New server licence -unable to reach network drive using drive letter

[Hamder83]

Hi

We recently bought a server licence, and we are trying to set it up so we are able to use our shared network drive, using a drive letter.
We have been in contact with billigence.com (the free consultant hours, included in the purchase). But they are literally not providing any help.

I can’t imagine we are the first server customer that has the need to access a network drive using a drive letter.

If we use the UNC address, it works, but we get access denied if we try using the drive letter.

If we use the local drive on the server, there is no issues.

We have tried with and without using run as. Both client and server user have the same rights to the drive.


Any ideas?

[gawa]

hi @Hamder83 

These are primitive things but.... 

1) Have you already done 'Network drive mapping' at computer where Alteryx Server is running? If not yet, that is the reason you cannot reach to that folder by specifying drive letter(Alteryx Server cannot resolve the name, such as G://document/... unless G drive is mapped to that folder).

2) If 1) is already done, please check the access permission of that folder: Need to give 'Read and/or Write' permission  from computer where Alteryx Server is running.

If the above two things do not solve your issue, can you can share the error message appeared on job result so we would be able to narrow down the issue. 

[fmvizcaino]

Hi @Hamder83 ,

The only thing I can think of is the mapped drive being created for a user and Alteryx server using another user to execute the file. 

You need to make sure the Run As user or service account have access to the mapped drive. You quick way of testing is to open your server`s Alteryx Designer as a different user (Run as or Service Account) and check if you can see the mapped drive.

Press and hold down the Shift key, and then right-click the executable file or the shortcut for the application, and then select Run as different user

Best,

Fernando Vizcaino

[Hamder83]

What we have done is create a small workflow that writes data to a network drive S.
This drive is accessible for both the local user and server users. Both the server admin and any other server user.
Same goes for the designer users.

I can access the drive S from the server designer with any user chosen, but if I publish the flow to gallery I get the error message:

[fmvizcaino]

Hi @Hamder83 ,

Check if you have a service account or a run-as account running your server workflows. My next guess is that you don`t have an account running your workflows and the local account doesn`t have access to this mapped drive you just created.

If you do have a service account or run-as user, I would try login in with this user and creating the mapped drive there as well.

Best,

Fernando Vizcaino

[Hamder83]

Hi @fmvizcaino  

I was told my the support that its simply not possible to use a network drive letter on the server.

Support wrote:

"We have received an update from our internal team that the Mapped drives aren't global and aren't accessible by logons other than the one that created it. This Microsoft page explains a bit more and recommends UNC as well: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/services/services-and-redirected-drives "

[fmvizcaino]

Thank you for sharing, @Hamder83 .

It looks like it is indeed not possible. Although I can see lots of posts about it everywhere. https://www.itprotoday.com/windows-78/how-can-i-map-driveport-all-new-users-machine-without-scripts-...

If you really need to have a mapped drive, I would try some of these suggestions available on the web.

Best,

Fernando Vizcaino