Business Use-Case:

  1. There’s an existing logon script or Group Policy that maps users toward a particular share on a file server (e.g. “NET USE P:\ \\FILESHERVER01\Public /USER:INTRANET.KIMCONNECT.COM\%USERNAME%”)
  2. The requirement is to add more directories to that existing share without incurring extra storage on existing volume where that share resides
  3. There is a new LUN being dedicated to that file server that is intended to be mounted as a sub-directory at path \\FILESHERVER01\Public\Infrastructure
  4. There are other existing volumes at local paths of T:\Software and M:\Public_Relations, and all other existing shares on this server, that must be accessible from \\FILESHERVER01\Public as sub-folders named Software and Public_Relations, etc.

Technical Implementation:

  • a. There shall be no changes required for the logon script. Hence, no change requests are needed to perform this task.
  • b. The default recommendation is to expand the volume the hosting share \\FILESHERVER01\Public. If that is not feasible, then items (c) and (d) shall apply
  • c. These are the PowerShell commands to mount a new volume as a folder inside \\FILESHERVER01\Public
<# Method 1: Dedicate a whole volume as a sub-directory 
Warning: all data on this new volume will be erased.

#### Set variables ####
$mountPath=""S:\Public\Infrastructure"
$diskIndex=5
#### Only edit above lines ####

$disk = Get-Disk $diskIndex
$disk | Clear-Disk -RemoveData -Confirm:$false
$disk | Initialize-Disk -PartitionStyle MBR
$disk | New-Partition -UseMaximumSize -MbrType IFS
$partition = Get-Partition -DiskNumber $disk.Number
$partition | Format-Volume -FileSystem NTFS -Confirm:$false
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $mountPath
$partition | Add-PartitionAccessPath -AccessPath $mountPath

#>
  • d. This PowerShell snippet shall retrieve existing SMB shares on the file server and create “junctions” that are accessible from \\FILESHERVER01\Public
<# Method 2: Create Junction Points to All Shares On File Server 

#### Set variables ############
$shareRoot="S:\Public"
#### Only edit above lines ####

# Gather SMB shares on this file server
$paths=get-smbshare|?{$_.Name -notlike "*$"}|select Name,Path

# Install junction.exe
if (!(get-command junction)){
    if (!(Get-Command choco.exe -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {
        Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
        }
    choco install junction -y
    }

# Create junctions at SMB Share Root with a given path
function createJunction{
    param(
        [string]$path,
        [string]$smbShareRoot=$shareRoot
        )
    $folderName=Split-Path $path -Leaf
    #Write-Host "junction '$smbShareRoot\$folderName' '$path'"
    invoke-expression "junction '$smbShareRoot\$folderName' '$path'"
}

foreach ($path in $paths){
    if ($path.Path -notlike "$shareRoot*"){
        Write-Host "Creating juncion for $($path.Path)";
        createJunction -path $path.Path -smbShareRoot $shareRoot;
        }    
}
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