I am able to connect a RHEL server from my Windows machine using Putty (via ssh). My question is what is the advantage of using Xming instead of Putty? Is it that Xming would enable a graphical connect from the Windows machine to RHEL server?

I hope my question is clear that what is the advantage of using Xming over Putty.

Please revert with the reply to my query.

Regards

XMing allows you to run graphical applications from a remote machine. It typically uses Putty for the ssh connection. You can build launchers that launch a specific windowed application and put those on the windows desktop as shortcuts. It works with 64-bit Windows operating systems.

Thanks for your answer. What is the reason that Putty does not support a graphical connect? Because, it does not show a graphical connect even if give a use ssh -X option.

It may be that you don't have the display variable set up on the linux side.

When I want to use the Sun Java Directory Server on my LDAP server, I ssh to the machine and run this little script:

#! /bin/bash
#This little script reads the ipaddress of the session that just logged
#in via SSH and sets up the xwindows display. Exceed must be running
#on the local terminal first.

echo "Do you have Exceed or Xming running? (y or n) and Enter"
read response
if [ "$response" == "y" ]; then
ip_addr=${SSH_CONNECTION%% *}
DISPLAY=$ip_addr:0.0
export DISPLAY
/var/mps/serverroot/startconsole
fi

Xming is an X11 server for Microsoft Windows. Putty is an SSH client. Two different softwares, with different purposes.

If you check the "Enable X11 forwarding" option in Putty, it will allow the remote UNIX server to display X11 GUI programs on your local PC, over the ssh tunnel.... but those X11 gui programs will need an X11 server to connect to; that's Xming.

FYI we use Putty and Xming to manage all our production UNIX and Linux servers at work, they are a nice combination and work very reliably.

Tip: When you start Xming, don't start it using the "Xming" shortcut. Instead, use the "Xlaunch" shortcut, and be sure to check the box for "No Access Control".

I could not get the launcher to work at all with Solaris 10. That's why I ended up creating the script. Do you have it working to a Solaris machine, perchance?

Do not use the launcher to start a unix program. Use the launcher only to start the X11 server on your Windows PC. Then ssh to your server using Putty, and launch the GUI software from the command line. Xclock or Xlogo is a good lightweight GUI program you can test with. This will allow you to see any error messages that your program may throw, so that you can troubleshoot.

Xlaunch can create Windows shortcuts, so that you don't have to manually ssh in and start a program, but you have to get it working first, or you won't know where the problem is.

We don't have any Solaris here, it's all HP-UX and RHEL. That shouldn't matter though, since we're talking about standardized networking protocols, X11 and ssh, and should work identically on any unix-like system.