Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of Exchange User
Exchange User

asked on

Moving Files servers to DFS

Hi all,

We are planning to move our file servers which are at 2003, 2008 and 2008 R2 to 2012 R2 DFS solution. The problem is that all our network drives are mapped according to user groups using a software KiXtart to which I am not aware of. This was done by a guy probably 7 8 years ago.

So I need suggestions, do I make a new mapping drive letters to user groups system ? Using powershell? If yes, how will be the best way ?

Or should I stick with kiXtart and try to learn it. In KiXtart, we have it as

If InGroup ("domain\group name")
Use D: "\\servername\sharename$"
endif
and it continues for about 14 drives.

Thanks all.
Avatar of Mark Galvin
Mark Galvin
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

Hi

I used KiXtart for many years before Microsoft introduced Drive Maps in Group Policy and now i use that for all my clients that use DFS Drives.

Depending on the number of users/drives you are talking about here, it may take a little time to get in place but once it is, it will work very well.

Thanks
Mark
Avatar of Exchange User
Exchange User

ASKER

Hi Mark,

One is like a Public drive that has to be mapped for 1000+ users. The rest of the drives are usually by department, such as accounts, finance,sales with roughly 100+ users in sales for example. So GPOs will work fine in that ?
Hi

Absolutely. How many Domain Controllers do you have?

For the public drive setup a GPO as high in the AD tree so that it covers all users and set the drive map for that one drive.

Then for each department, set a new GPO for each one, set the drive maps and then apply the GPO to Departmental Groups etc.
5 DCs in total. 2 in HQ, 2 in DR site and 1 in the Western branch. Altogether we have 13 branches. But 70% of users are in HQ and DR.

So I cannot do them all in one GPO ? I was just reading about an 'Inclusive Drive Mapping' in which they assign drives to AD security groups using GPO ?
Haven't ever used  'Inclusive Drive Mapping'  so cant comment.

I presume you are using GPO for other settings currently? If so, do you have one for each Department?

KiXTart was great for writing one script that used if clauses stating if a user was a member of XXXX AD group then give them access to drives1, 2 &7 etc.
GPOs are mostly general for all user settings in the company. Files and network access levels are controlled by KiXtart login scripts. So this would probably be the first time for me.
Can you put in copy of one of the Kix scripts (having removed ll private info) here so that I can see what your Kix script is doing currently?
This is all it is doing. It is going on and on for 21 times, each time with a different drive letter and group and share name.

If InGroup ("domain\group name")
Use A: "\\servername\sharename$"
endif
If InGroup ("domain\group name")
Use B: "\\servername\sharename$"
endif
If InGroup ("domain\group name")
Use C: "\\servername\sharename$"
endif
And in the login scrip batch file, we have it like this

\\DC\netlogon\kix32.exe \\DC\netlogon\login.kix
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Mark Galvin
Mark Galvin
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Thanks alot for your time and suggestions !