UNC Path Authentication w/Multiple Profiles

[habajaba]

I'm struggling to get 3 profiles to work together when all 3 try to access UNC paths on the same server.

I tried going to Job > Network Connections and specifying a user/pass that has access to the files on the remote machine. I checked "reconnect if existing connection is different" as well as "disconnect after finished." But I get the message "error connecting network drive.... multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using more than one user name, are not allowed." I also tried changing all 3 profiles to use unattented mode "always" to ensure they are all running under the account that runs ExtremeSync service. I've also tried setting all 3 profiles to "run as user" with the account info that my ExtremeSync service uses. I was thinking maybe something was accidentally using my active login for something. Still no luck...

What am I missing?

[superflexible]

This is a Windows problem, not a problem with our software. I am not the ultimate authority in Windows networking, but here's what I think.

Try to always use only one network username to connect to the server. You should not be connected with the server as one network user and have the service run jobs connecting as a different network user. In addition, all jobs have to connect with the same user name (or not connect at all, they can just use an existing connection).

However, if you are not using domain user accounts, then different local user accounts can use the same network user name to connect.

Anyway, Windows has become extremely picky about these constraints lately and I am seeing this error more often. Make sure you never use different network user names to connect to the server from the same machine.

Never use "Disconnect after finished" because that will cut off the network connection for the other jobs.

If you specify network connections in our software, specify just \\SERVERNAME rather than specific shares or folders.

A way to fix the issue may be to remove user names and passwords from Superflexible entirely. Then log in as a person with the user account that the service uses. Then connect to the server with Windows Explorer, making sure it will remember the user name and password. After that, the service should be able to access the server.

I also wrote a small tool specifically for this error. It will show you the existing network connections. It is sometimes very surprising what this tool spits out:
http://www.superflexible.com/NetEnum.zip

Try to get rid of any separate connections to the same server. There needs to be only one connection to \\SERVERNAME, not any connections to specific shares or folders.

[habajaba]

I'm still a bit confused... I am running SFFS as a service. I have created a limited permission account for it to run under. This account is non-domain (local) with a name/password that match across all systems being synced. Some of the machines that I'm syncing are not a part of the domain, so I created this new local account on all systems. Because of this, it shouldn't matter what account I am currently logged in with because the service is running out on it's own. Right?

The ExtremeSync windows service uses the same "filesync" account as I am specifying under Job > Network Connections. So as far as the system is concerned, the user "filesync" is only making network connections from within SFFS. No one has ever logged in with that account, so I know there is nothing mapped manually in explorer.

I tried your NetEnum tool, but it only showed the drives mapped under my user name in Windows Explorer. Not any of the shares we're using within SFFS. I think this confirms that SFFS is using the "filesync" user account to do this mapping.

I updated the info under Job > Network Connections and only put the \\machinename on each profile. I also unchecked "disconnect after finished." Still no luck.

[superflexible]

I tried your NetEnum tool, but it only showed the drives mapped under my user name in Windows Explorer. Not any of the shares we're using within SFFS.

Shares are irrelevant. If you are connected to any share on the same server that an SFFS job needs to connect to, then you may have to give SFFS the same network user name that you are using as a person. It can run as a different account, but under Network Connections, you should probably give it an account that you are using as a person too. You need to verify that the network user name works in Windows Explorer.

I would suggest logging in as a person using the filesync account and trying to connect to these shares using Windows Explorer.

Giving SFFS a separate user account makes things more difficult. If you can't get it to work, re-read my initial reply and try some of the other strategies.

Do a Google search for "multiple connections to a server". The Internet is full of people having problems with this.

It is not related to our software in any way.

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q="multiple+connections+to+a+server"

About 110,000 results.

[habajaba]

I figured out the issue. When I would change a profile, SFFS was kicking off the process as the user currently logged in. I had to explicitly cancel that and right click the profile > Run In Background in order to get it to run under the ExtremeSync service as the user "filesync." This way, I was able to remove all the Job login settings and all profiles now work!

It might be useful in the future to have the option to always run a profile under the ExtremeSync service.