Guy’s Scripting Ezine 31 – Map Network Drive – Part 2

Guy’s Scripting Ezine 31 – Map Network Drive part 2

• This Week’s Secrets
• Example 1 – Map Two Network Drives
• Example 2 – Handling Dollar Signs
• Example 3 – Map Network Drive Permissions
• Summary

This Week’s Secret

Until I researched MapNetworkDrive, I had forgotten just how many ‘arguments’ and variations there are.  In fact I have unearthed so many examples that I have delayed the RemoveNetworkDrive and EnumNetworkDrives methods until another day.

As usual, I will show you more than just one technique.  As ever, my goal is to widen your scripting horizons with worked examples.

Guy Recommends: The Free IP Address Tracker (IPAT)

Calculating IP Address ranges is a black art, which many network managers solve by creating custom Excel spreadsheets.  IPAT cracks this problem of allocating IP addresses in networks in two ways:

For Mr Organized there is a nifty subnet calculator, you enter the network address and the subnet mask, then IPAT works out the usable addresses and their ranges. 

For Mr Lazy IPAT discovers and then displays the IP addresses of existing computers. Download the Free IP Address Tracker

Example 1 –  Map Two Network Drives

The idea is to map two shares with one script.  Naturally, each share is assigned to a different drive letter.

Instructions

1. Copy and paste the script into notepad.  Alternatively, use a script editor like VBsEdit.
2. Find my server called ALAN and change to the name of YOUR server.  Also edit the following share names, Drivers and also Sports Share.
3. Save the file with .vbs extension e.g. TwoMap.vbs
4. Double click and observe drive letters in explorer.  What you are looking for is the M:\ and a P:\.
5. If you get errors, check that you have amended the object names alan or home.  If you still get Code 800xxxxx message boxes, pay close attention to the commas and speech marks on the second line.

Learning Points

Note 1: There are a surprising number of traps when mapping multiple drives.  The central point is that each new drive letter has its own line.

objNetwork.MapNetworkDrive DriveLetter2, RemotePath2

You could repeat the above line for each share you want to map, provided you change the DriveLetter2 and RemotePath2.  Mistakes arise where people get too clever and try to map 6 drives all on one line.

Note 2: From a scripting point of view, you make do with just one objNetwork which you recycle.  It is not necessary to Set objNetwork1, objNetwork2 for each drive, just recycle the one variable – objNetwork.

Note 3: Although I disapprove, it is possible to use share names with spaces.  This script will run provided you have NT, XP or W2K Pro clients.  (No Window 9x thank you.)

Note 4: In passing, in this script I have not prefixed the string values with str.  To be consistent, I should have called it strDriveLetter1.  Could this be Guy’s way of showing variety in the naming variables, or it could be an excuse that I have been an ‘idle toad’?

• See much more about Map Network Drives Here

Guy Recommends:  A Free Trial of the Network Performance Monitor (NPM) v11.5

SolarWinds’ Orion performance monitor will help you discover what’s happening on your network.  This utility will also guide you through troubleshooting; the dashboard will indicate whether the root cause is a broken link, faulty equipment or resource overload.

What I like best is the way NPM suggests solutions to network problems.  Its also has the ability to monitor the health of individual VMware virtual machines.  If you are interested in troubleshooting, and creating network maps, then I recommend that you try NPM now.

Download a free trial of Solarwinds’ Network Performance Monitor

Example 2 –  Handling Dollar Signs

Sometimes you may need to map to a hidden share.  Where you have the classic UNC path, you can add the dollar sign directly to the share, just use the $ symbol in the same way as any other character.  However, if you wish to map to a third level, then you need a different technique.  For example \\ alan\home\Daniel$ will be covered in Example 2b.

Example 2a

strHomeServer = "\\ alan\Daniel$"

My point is that for this example, there is no need to specifically join the dollar to the rest of the name with an ampersand.

strHomeServer = "\\ alan\Daniel"    ‘  Then followed by

strHomeServer = strHomeServer & "$" ‘  Would be laborious.
 

Naturally, you need a share called Daniel$ for this to work.

Learning Points

Note 1: Where ever possible – Keep the script simple.

Guy Recommends:  SolarWinds’ Free Bulk Import Tool

Import users from a spreadsheet.  Just provide a list of the users with their fields in the top row, and save as .csv file.  Then launch this FREE utility and match your fields with AD’s attributes, click and import the users.

Optionally, you can provide the name of the OU where the new accounts will be born. Download your FREE bulk import tool.

If you need more comprehensive software, download a free trial of SAM (Server & Application Monitor)

Example 2b The More complex three part strHomeServer

Remember the most important lesson from last week was that you can only map to the UNC path.  So your final script depends on whether you are dealing with \\ alan\home\Daniel$ or the shorter "\\ alan\Daniel$".   In also depends whether the share is on the home folder or the Daniel folder.

Learning Points

Note 1: If you are getting into a pickle with the three levels and the dollar sign, then go back to basics.  Create a normal two level servername, sharename script and then gradually add complexity.

• See much more about Map Network Drives Here

Example 3 – Map a network drive permissions.

Occasionally, I get letters from people wishing to map a drive, but their script fails because the share permissions do not allow the current user to create the drive mapping.  Personally, I would rather alter the share permissions so that the original script ran as designed.  My other fear is exposing the administrator’s password – even in a script that the users will not see.

Nevertheless, adding username and password make for an interesting project, because this introduces more arguments; and do like collecting switches, arguments and methods.

Instructions

This time I am using the str prefix for the string variables, so it should be easy for you to spot the places where you need to amend the script to suit your network.

Learning Points

Note 1: strProfile is needed otherwise there are not enough ‘arguments’ and you get a ‘Type Mismatch’ error.  In my minds eye, the script needs the third argument if it will to go on and read the strUser and strPassword.  I know, it is curious that the script will work with just the first two variables.

Note 2: This is the week of trying out new ideas. Just for fun I used a different method to create my beloved message box.  Did you spot the construction?   Another surprise was that .popup is a property of Shell objects not network object.  That is why I created a special shell object = objPopUp rather than reused objNetwork.popup.

Summary

MapNetworkDrive has a surprising number of arguments, twists and turns, perhaps that is why this logon script method is so versatile and ubiquitous.

See more about logon scripts

• Logon Arguments  • Logon Map Network Drive  • Logon Scripts  • PowerShell Com Shell

• Ezine 3 Map Network Drive  • Ezine 4 Logon  • Tool Kit  • Import Users From AD – Free CSVDE Tool

• Ezine 25 map  • Ezine 30 Map Simple  • Ezine 31 Mapnetworkdrive  • Ezines  • PowerShell Logon Scripts