How to change the NCP port number for eDirectory 8.8 on Windows 2003

  • Document ID:7002290
  • Creation Date:05-Jan-2009
  • Modified Date:26-Apr-2012
    • Micro Focus Products:
      eDirectory

Environment

Novell eDirectory 8.8 for Windows 2003
Novell eDirectory 8.8 for Windows 2000
Novell eDirectory 8.7.3.10 for Windows 2000
Novell eDirectory 8.7.3.10 for Windows 2003

Situation

Changing the NCP port number that eDirectory will listen on for NCP traffic, which is essentially all native eDirectory traffic, such as synchronization, backlinks, and other background processes, as well as traditional Novell Client access, is sometimes necessary in some environments.  The default port is 524, but occasionally, some need to change that port number to something higher than 1024.  

Resolution

Here are the steps to change the NCP port number:

1. Launch NDSCons (default is c:\Novell\nds\NDSCons.exe), and go to Transports>NCP>Interfaces

2. Select the desired interface ( for example, TCP:164.99.136.199); type in new port number (e.g. 1524)

3. Press Open button

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for UDP also

When this is complete, Transports>NCP>Bound Transports should show a list similar to the display below,
 showing both the original 524 port and the new 1524 port.  Now dhost is listening on both 524 and 1524.
TCP: 164.99.136.199:524 UDP: 164.99.136.199:524 TCP: 164.99.136.199:1524 UDP: 164.99.136.199:1524

5. Close NDSCons

6. Launch NDSCONS from command line with switch /addr=<IP-addr:newport>
 (e.g. c:\Novell\nds\NDSCons.exe /addr=164.99.136.199:1524)

7. Go to Transports>NCP>Bound Transports and delete the default/old interfaces
(both TCP and UDP) by selecting each one of the interface and by clicking close.

You have now changed the port number for eDirectory to a new port.  In this example it changed
from 524 to 1524, but you can choose any new value you desire.

Additional Information

NOTE:  From this point on, you must always launch NDSCons with the /addr=<ip-addr:newport>
switch, or it will continue to look on the default 524 port, and nothing will be visible.  If
you have a launcher icon, you can fix it to have the /addr switch with the port number in the
command line.