CruiseControl.NET no connection can be made? - service

Question

I am setting up CruiseControl.NET and I get the following error message on the webdashboard:
No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it 127.0.0.1:21234
The Url it is looking for is: tcp://localhost:21234/CruiseManager.rem
However the ccnet website in IIS has its tcp port set to 82.
So I use the following Url to navigate to the webdashboard http://127.0.0.1:82/ccnet/ViewFarmReport.aspx
I tried changing the Tcp port in IIS to 21234 and I get the following error message on the webdashboard:
Tcp channel protocol violation: expecting preamble.
I have also tried opening the port with the following command:
netsh firewall add portopening TCP 21234 CCNET
When I try and start the CCNET service I get the following message
The CruiseControl.NET Server service started then stopped. Some services stop automatically if they have no work to do....
Can anyone help me with this problem please?
EDIT - Adding config file
<cruisecontrol xmlns:cb="urn:ccnet.config.builder">
<cb:define PublishDir="C:\Deploy\Portal2.0Build"/>
<project name="Portal2.0">
<workingDirectory>C:\PortalCruiseControl\Working</workingDirectory>
<artifactDirectory>C:\PortalCruiseControl\Artifacts</artifactDirectory>
<webURL>http://192.168.17.59:82/ccnet</webURL>
<triggers>
<intervalTrigger name="continuous" seconds="10"
buildCondition="IfModificationExists"/>
</triggers>
<sourcecontrol type="svn">
<trunkUrl>https://portal2003.local:8443/svn/portalv2.0/trunk</trunkUrl>
<executable>C:\Program Files (x86)\VisualSVN Server\bin\svn.exe</executable>
<username>ccnet</username>
<password>***</password>
<cleanCopy>true</cleanCopy>
</sourcecontrol>
<tasks>
<msbuild>
<executable>
C:\WINDOWS\microsoft.net\Framework64\v3.5\MSBuild.exe
</executable>
<projectFile>Portal2.0.sln</projectFile>
<buildArgs>
/target:build;publish /p:Configuration=Release /p:MSBuildExtensionsPath=C:\Progra~2\MSBuild /p:MSBuildEmitSolution=1 /p:publishdir=C:\Deploy\Portal2.0Build /verbosity:diag
</buildArgs>
<logger>
C:\Program Files (x86)\CruiseControl.NET\server\ThoughtWorks.CruiseControl.MSBuild.dll
</logger>
</msbuild>
</tasks>
<labeller type="assemblyVersionLabeller">
<major>2</major>
<minor>0</minor>
<incrementOnFailure>false</incrementOnFailure>
</labeller>
<publishers>
<statistics />
<xmllogger />
<package>
<name>ZipFilePublish</name>
<compression>9</compression>
<always>false</always>
<flatten>false</flatten>
<baseDirectory>$(PublishDir)</baseDirectory>
<dynamicValues>
<replacementValue property="name">
<format>C:\Deploy\Builds\PortalBuild{0}.zip</format>
<parameters>
<namedValue name="$CCNetLabel" value="Default" />
</parameters>
</replacementValue>
</dynamicValues>
<files>
<file>*.*</file>
<file>**\*</file>
</files>
</package>
<email from="bla" mailhost="bla" port="25" userName="bla"
password="bla" includeDetails="TRUE" useSSL="FALSE">
<users>
<user name="User1" group="Portal" address=""/>
</users>
<groups>
<group name="Portal">
<notifications>
<notificationType>change</notificationType>
</notifications>
</group>
</groups>
</email>
</publishers>
</project>

Answer 1

The first error message is probably caused by CCNET service not running because of which the web dashboard can't connect to it. It should go away as soon as you fix the ccnet.config so that service starts running.
The second problem ("Ilegal characters in path"; you seem to have already figured out the missing nodes part) is caused by msbuild/executable element. It seems that CC.NET doesn't like whitespace and especially new line characters inside it's value. Replacing:
<executable>
C:\WINDOWS\microsoft.net\Framework64\v3.5\MSBuild.exe
</executable>
with:
<executable>C:\WINDOWS\microsoft.net\Framework64\v3.5\MSBuild.exe</executable>
should fix the problem.
Another hint: when you're having problems with the validity of your ccnet.config file, try using CCValidator.exe (it's in your CruiseControl.NET\server folder). It usually points out the problematic part of the config file quite nicely (although that wasn't the case with "Illegal characters in path" problem - I had to comment out specific parts of the config to find the offending node).

Answer 2

The first message you receive (connection actively refused) makes me think of a firewall which is blocking the port you're using.
The second problem could be anything. It could for instance be an error in your XML configuration (ccnet.config) file. Can you find any pointers in the Windows Eventlog ?

Answer 3

Regarding the 2nd problem: did you try to run the CC.NET server from the command line?
If you've got an error in your XML configuration, this will give you a more meaningful error message.
Which account are you using to run the Windows service?

Answer 4

Have you checked your ccnet's dashboard.config file?
It has the following line in it:
<server name="local" url="tcp://localhost:21234/CruiseManager.rem" ... />
Try changing the port on that to 82 and then restarting the website (you should be just able to add a space to the web.config file and save and IIS will restart the website).

Answer 5

Sounds like you're confusing two different functions:
tcp://localhost:21234
This is the default remoting port for clients like CCTray. This is not used for the IIS web site (dashboard).
Configuration document is likely missing Xml nodes required for properly populating CruiseControl co nfiguration. Missing Xml node (packageList) for required member (ThoughtWorks.CruiseControl.Core.Publishers.Package Publisher.PackageList)
Your example config is missing required packageList node.

Answer 6

A misleading error message. The port really is 21234, not 82. I got the same errors. The fix was to start ccnet.exe from the desktop shortcut to discover that the real problem was illegal code in my ccnet.config file.
After fixing the ccnet.config file, the problem moved on. When attempting to build, the system would not let the subversion client modify the read-only marker files in the checked out repo.

Answer 7

In my case I misprinted project configuration file name in ccnet.config instead of timescheduler.config it were timesheduler. When I fixed file name I was able to run ccnet service.
<cruisecontrol xmlns:cb="urn:ccnet.config.builder">
<cb:include href="definitions.xml" xmlns:cb="urn:ccnet.config.builder"/>
<cb:include href="projects/timescheduler.config" xmlns:cb="urn:ccnet.config.builder"/>
</cruisecontrol>