Edit: Portmir still works and it is still glorious. Assuming you are both logged into the same machine at the same time.
Originally posted October 21, 2008 on AIXchange
When someone reports a problem to me, many times the situation can be addressed by using some kind of remote desktop-sharing software. This allows me to quickly and easily see what the user is seeing, instead of having it described it to me over the phone or in an instant message session.
Tools like Lotus Sametime Unyte, WebEx and VNC allow administrators to remotely access end user desktops to resolve their issues. Through this process, you both see what’s happening on the screen while discussing it over the phone.
In AIX however, I’ve found that the command line can be a preferable option for monitoring other interactive login sessions. In this environment you don’t have to deal with the graphics overhead that exists with some of the other tools.
If I’m already running an ssh session into the same machine as the person who’s reporting the problem, I find it useful to run the portmir command.
If I am logged in as root and run a “who” command for instance, I might receive this output:
who
root pts/0 Sep 15 23:23 (10.9.0.1)
user1 pts/1 Sep 16 13:47 (10.9.0.5)
In this case, since I’m logged in as root, I can see what problems user1 is having by entering:
portmir –t /dev/pts/1
From that, I see:
portmir: Remote user connected, mirroring active.
This message is displayed on both sessions to prevent you from mirroring someone’s session without their knowledge.
Now you can both see the same thing, either the administrator or end user can take control of the session.
When you’re done with the other session, simply enter:
portmir –o
The session ends with:
portmir: Mirroring is stopped.
Instead of figuring out which desktop sharing tool to use, who will run it and what password is needed, sometimes it’s quicker and easier to use portmir. It can also be used between non-root users. Read the man page for more on getting up and running with portmir.