Windows – Network based automount drive in GPO

group-policywindowswindows 7windows 8windows-server-2008-r2

For starters, I know about net use for this, but I need a more sophisticated solution.

We have two branches, and both have a server with shared drives, both of which have are (or will have) the same information (files, installaters, etc.). It works OK; users can access it and map drives, etc.

But I'd like configure a GPO for situations where one colleague from branch 1 will be connected to network in branch 2, and have a drive auto-mapped from branch 2 instead of branch 1.

If I tell my colleague "you can find it on Store server" then he only click to mapped drive independently on branch where he is.

Server with AD: Windows 2008 R2

Clients: Windows 7, 8

Best Answer

You want to use Group Policy Preferences Mapped Drive Items. You can use item-level targeting to map drives based on the OU of the computer, which seems like it should satisfy your requirements.

Related Solutions

Windows Server 2008 R2 Map User Specific Drive

Using the 'Update' option in the Drive Map GPO you should be able to accomplish this without much trouble.

Basically, you'll just replicate the settings from the logon script, which it looks like you have, and so now you just need to make a GPO according to these instructions. Inside the GPO window itself, where you're defining the mapped drive, there is a targeting section that will allow you to define a specific user, groups of users, or a wildcard.

As long as all the users are a member of the OU(basically, a 'container' in Active Directory that is used to organize AD) that the GPO is tied to, you should have no problem. Perhaps consider creating a new OU and moving a user or two into there to test (if you can)

Group Policy Map Drive to Display Name

Here's an example of how you can do this to a single user with a script. It's crude but it works well as an example to show the process.

$user = Get-ADUser James
$homeName = $user.GivenName + " " + $user.Surname
$user | Set-ADUser -HomeDirectory \\FileServer\Users\$homeName -HomeDrive H -Credential (Get-Credential)

Replace the UNC with your file share, and change the H drive letter to whatever drive letter you want to use for the user's home drive. Once you wrap your head around this code, your next step might be to figure out how to run it against all users at once.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Windows Server 2008 R2 Map User Specific Drive

Group Policy Map Drive to Display Name

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