UNC paths of fileshares vs SharePoint

Hi,
I have some ASP.NET code on a page (see below for the URL) that basically reads the querystring parameter "source" from the URL and the "source" is always a UNC path location. What this code is doing is basically taking an Excel
file from a UNC Path location and converting into an Image file on the fly. Now, my code works fine if I provide a UNC path location to a file hosted on a file share. However, if I provide a UNC path location to a file hosted on sharePoint document library,
My code doesn't work. I am so confused as how SharePoint UNC paths are different than fileshare UNC paths.
http://mysite/Default.aspx?source=UNCPath
Please help.

Oke... I assumed mysite refers to the mysite environment of SharePoint....but you are talking about a server-name that is not within your SharePoint farm.
First of all: Microsoft is not really delivering a UNC path to a file.... it is more a "emulator" that delivered the same behavior.
So on the "mysite"/asp server server the webclient service needs to be running so it can connect to to that "emulated way of unc hosting.
Of course the connection from this "mysite" server to the SharePoint server must be open. (in ways of port firewalls. I'm not sure witch ports exactly is used, but it is not or not only the default file share ports)
Did you also check if the file unc path is working for a regular user? and did you check it with the same username as the "mysite" service account is using? (as in not all set ups the accounts are impersonating)
(please forgive me if a advice is lost in translation, English is not my native language)
Michiel Hamers www.SharePointman.nl Don't hesitate to contact me for a SharePoint/O365 question.

Similar Messages

Accessing UNC paths programmatically

Hi,
I have a URL in the following format:
http://mysite/Default.aspx?source=UNCPathtoaresource
The Querystring parameter "source" always points to a UNC path location.
Now, the issue is, if I provide a UNC path to a resource on fileshare, everything works fine. However,
if i provide a UNC Path to resource on SharePoint document library then the URL does not render anything.
How is SharePoint UNC path different than fileshare UNC Path? what makes it inaccessible?
Thanks,

Hi Cooltechie,
Thanks for posting your issue,
You can achieve the same implementation using JS script. below is the URL that has code snippet can be used for this implementation. Checkout if this is easy implementation for your requirement.
http://spjsblog.com/category/document-library/
I hope this is helpful to you. If this works, Please mark it as Answered.
Regards,
Dharmendra Singh (MCPD-EA | MCTS)
Blog : http://sharepoint-community.net/profile/DharmendraSingh

Unc path and authentication

hello,
i installed share point 2013 on 2008 r2 server (no domain) i want to make user permision so they can open list passed thier permission so can i do it with out dc ?
also i want to enable unc patch so the client can brows the files from windows explorer as share folder.
thanks.

The problem is that the local account is "local" and won't be the same account as the one used by the user on their workstation. If the server is a member of the domain then the domain account is shared between the SharePoint server and the workstation
because both validate the account credentials with the same Domain Controller.
If you are authenticated to the SharePoint server then you should be able to map a UNC path to a document library. This does however require some add-ons that are normally installed by Office. I've seen lots of issues with people having a 64
bit of office installed and not having the addons needed to open a UNC path.
Paul Stork SharePoint Server MVP
Principal Architect: Blue Chip Consulting Group
Blog: http://dontpapanic.com/blog
Twitter: Follow @pstork
Please remember to mark your question as "answered" if this solves your problem.

SharePoint 2013 Media Player using UNC path directly without using a Website in IIS (either out of the box or custom player using javascript only)

Hi,
There isn't much info on this and I am hoping its possible.
I have come across the following article which explains how we can setup SharePoint 2013 Asset Library using video links using a website in IIS that is mapped to a UNC path.
http://stevemannspath.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/sharepoint-2013-videos-in-sharepoint.html
This is great. However we have an issue where I work and I need somehow to get SharePoint mediaplayer to point to a video directly using the UNC path like :- \\WINSP13\TempVideos\NTV_Carr_Indig.wmv without the use of a website in IIS.
I understand that we won't be able to stream the video then thats ok.
when trying to add a video link to an asset library using the UNC path, we get the following error: We don't support
playing a video of that format from a file share.
Is there a way or a workaround to do this? we are using only javascript to do this (AngularJS or any custom Javascript player such as MediaElement)
Thanks
Kind Regards,
Will

From a SharePoint architecture perspective, this is a BAD design, since you are rerouting the communications (from the client to the UNC) away from and outside of SharePoint... as a result, SP cannot provide any level of guarantee about the ability for videos
to play on the client machine.
Secondarily, I'm not sure that the browser will let you pull resources from such different locations (doing so has been the root of several type of attacks, such as "Cross Site Scripting").
That said (and assuming the browser lets you), you can always use JS to handle creating the video player HTML and setting the UNC location... instead of using a site asset library to store the links, just create a list for the videos
Scott Brickey
MCTS, MCPD, MCITP
www.sbrickey.com
Strategic Data Systems - for all your SharePoint needs

Browsing Unc Path from sharepoint application

I have a link which will open an unc path in a separate window. I have used simple window.location to open that. But it is not working on NON-IE browser..
Can anyone help me on that?
Thanks in Advance..

