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RDS no longer working in ColdFusion 2016 on IIS

August 8, 2016

While setting up my first ColdFusion 2016 server I came across an interesting problem with RDS.

My problem was that I could not get RDS to connect via ColdFusion Builder 3.

The error when I would attempt a test connection:

Unable to contact RDS Server "[Remote Server]". This can be caused by incorrect configuration on either the client or the server.

Please verify your connection details below or check your servers documentation on how to enable RDS for your server.

The HTTP request to talk to your server returned with the following message:
Error executing RDS command. Status Code: 404, Reason : Not Found

First I made sure RDS was enabled via the ColdFusion Administrator.Having had some previous experience with RDS troubleshooting I knew that ColdFusion Builder made HTTP calls to /cfide/ folder on the server.  I reviewed the web connector configuration file (%CFUSION%\config\wsconfig\1\uriworkermap.properties) for my default site and found this entry:

!/CFIDE/*

Removing the “!” and running an IISReset command instantly enabled the RDS connection.

In order to continue to secure the ColdFusion Administrator folders I added these entries to the uriworkermap.properties file:

!/CFIDE/administrator/* = cfusion
!/CFIDE/adminapi/* = cfusion

Some things to remember when troubleshooting RDS:

• In CF2012+ RDS is only enabled by default in the Development Profile during setup
• RDS uses port 80 to make HTTP connections to the ColdFusion server. Tools that inspect HTTP traffic can be invaluable in troubleshooting.
• RDS is NOT secure and SHOULD NOT be enabled on PRODUCTION servers