Question

Windows 2008 Group policies vs. login scripts for a Netware dude.

Asked by: tcampbell_nc

I am a long time Netware Engineer (since the 2.12 days).

I have been converting one of my customers from NetWare 6.5 to Windows 2008.  I am at the point now, where I have to start moving shared directories from the Netware servers to Windows servers.  Netware is still the primary interface for the users and I am mapping to the Windows servers using batch files called by the Novell login script.

I have been looking at login scripts for Windows servers (VBS) and .... damn.... Netware is simple.  Then, today, I took a serious look at the Group Policy Management and am torn.  I like a good old linear login script that performs actions based on who the user is and to which groups they belong.  The VBS answer to this is horribly complicated (to the point of making me desire some for of ethanol) compared to the quick scripts that I have used in NetWare envoronments.  The Group Policy method seems to have it's own completities in that, when there is a problem, you can't simply look at the script and find why a mapped drive is not showing up.

I am looking for opintions regarding the best / preferred method of accomplishing some basic login tasks.....

1. Map shared drives to everyone.
2. If a "member of" a particular group (acct, payroll, hr, etc), then map special shared locations.

I also like the Group policy approach to printers and desktop policies, so I may go that route assuming I can figure it all out.  Can a particular user be a member of more than one group , and, thus, have multiple group ploicies?

Thanks for the opinions.  I'll probably let this request stand for about a week and then figure out the direction to take.  

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Asked On
2009-10-29 at 14:13:34ID24856320
Tags

Windows 2008 Server Netware login script group policy

Topics

Windows Server 2008

,

Novell Netware Network Software

,

Active Directory

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Answers

 

by: mkline71Posted on 2009-10-29 at 14:18:13ID: 25698367

Even with a VBS for mapped drives that is many times done through a login script using a group policy.

Since you are using 2008 you can use Group Policy Preferences for this.  Have you seen this article from the DS team

http://blogs.technet.com/askds/archive/2009/01/07/using-group-policy-preferences-to-map-drives-based-on-group-membership.aspx

Using Group Policy Preferences to Map Drives Based on Group Membership

You can use item level targetting for the groups.  Yes a user can be a member of multiple groups.

Thanks

Mike

 

by: Seatown1984Posted on 2009-10-29 at 15:43:29ID: 25698958

Group Policy Perefernces are pretty simple to use, although, I have found some difficulty updating previous mapped drives. I typically assign a Delete Action at first and build the appropriate drives in order after that. When using item level targeting you can specifiy a variety of options for deploying the mapped drives (computer name, security group). For example, when users log into our terminal server (based on their security group) they get a different set of mapped drives then their personal computer.

Also you can deploy printer using GP via the management console or printer and document services server role. Not really sure which one is easier but they both work effectivley. To deploy via server role just install printer and right click and select deploy, select the OU and GPO, and assign the group or computer. For group policy mmc find appropriate GPO and located shared printer and deploy.

 

by: deroodePosted on 2009-10-30 at 00:35:33ID: 25700741

For login script processing you should consider Kixtart

http://www.kixtart.org/

With kixtart you have a similar login script capabilities as with eDirectory. We use it primarily for mapping shared drives and creating printer connections, but it can do much more.

See the example

If Ingroup ("Payroll")
  Addprinterconnection ("\\server\PR-payroll-1")
  Use P: ("\\server\DATA-payroll")
Endif
                                              
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2:
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4:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: tcampbell_ncPosted on 2009-10-30 at 19:41:07ID: 25708123

OK.

Three responses so far, and none are recommending VBS scripting.  

I guess that is a good indication that VBS is a bad idea.

 

by: mspieglerPosted on 2009-11-04 at 16:52:02ID: 25745834

1. To map shared drives for everyone this might be the easiest way:
use \\domaincontroller\netlogon to store your 'mapdrives.vbs'
When creating the user accounts, under the profile make their logon script mapdrives.vbs
Here's a good script example:
http://computerperformance.co.uk/Logon/Logon_HomeDirAdv.htm

After that use GPO's to do other scripts... or if you need to do different scripts for different sets of users then you can set it up like containers in Novell except they're OU's in AD.

I.e.
You're OU might be  ou=Business Users,ou=Site1, dc=domain, dc=com (or looking at users and computers in AD would look more like domain.com->Site1->Business Users)
In Novell would be BusinessUsers.Site1.Tree

Instead of creating a login script under Business Users, you'd create a group policy there and add your scripts to user configuration->windows settings->scripts->logon

Trying to remember exactly how Novell did it.. It's been a while. :)

2. OK... To do member of in AD is kind of different but easy. Say you have a file server on the domain... It's called 'DOMAIN-SHARE'.. On this server you'd create folders for different departments or groups or whatever, create groups in AD with the same name and then assign these groups permissions on the folders on the file share...

I.e.
You have Business Users, HR Users and Staff Users....
In AD create groups called something like:
Shares-BusinessUsers
Shares-HRUsers
Shares-StaffUsers
Add the users to the right groups..
Log on to your file server.. DOMAIN-SHARES
create folders on a drive called Shares-BusinessUsers Shares-HRUsers, etc and use the File resource manager or right click->properties->security and add the groups you created to the corresponding folder with whichever rights (read/write/modify/full control/etc).

At that point whichever users are in the groups have access to \\DOMAIN-SHARES\FolderName
You just have to map the drives with a script for them at that point.

There are surely many other ways of doing this but trying to come up with one you can relate to.. :)

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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