RDP causes VC6 build step to fail
 

I have a strange issue with VisualBuild 6.7a. Whenever VisualBuild is running on our build machine and it is building a VC6 project; then logging in with Windows Remote Desktop will cause the VC6 build step to fail. Also, any of the other VC6 steps which have been built successfully already will fail as well. Non-VC6 build steps (i.e. VS.2003, etc.) will succeed.

The issue will persist until your close the parent VisualBuild script and reopen it. If RDP was already connected while the VC6 step is being built; there are no issues. Issue only comes up when you RDP into a machine while VisualBuild is building a VC6 step.

What's the error in the step's build output? Does the msdev.com process that is compiling the VC6 project end abnormally?

You mean that other steps in the project that have already completed suddenly change from a status of Completed to Failed?

There's no meaningful failure output. The VC6 build step will just end abruptly when you RDP into the machine. It appears that there is some sort of exception in VC6 as there is a dialog on the taskbar, but I can't open the dialog to see the contents. It just shows a VisualStudio icon on the Windows taskbar.

When VisualBuild is in this state; if I try to rebuild any of the previous VC6 build steps that completed successfully; they will try to build and change status from Completed to Fail. If I rebuild a non-VC6 (i.e. VS.2003) step; it will succeed.

It sounds like the VC6 compiler (what the Make VC6 action calls to build a VC6 project) is terminating abnormally for some reason in this scenario. One possibility would be a DEP issue (see http://www.kinook.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=3598). You might also make sure that you are running the very latest VC6 release + any hotfixes. Other than that, I can't think of any solutions except avoiding starting RDP with a VC6 build compiling, since I doubt Microsoft is updating VC6 any longer.