Network Drive Mappings Dissapear

[owaboy]

My domain is 2003 native mode, and I have about 120 clients who receive 11 drive mappings via Login Scipt (batch file with the net use command) upon logon. These problems only happen on a handful of machines- and it is usually to only these machines. Lately, the number has been slowly increasing. In one case, I replaced a particular user's machine three times and replaced his Cat5 cable (making sure it was not located near and UPS or monitor etc...) We map I,J,K,L,O,Q,R,S,T,U, and X. The worksatations are connected to the network via 100mps connections and the servers talk at Gbps speeds. The CIFS shares are located on a Network Appliance Filer (FAS270) and there are no conection limitations defined. All shares are browseable at any time (whether mapped or unmapped). Here are the problems:

1) Sometimes not all drive mappings do not map (meaning they dont show up in Explorer and don't show up when I run the net use command to display mapped drives).
2) At sporadic times during the day, SOME drive mappings dissapear. It is not conistent either, except for the I drive (the first mapping). When this happens the user is usually left with only the S, T, and U mappings- and that is it.
3) When these drive mappings dissapear, logging off/logging on doesn't usualy remap them. It sometimes takes three or four times before they reappear.

The syntax of the login script is as follows:

NET USE I: /DELETE
NET USE J: /DELETE
NET USE K: /DELETE
NET USE L: /DELETE
NET USE O: /DELETE
NET USE Q: /DELETE
NET USE R: /DELETE
NET USE S: /DELETE
NET USE T: /DELETE
NET USE U: /DELETE
NET USE X: /DELETE

NET USE I: \\StorageSystem01\vol3 /persistent:yes
NET USE J: \\StorageSystem01\vol1 /persistent:yes
NET USE K: \\StorageSystem01\vol2 /persistent:yes
NET USE L: \\StorageSystem01\apps /persistent:yes
NET USE O: \\StorageSystem02\OldJobs /persistent:yes
NET USE Q: \\StorageSystem03\JOBS /persistent:yes
NET USE R: \\StorageSystem04\Jobs /persistent:yes
NET USE S: \\StorageSystem01\jobs /persistent:yes
NET USE T: \\MS-SQLServer01\Accounting /persistent:yes
NET USE U: \\StorageSystem01\Home\%Username%
NET USE X: \\StorageSystem01\XeroxShare\%Username%

Please help

 

[iolair]

Does the Network Appliance Filer (FAS270) have any kind of timeout on shares setting? I seem to remember that some Unix NFS shares will disconnect a user if they haven't accessed the share in 15 minutes, or some other default time setting. I don't know about the Network Appliance Filer (FAS270), but if it's Unix based, that could be it. I do have a Quantum Snap Server, and it's Linux-based. I had to go into setup and tell it to NOT disconnect after 5 minutes. Just a guess, though.

Iolair MacWalter
Director of IT

 

[owaboy]

Already went that route- good thinking though. No timeouts whatsoever. How reliant are drive mappings on WINS by the way? On my DHCP server, no specified WINS server, yet WINS/NBT node type is 0x8.

 

[Roadki11]

I have a couple of thoughts. What does net use look like after you logon to a machine and it doesnt map as you hoped? I have seen when you use the net use X: /delete it doesnt remove the whole map just the local drive so if you look at net use you see:

Status Local Remote Network
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\\server\share Microsoft Windows Network

Notice the remote share is still attached and then you follow that up with a NET USE I: \\StorageSystem01\vol3 /persistent:yes it will fail because the share is still partially mapped.

I would modify the bat file a bit to log what its doing just for a test, have it echo > to a text file so you can see if its blowing any errors or put a pause at the end so you can see what its doing right at the workstation.

I would also try changing the net use X: /delete to include the whole share like NET USE I: \\StorageSystem01\vol3 /delete and i would change /persistent:yes to /persistent:no so it disconnects the drives at logoff.

Not sure if any of this will help, but it might help narrow down the problem. Might want to switch to vbscript also, markdmac has a great FAQ for doing this, much more powerful than bat files.

RoadKi11

 

[owaboy]

What does net use look like after you logon to a machine and it doesnt map as you hoped? "

- The shares that were suppsed to be mapped do not show up whatsoever in the net use output.

"I would also try changing the net use X: /delete to include the whole share like NET USE I: \\StorageSystem01\vol3 /delete and i would change /persistent:yes to /persistent:no so it disconnects the drives at logoff."

- It will not allow me to delete the mappings via the whole share name. I guess have the persistent:yes switch at the end is pointless, since it deletes the mappings upon logon (lol). I will make the change as you mentioned to persistent:no.

Can you link me to the FAQ that you had mentioned? I am interested in using VBscript instead.

Thanks for the help so far- everyone!

 

[Roadki11]

http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=5798