>> Any of the above works fine for IE. But it does not work in Mozilla/Google
Chrome..
This means that it is not a SharePoint related question, but one of cross-browser compatibility. See here for a similar question where a comment classifies the perceived "correct" behaviour as a security hole: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19030432/how-do-you-open-a-file-folder-through-a-link-on-website-in-firefox-and-chrome
cheers, teylyn

Sharepoint 2013 Does not open files using UNC path from Server

Hi All,
Just setup our new 2013 sharepoint intranet site , I tried adding a hyperlink to a document stored on our server using a UNC path file://servername/share/filename.doc but when i click on it it takes me to a blank Webpage in a new tab.
I have turned on "open client applications" in the site collection features hoping that would help ....buuuuuut it did not.
Also tried variations in the UNC path eg: \\servername\share\filename.doc etc..
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

Open start run > type > file://servername/share/filename.doc Does this works
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/sharepoint/en-US/63b229de-ce4a-42be-b209-2c0f33d4b0d5/problem-opening-an-access-file-from-a-unc-file-link-in-sharepoint?forum=sharepointgeneralprevious
Actually the problem I described is an Internet Explorer issue and I will try to get resolution in the appropriate forum. IE exhibits the described behavior whether the link is in a Sharepoint site page, or in a regular non-Sharepoint web page.
Mozilla does not have the issue.
Check below:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/3f2c34cc-5686-4e03-ba26-092aaa29ff33/link-from-document-library-to-unc-path
If this helped you resolve your issue, please mark it Answered

Link from Document Library to UNC Path

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to create a link from a document library to a UNC path?
I need to establish links to resources in an existing document repository, but Sharepoint presents the following message when attempting to add the link "Enter a valid document name and URL. Valid URLs must begin with 'http:' or 'https:'"
Thanks in advance.
Dave

Following are the steps to achieve this.
1) Create a site content type of type "link to a document" with "Document" as a parent content type.
2) Add the same to the document library.
3) Go in the layouts folder open newlink.aspx in Visual Studio IDE
4) add the following function to the script tag
Code Snippetfunction HasValidUrlPrefix_Override(url)
            var urlLower=url.toLowerCase();
            if (-1==urlLower.search("^http://") &&
            -1==urlLower.search("^https://") && -1==urlLower.search("^file://"))
            return false;
            return true;
5) Replace "HasValidUrlPrefix" to "HasValidUrlPrefix_Override" in the newlink.aspx
6) IISReset and when adding a link to a file share. It shoudl be done in the following format "file://\\{ComputerName}\\}FileName}" it should work
7) Change the wss resource file present in app_globalresources to show the following message "Enter a valid document name and URL. Valid URLs must begin with 'http:' or 'https:' or 'file://'"
Hope this should help.
Regards,
Mayur

Beware UNC path syntax for shared dirs used in a windows cluster!

This seems to be an undocumented but vital piece of information:
If you are setting up a Windows based cluster and you are using UNC paths
to identify the shared file locations for IntradocDir (Instance Dir), Vault dir
and Weblayout dir, please start your paths with 4 backslashes!
For instance, if you are putting your share on \\MYNAS\share\cs
The paths as configured in the intradoc.cfg should follow this pattern:
IntradocDir=\\\\MYNAS/share/cs
VaultDir=\\\\MYNAS/share/cs/vault
WeblayoutDir=\\\\MYNAS/share/cs/weblayout
Now, the documentation, if read carefully, will lead you to believe starting
with two forward slashes will work.
In other words, like this:
IntradocDir=//MYNAS/share/cs
And on an initial system start, it may even seem good to go, BUT BEWARE!
When using only the forward slashes, at least two problems may arise:
1. Any custom component which use java and therefore require a classpath may
fail to load their classes. This will result in ClassNotFound exceptions
when class loading is attempted.
2. OracleTextSearch may not be able to index files and you will see "oit" errors
in the log.
This may be jvm and windows version specific but I noticed this on Windows server 2008 R2
using the JRockit 64 bit jvm.

