out - connect(2)> (DRb::DRbConnError)
> > >
> > > (All platforms die at that exact same line.  Same error.)
> > 
> > Your problem is in here, somewhere, I would think ;-)
> > 
> > If connect is timing out, there is something that is blocking it, router,
> > filter, firewall or whatever.  I don't think that this you may have a network
> > config issue on your hands.
> 
> 
> I would have thought so, except that everything else in DRb works
> *except* passing an object by reference.

It would :-)

http://www.rubygarden.org/ruby?DrbTutorial
describes how this DRbUndumped stuff works, and may make things clearer,
especially the section headed "Why does the client run 'DRb.start_service'?"

You'll find that with DRbUndumped, the 'server' will end up opening a fresh
TCP connection back to the 'client'

The easy way for you to prove that it's a network issue is to put the two
FreeBSD boxes on the *same subnet* (i.e. with no router or anything in
between)

Then, once the machines are back where they were before, the solution may
involve:
- sticking the client on a fixed port number, so that you can open a
  firewall hole for connections backwards from the server to the client; or
- running DRb over ssh, which is also described in that document.

Regards,

Brian.