Accessing Novell Netware volumes from Windows 2003 server

[Chris Severin]

Hi,

This is actually a Windows 2003 issue, but I didn't know where best to post
it, so I put it here.

I have a page on an ASP.NET website running .NET 2.0 on a Windows 2003
server that needs to access a file on a Novell Netware 6.5 server. The
Windows 2003 server has the Novell client installed and the server itself can
see all the mapped Novell drives (they appear in the My Computer window).

However, when the webpage tries to access a file on one of the Novell
Netware volumes, it gets the message "Could not find part of a path".

Does anyone have any idea what's happening? I'll admit I'm a newbie when it
comes to IIS and web administration, so any help you can give me will be most
appreciated!

Thanks very much!

Chris.

 

[Phillip Windell]

Probably can't use mapped drives because the mapped drive is based on the
locally logged in user on the Web Server which is *Not* the Account that the
ASP code runs under.

You will probably have to use a UNC path,...possibly even with the IP#
instead of the machine name,...and that is assuming the Novell setup is
using TCP/IP and not IPX/SPX.

The location on the Novell Server will have to allow *anonymous* access to
the file.
If it can't allow anonymous access then you will have to create a Novell
User Account that is named exactly the same as the local "IUSR_<servername>"
on the Web Server and the passwords will have to be synced manually.
Because there is no way to know the original password for the
IUSR_<servername> Account you will have to manually reset it to something
you know and record it. You will also have to correct the Account's
password in the IIS Application after you do this or everything in IIS will
quit working.

In case it isn't obvious yet,...what you want to do is a bad idea. The
correct way to access Files from an ASP site is by having the Files within
the "web path" of the Site. You might be able to do that with Virtual
Folders in IIS but you may still run into similar Authentication issues.


--
Phillip Windell
www.wandtv.com

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft,
or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.

 

[Chris Severin]

Hi Phillip,

Thanks for getting back to me. I will take your suggestion about moving the
files I need from the Novell drive to my web server so they will be local to
the web site. However, my users need to access these files outside of the
web site. The files are Microsoft Word documents and the users need to edit
them in Word which is why they are currently on a Novell drive. If I move
them to my Windows 2003 server, how will my users access them? Will I need
to set up a shared directory?

Thanks again.

C.

 

[Phillip Windell]

Hi Phillip,

Thanks for getting back to me. I will take your suggestion about moving
the
files I need from the Novell drive to my web server so they will be local
to
the web site. However, my users need to access these files outside of the
web site. The files are Microsoft Word documents and the users need to
edit
them in Word which is why they are currently on a Novell drive. If I move
them to my Windows 2003 server, how will my users access them? Will I
need
to set up a shared directory?

The Web Server has to be on the same LAN as the users. Yes, you will have to
create a share. You might be able to do things better with a full blown
Sharepoint setup, but I don't know much about Sharepoint. With a normal web
site, this is the best I can think of.

With ours I just run IIS on the File Server.

--
Phillip Windell
www.wandtv.com

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft,
or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
-----------------------------------------------------
Understanding the ISA 2004 Access Rule Processing
http://www.isaserver.org/articles/ISA2004_AccessRules.html

Troubleshooting Client Authentication on Access Rules in ISA Server 2004
http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/1/8/918ed2d3-71d0-40ed-8e6d-fd6eeb6cfa07/ts_rules.doc

Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration Server: Partners
http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/partners/default.asp

Microsoft ISA Server Partners: Partner Hardware Solutions
http://www.microsoft.com/forefront/edgesecurity/partners/hardwarepartners.mspx
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