As mentioned above I spotted Shadow Copy configuration problems in clustered environment on Windows 2012 R2 with latest updates.
Enabling Shadow Copy via Cluster Manager on disk will enable schedule and snapshots but schedule is not-cluster aware (is created locally on node) and "Previous Versions" are visible only locally but not via shared folders (UNC path accesible by
clients)
When I spotted this behavior I tried different way going via Computer Management and cluster resource name but console always hangs for me when using "Configure Shadow Copies". After many minutes configuration window is opened (Hurray!) but any
action there will hang whole console again. Enabling Shadow Copies will fail with "0x80004005: Unspecified
error" for creating scheduled task but "Next Run Time" column still shows "Disabled". Checking disk resource via Cluster Manager shows it is enabled and ?local? scheduled task is created.
Computer management console still shows DISABLED and any action freezes whole console (only when cluster resource name is used).
This fix I found, unfortunately, is not applicable to 2012 R2 OS: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2894464
To sum up there is a major bug in MS implementation in Shadow Copies for Shared Folders when clustering is used or it is still not supported in 2012 R2? Doing it outside cluster works as it should (without freezes and Previous Versions are available via
UNC)
There is no documentation about FileServer Clustering on 2012(R2) unfortunately.
Could someone from MS clarify it?
Many thanks
Filip
EDIT:
Ok, one correction:
Scheduled task is not created in "Failover Clustering" hive of Scheduled tasks as user may expect but failover of fileshare to other node will unregister/reregister it on active node only.

UNC Path is not valid or does not have write permissions

Hi,
I've just downloaded the MVMC 3.0 SA as well as the admin guide. My environment is the following setup:
- Windows Server 2012 R2 as Hyper-V (SRV-1-011-HypV1, not domainjoined!)
- Windows Server 2012 R2 as VM SRV-1-011-HypV1 (SRV-1-030-DC01, Domaincontroller)
- Windows Server 2012 R2 as VM for Conversion with MVMC 3.0 hosted on SRV-1-011-HypV1 (SRV-1-032-File1, not domainjoined!)
- VMWare ESXi 4.1, where the source VM resides (stone001)
I've completed the wizard for converting a VM to Hyper-V and I'm Stuck at the Summary Check:
"Blocking Issue(s):
1: UNC Path '\\srv-1-011-hypv1\Converted' is not valid or does not have write permissions."
From the admin guide this is described as Issue number 2:
The machine, on which you are running the conversion, and the destination Hyper-V host are not members of the same Active Directory
domain.
Ensure that the machine on which you are running the conversion and the destination Hyper-V host are members of the same Active Directory
domain.
SRV-1-011-HypV1 and SRV-1-032-File1 are both Member of the "Workgroup" and are not domain joined. Right now, it is impossible to join the
Hyper-V host to its VM-hosted Domain due to the required system restart at the domain join, while domain is going to be shut down. How can this issue be resolved?
Further: Is there any conflict known operating MVMC from the destination Hyper-V host itself? Will the issue occur in this scenario too, as long as
the hyper-V has not joined the domain?
Kind regards
S.Kuemmel

Hi,
in my case it worked when the Server(-VM) on which we installed the MVMC AND the target-file server were joined to the domain.
We also created a domain account, which has write-permissions to the target fileshare. We used this domain account for logon on the MVMC-machine and for running the MVMC Wizard.
Hope that helps
Regards
Robert

Full path and filename in wwv_flow_files after upload from UNC path in IE

I have a page with a file browse item. After page submit I move the file from wwv_flow_files to another table.
Normally the column wwv_flow_files.filename only contains the filename. However, when using IE9 and selecting a file from an UNC path the column contains the full path+filename.
Does anybody have an idea what happens here?
How can I make sure I only get the filename?
Using Apex 4.02.007
Edited by: Rene W. on Feb 28, 2013 6:39 AM

Rene W. wrote:
I have a page with a file browse item. After page submit I move the file from wwv_flow_files to another table.
Normally the column wwv_flow_files.filename only contains the filename. However, when using IE9 and selecting a file from an UNC path the column contains the full path+filename.
Does anybody have an idea what happens here?
How can I make sure I only get the filename?For security/privacy reasons recent versions of browsers by default do not send local file path information from File Browse items to the server, nor expose the file path in the control's JavaScript methods. Firefox, Safari and Chrome only provide the filename. IE6 & IE7 still yield the path in Windows format. IE8+ and Opera have adopted an irritating approach of replacing the path with a wholly imaginary "C:\fakepath\"—and this monstrosity has sadly had to be enshrined in the HTML spec. A reasonably compatible way to strip the path in JS is provided there, or you should be able to do it fairly easily in PL/SQL when moving the file.
The fact you are getting the full path suggests that the IE security config setting "Include local directory path when uploading files" (or IE9 equivalent) is used in your browser/environment to enable the path to be exposed in IE. This may be necessary to support dismal legacy applications. Consult whoever is responsible for browser security configuration at your site to see why/if this setting is necessary.

