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I'm administering a few WinXP machines from which one is a MSSQL server/workstation. WinXP is a must because of the program the office uses. I was thinking of moving the MSSQL server to another seperate linux machine with virtualized WinXP for safety reasons (e.g, backups, physical security) but it seems that the program can only localy communicate with the MSSQL server. Is there a program that could listen on local port and redirect server-client communcation to my virtualized MSSQL server over LAN?

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

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This is rather technical but should do what you are looking to do. Use the Windows routing tables as described here, in order to route the port that MSSQL runs on to another machine's IP address + port:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/route.mspx?mfr=true

I believe there are also tools / GUI's that will make it easier to manage, but I cannot point to any off the top of my head. (mainly because there are NOT any on top of my head... try Google)

Update: I'm sorry I made a mistake. I made the assumption that Windows Route utility would also do port forwarding. I know IPTABLES on Linux will, but it seems you may need some third-party software to work with Windows desktop versions. Windows Server has a administrative console called "Routing & Remote access" which should provide some built-in port routing functionality, but I haven't played with it.

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Im not sure Im following you. I assume that if the software doesn't have configuration for server IP/port then it must connect to 127.0.0.1:port. So how does routing helps me? – r00m Feb 28 '12 at 16:59
@r00m if you know what port the software does run on (and yes, there are ways of finding out), you just need to then route that port to whatever IP address / port - even on a remote machine. – Joshua Feb 28 '12 at 18:22
What i meant was: is it possible to route a port? I thought routing only works on IPs. An example would be greatly appreciated! – r00m Feb 28 '12 at 18:33
Yes. For example, you can route 127.0.0.1:8080 > 127.0.0.1:80, 127.0.0.1:80 > 192.168.1.2:80, 127.0.0.1:80 > 192.168.1.2:8080 etc. Just try it. – Joshua Feb 28 '12 at 19:57
I can't seem to find any examples where routing is done based on ports. Could you post some? – r00m Feb 28 '12 at 20:12
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