Configuring DCOM for remote invocation

Requires Analytica Enterprise.

You can instantiate and use COM objects on remote computers from Analytica, but for this to work, various Windows network and security options must be configured to allow remote DCOM invocation. Windows access permissions are quite difficult to figure out for most of us. This page provides notes and instructions for getting this to work.

Install Component

The component that you want to install needs to be installed on the remote computer. If you want to refer to it by name in COMCreateObject rather than be CLSID, then you'll also need to have it installed on the computer running Analytica.

Enable DCOM

Allow DCOM must be enabled on both computers. Instructions for this are at: Enable or Disable DCOM. In short, go to Component services/Computers/MyComputer/Properties/Default Properties and select Enable Distributed COM on this computer.

Firewalls on both computers must be turned off or configured to allow DCOM communication.

Remote Account

The component will need to run under some account on the remote computer.

Instantiation

Your Analytica model will instantiate the object on the remote computer (or computers) using:

COMCreateObject(name, server, flags, user, pwd)

An example will be inserted here

Errors

If you encounter the error "Cannot create the COM object...", click the "Docs help on this error" link in the lower left corner for causes and remedies for the particular error encountered.

Here are some additional pages with useful information and instructions: Resolving "Access Denied" Errors

Note: Numerous parts of instructions found on various web pages don't work in Windows 7 Home edition, particularly instructions for assigning users to groups (such as the "Distributed COM users" group). We have not been able to determine from information found in web searches whether there is some sort of inherent limit on the ability to use DCOM on the Home edition. We have burned many hours/days trying to solve the "Access denied" error, and are now floating the conjecture that it is a limitation of the Home edition.

History

Introduced in Analytica 4.6.