Creating a symlink directory on a network share to a path below a mapped drive letter, local path, or UNC path does not work

Am I correct in assuming I can not create a `symlinkd` to a network share, local path, or a UNC path on a network share that will be accessible by clients?
###Mapped drive letters don't work:
1) navigate to a network share:
pushd \\windows2008server\share\
2) make a hardlink:
mklink /d test_sharedir t:\directory\
dir .\test_sharedir
#Directory of Z:\test_sharedir
#File Not Found
UNC paths don't work:
1) navigate to a network share:
pushd \\windows2008server\share\
2) make a symlink:
mklink /d test_dirunc \\windows2008server\share
dir .\test_dirunc
#Directory of Z:\test_dirunc
#File Not Found
I can create a functional `symlinkd` on a local drive to a mapped drive letter or a UNC path.
Are my assumptions above correct?
We are in the middle of a migration and have created two symlinkd to UNC paths for shared DLLs, one below c:\windows\system32\ (directing to a share containing 64-bit DLLs) and one below c:\windows\syswow64 (directing to a share containing 32-bit DLLs).
On the file server, we have had a path to 32-bit DLLs (from Windows 7 clients: s:\dll\). I am attempting to rename this directory so that it is accessible via "s:\dll32\" and would like to create a symlinkd that links "s:\dll" to
"s:\dll32" [again where S: is a mapped drive on a Windows 2008 server]. How do I do this?
Thanks,
Matt

Hello Mandy,
The link you sent me is for Netapp CIFS server daemon contained within DataOnTap (the Netapp OS) to follow symlinks. I am inquiring about the Microsoft products Windows Server and Windows 7.
To gain a better understanding of the Microsoft Windows Server and client (Windows) CIFS stacks and interaction of the stacks, I have referred to Figure 6 "Server Message Block Server Model" within the following (albeit older) document: http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/8/0/2800a518-7ac6-4aac-bd85-74d2c52e1ec6/tuning.doc
You will see the following:
I assume that the Windows Server CIFS server service must be "smart enough" to determine that a CIFS client is attempting access to a SYMLINKD and actually fill the request by following the SYMLINKD. The CIFS server service does not appear
to operate like this.
1) Am I correct in my assumption that the CIFS client (redirector) and the CIFS server (server) do not following symbolic links (whether they be file or directory)?
2) If not, how do I submit a feature request for this so that it can be reviewed and approved or not approved for inclusion/hotfix release?
Thanks for your time,
Matt Brown
[UPDATE]
Note that you can use a `directory junction` instead of using a SYMLINKD, to link to LOCAL resources (source). However, `directory junctions` do not allow access to resources over UNC.

