Question

Mapped Network Drives Disappear Randomly

Asked by: dianaluu

I have a windows 2003 R2 SP2 server that I'm using as a file server to store user home drives.  The files are all stored on a LUN  on an equallogic PS400E array.  The server is using a QLOGIC QLE4060C iSCSI hba with SANsurfer iSCSI HBA Manager software V 5.00.32 to connect to the LUN.

I have a handfull of clients that will randomly lose their mapped home drives, and when I say lose i mean they disappear completely. The funny thing is that none of the other mapped drives seem to be affected, nor does e-mail, internet connectivity, etc. The mapped drives that are unaffected are on other servers which leads me to think that the problem is server-side, however i'm confused as to why this would only be affecting 6-10 users out of 1100.

All workstations are running windows XP SP2
All network drives are being mapped via a KIX logon script

Here are the steps I have taken thus far:

Originally I thought the problem was due to the server running low on nonpaged pool memory (There were a few errors stating this in the event log) so I followed this microsoft KB to disable the SNP Features. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948496/  This has eliminated the errors in the eventlog, but users are still having their drives disappear.

I found that the power management option that allows windows to turn off the NIC card was enabled on some of the clients; I disabled it, but don't know if this has helped or not.  I'm skeptical that it will do anything because no other network reliant applications and no other network drives are being affected.

I checked the GPO to see if the "Hide and Disable all items on the Desktop" option is configured, it isn't

I've looked through event logs on the server and the clients and can't find anything that looks to be related.


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Asked On
2008-10-24 at 09:52:25ID23845243
Tags

Microsoft

,

Windows

,

2003 R2 SP2

,

File Server

Topics

File Servers

,

Windows 2003 Server

,

Windows XP Operating System

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Answers

 

by: ThorSG1Posted on 2008-10-24 at 19:54:46ID: 22801443

Check under disconnect network drive.  Is there an orphaned connection there?

 

by: fm250Posted on 2008-10-26 at 13:02:20ID: 22808520

Do they have domain accounts and is the share configured to have  same permissions as the others?

Also try to map them normaly with the option to reconnect next login. But before that disconnect every share from the same server and remap. hope this helps!

 

by: dianaluuPosted on 2008-10-27 at 07:59:41ID: 22813249

ThorSG1: There is no disconnected network drive, the drive actually disappears, there is no trace of it.

fm250: Yes they have domain accounts, permissions are set properly; the network drive maps properly, but will randomly disappear at some point during the day after they have already been using it.  it could happen after 20 minutes, or after 5 hours.  I have tried mapping them normally, but can't tell if this has made a difference or not, just because of how random these problems are (I haven't had any re-occurence of the issue on the clients that I have manually mapped for, but there again, i have had the issue just go away on clients that I haven't touched.)

 

by: fm250Posted on 2008-10-27 at 08:14:08ID: 22813387

Let's see if they gonna disappear after manually connected!!

One other thing to check is the scripts; so check carefully for any disccounnect command within them. or if any script that could have been set to run at some pointing time as this is wiered problem that doesn't seem to be a network one. if it was a network, you would see the drives but with no connection. I think there is something that trigger the discounnection.

 

by: ThorSG1Posted on 2008-10-27 at 14:33:50ID: 22817119

Is there anything common about the 6-10 users?  Are they on the same VLAN?  Same PC hardware?

It should not have anything to do with the disk array if you are not seeing any errors in the event log.  Nor the power management on you network card.  If it were you would be seeing a lot more issues with all your users.  It would not be a bad idea to leave the power management off though.

It also sounds like something native to the local computer or as fm250 said possibly a script issue.

Is your KIX script mapping via user groups?  Are the groups common between these 6-10 users?  Do they have a common group that others do not.  I have not worked with KIX for a few years so bear with me on that one.  Does your KIX script do any checking to see if the drive is attached already?  Are there any disconnect statements in the script?

Is there anything running in the users startup folder?

Are there any scheduled tasks on the client computers?

 

by: dianaluuPosted on 2008-10-28 at 07:28:46ID: 22822161

There is a disconnect statement in the script, but it comes before the line to map the drive; Is it even possible that this would cause the disconnect?  The other mapped drives are all mapped in the identical way and we aren't having any issues with any of them.

