Can't run utilities/.exe's that use the network from a [DFS] windows share on Windows 2008 servers. Can this be overcome?
- by Jim Lawhon
Under Windows Server 2008 I'm unable to run many utilities that use network resources. This works just fine under Windows Server 2003.
For example:
\\domain\dfs\tools$\bin\sendmail.exe ...
\\domain\dfs\tools$\bin\psexec.exe ...
echo %_metric% %_value% %_unixtime% | \\domain\dfs\bin\foo$\nc graphite.domain 2003 -w1
Reproducing and maintaining this folder on a large number of servers/vm's is not desirable. Is there a way to allow Windows Server 2008 to run these tools? If so, can this be enabled via GPO or in a fashion that can be scripted during automated builds?
Edit: The commands/tools do work just fine, when run from local drives.
Edit2: Wget example:
d:\scripts\helpers>z:\bin\wget http://www.google.com
SYSTEM_WGETRC = c:/progra~1/wget/etc/wgetrc
syswgetrc = z:/etc/wgetrc
--2011-04-11 00:32:15-- http://www.google.com/
Resolving www.google.com... failed: Host not found.
z:\bin\wget: unable to resolve host address `www.google.com'
wget can neither use DNS to resolve the IP nor can it use HTTP if provided an IP directly.
Edit3: The problem seems to be tied to DFS/DFS shares. Tools run correctly from other normal windows-server file-shares. They also run correctly when run directly from the file-servers behind the DFS. They only fail when we attempt to run them from the DFS UNC path or mapped drives.