Intermittent loss of UNC path access on Windows Server 2012

Hi All,
I hope someone can help with a major headache we've been having on two Windows Server 2012 boxes since September this year. Basically, these servers will intermittently lose the ability to browse network shares from windows explorer and the only way we have
found to resolve this is to reboot. When the issue happens, we can't even log into the server as it sits at 'applying user settings' - presumably as it is failing to access the netlogon share on our DCs. If we have an active RDP session when the issue occurs,
we can connect. In this instance we see that if you enter a UNC path in Windows explorer and hit enter, nothing happens - no error messages or anything. The only way I can get any response is when trying to access the IPC$ share on another server, which gives
the following response:
\\server\ipc$ is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this resource, Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.
The parameter is incorrect.
Everything looks right from a physical network perspective, as we can ping from the affected servers and DNS queries are working fine. I can even run net view from powershell and see the local servers and shares on these, however any attempt to access shares
just hangs the powershell session.
If I look in the SMBClient event logs, I can see entries like the following:
Event ID 30805
The client lost its session to the server.
Error: The transport connection is now disconnected.
This is made worse by the fact that when this issue happens, we can't even cleanly reboot the server (it just hangs) and have to perform a cold boot.
The firewall has been turned off and we have taken off our antivirus software to eliminate it as a possible cause. We have even rebuilt one of these servers on a clean install of 2012 R2, but the issue re-appeared. We have also tried using different NIC
drivers (Broadcom NICs installed) to no avail. We have also tried disabling IPv6.
We have logged a ticket with Microsoft support, who have come back telling us that this could be related to a known bug with DFS in 2012 for which a fix is being tested prior to release in a few weeks. However, I can't sit around on my hands until then on
the off chance that this fix will resolve our problem. These servers are hosting our production Lync 2013 front end service and when this issue occurs it breaks the address book search and response group services, so this issue is of critical importance for
us to get resolved asap.
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,
That's right, if you hit enter absolutely nothing happens, no error messages. It makes no difference if I try name or IP address - even trying \\localhost doesn't work. A few minutes later after trying, an entry appears in the SMBClient event logs as mentioned
in my original post. To me it looks like something deep within the networking operations of the OS is randomly breaking. Also, if I try to browse the network from Windows explorer, it just hangs. When I try to restart the workstation service, it just gets
permanently stuck in a stopping state and the server has to be cold booted. Once it boots up, everything is working fine again....until the next time. There is absolutely nothing appearing in the application or system event logs indicating the root cause.
I've checked and DNS resolution is working OK and I can telnet to other hosts on all the required ports.
I had originally thought it might be related to the Broadcom NICs as we've had issues with them in the past, but we switched over to use the 2012 inbox driver for them and the same issue happens. I should also mention that one server is a blade and the other
a rackmount box. Dell support have run full diagnostics on both and have come up clean, so it doesn't appear to be a hardware issue. The even more baffling thing is that we have a third server with identical spec and config that does not have the problem.
The only difference with this third server is that it is not part of a Lync pool pairing using DFS and sits in a remote location on a different LAN.
I had thought of trying to drop back to use SMB1 by disabling SMB2 and 3, but I'm not sure if this would adversely affect any other services.
This one really has me stumped.

Acrobat Reader XI fail to open file from unc path "Access Denied"

Hi,
When we try to open a pdf file from an unc path by double-click on it there is an error message : "There was error opening this files. Access Denied"
If we do "File -> Open" the file open correctly. Same if we copy the file localy.
After looking around Internet and other thread Acrobat Reader X got the same problem but seemed to be resolved with an update.
If we desable "Enable Protected Mode at startup" the file open correctly (it is not a solution).
Does anyone have a solution to this problem ?
OS : Windows XP SP3
Acrobat Reader : 11.0.2
Regards,

I have also seen this occur with one user's computer. Another user with similar privileges and software setup does not exhibit the same issue however. Would love Adobe to investigate and address this issue.

Creating a directory on a remote machine using a UNC path

Hi all,
Is it possible to create a directory on a remote machine using a UNC path such as \\Server\Share\Directory?
If so, how would i go about this? (Sorry for the newbie question, that's exactly what I am!)
Thanks,
Rob

The tables on your pages are images. Not very convenient if the visitor wants to copy the information and use it.
Read this how to use tables :
http://www.wyodor.net/blog/archives/2010/01/entry_297.html
http://www.wyodor.net/blog/archives/2010/01/entry_298.html
Samples :
http://www.wyodor.net/mfi/Maaskant/Seabreeze.html
http://www.wyodor.net/mfi/Maaskant/Experiment.html
http://www.wyodor.net/mfi/roodhout/Prices.html
And here's a non-iWeb page with a sortable table :
http://www.wyodor.net/htmlegg/TallCard/TallAjax.html?pg=tablesorter
Or use a database on the server with MySQL and make tables with PHP :
http://www.google.com/search?q=create+html+table+with+data+from+mysql+database
Here's a very simple way to do it :
http://home.wyodor.net/w3school

Can't add own application to RemoteApps - "You must specify a file from the RD Session Host server SERVERNAME by using the UNC path....

Hi, there
I'm not really pro- at RDS in server 2012 (r1), but I have a problem and don't find anything suitable on internet:
I'm trying to publish one of my own, unlisted programs to rdweb, but it keeps saying "You must specify a file from the RD Session Host server SERVERNAME by using the UNC path...."
1) I provided the path in the unc name - when I click "Add.." then i browse the the .exe file via network share, not via local path. So that should be OK
2) Firewall is turned off and eventhough the exeptions are enabled, both of then, checked
What else should I do to make this work?

Okej, I found the sollution:
You have to specify the path like \\hostname\drive_letter$\path-to-the-program.
I was doing wrong because i wrote it like \\hostname\ShareName\path-to-the-program.
I was misleded because the wizard wants me to find the program by clicking, and not by entring the path manualy.

UNC paths of fileshares vs SharePoint

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