There's nothing running in the startup folders, and no scheduled tasks.

 

by: ThorSG1Posted on 2008-10-28 at 08:33:05ID: 22822909

Ok.  It shouldn't be that script then.  Do you only have one script that you are using for everyone or are you using different scripts?  Have you checked group policy to see if there is another script defined somewhere?

This is a very strange thing.  I've never heard of anything like this before.  I will keep looking though.  I appologize if I'm being redundant but just trying to troubleshoot out the possible causes.

So are there any common groups or anything common about there network settings?

 

by: dianaluuPosted on 2008-10-28 at 08:38:47ID: 22822985

Yes, I'm using one script for everyone.  There are no other scripts being pushed out through group policy.  I can't see any common groups between the users other than the domain users group which shouldn't be the culprit as not everyone is being affected.

 

by: ThorSG1Posted on 2008-10-28 at 09:28:50ID: 22823515

Are the computers running XP and what service pack are they running.  I saw a couple of posts about pre SP2 having an issue like this.

I also saw this post.  I'm not sure about this on though.

http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-11189-0.html?forumID=3&threadID=201287&messageID=2098646

I also saw some post about GP should not have this set: "Hide and disable all items on the desktop"

 

by: dianaluuPosted on 2008-10-28 at 13:56:19ID: 22826195

All the computers are running XP pro SP2. I had already disabled the autodisconnect timeout on the server, Although it should be unrelated as the drive just disappears rather than showing up as disconnected.  The Hide and disable all items on the desktop GP setting is also not configured.

 

by: ThorSG1Posted on 2008-10-29 at 05:10:02ID: 22830219

Can you post a piece of the login script.  If they are based on groups, all the drive mappings for that group.

I'm leaning towards it being something on the local computer.  All the posts I've read point to the local client.  Although I haven't found an answer to the problem in those posts.

 

by: dianaluuPosted on 2008-10-29 at 13:45:03ID: 22835484

This is the portion of the kix script that maps the most common drives for all users. There are a couple of other statments that say if in group x map drive y, but i'm not having any problems with those drive mappings and they are using different drive letters than the drive i'm having problems with, which is H:

USE P: /DELETE /PERSISTENT
USE R: /DELETE /PERSISTENT
USE S: /DELETE /PERSISTENT
USE H: /DELETE /PERSISTENT
USE H: "\\CRP-FILESRV-P02\user_homedir\@userid"
USE P: "\\FILESRV01\Public"
USE R: "\\FILESRV01\Apps"
USE S: "\\FILESRV01\Data"

 

by: ThorSG1Posted on 2008-10-29 at 20:24:13ID: 22837823

Everything looks good in the script.

See if anything in this post helps you.

http://www.kixtart.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=163005&fpart=1

 

by: ThorSG1Posted on 2008-11-04 at 14:52:43ID: 22881780

I also wanted to make sure you do not have the following in your script.

USE "*" /delete /persistent

 You may want to try to open a cmd shell from kix and try mapping via net use for that drive.  Making sure not to map it with the persistent switch.  This would show weather it is an issue with kix or not.

 

by: dianaluuPosted on 2008-11-05 at 08:55:43ID: 22887298

It's funny, that was one of the first posts that I looked at, not much in there that helped though.  I don't have that delete command anywhere in the login script.

I have a call in to microsoft right now, i'll update if they can help me out

 

by: ThorSG1Posted on 2008-11-05 at 14:55:24ID: 22890963

I've seen a lot of post about this problem but none of them seem to have found an answer to the problem.

I would like to see you try mapping H in your kix script by opening a cmd shell and then using the windows net use command.  That may shed some light on wheather it is something with kixtart or something else.  I know I saw a post on how to do that somewhere.  If you want to explorer that I can look for how to do that.  Let me know this has definitely been an interesting one.

 

by: dianaluuPosted on 2008-12-15 at 07:55:24ID: 23174522

i've been working with microsoft on this and still have come up short of an answer.

 

by: ThorSG1Posted on 2008-12-15 at 15:39:45ID: 23179257

Keep me posted.  I would like to know the resolution.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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