Network drives, often named G-Drive/I-Drive/M-Drive etc., are storage locations in data centers made for sharing business data among a defined group of resources via shared folders. The primary purpose of file shares is to provide a centralized storage location for business-related files and data. Access to these network drives is dependent on several factors: e.g., user's location, user's department/project etc. This becomes even more complicated if roaming profiles are set up.  

Often users complain that they have an issue connecting to a mapped drive and this is one of the top call-generating issues. Some of the common incident descriptions are:  

  • Unable to access mapped drive  
  • Need access to mapped drive  
  • Can't connect to mapped drive  
  • Not able to access mapped drive when working from home  
  • Unable to access folders in mapped drive  
  • Can't save documents in mapped drive  

These issues are fixed manually or by using some sort of scripting solution (logon script being the common one). This resolution is largely dependent on stable network connections, correct DNS naming record, and network services completely starting before the logon script runs. Overall, these solutions are time-consuming and not completely reliable, leading to a bad user experience.  

The 1E Platform helps auto-remediate the above problems by providing self-heal – 1E Endpoint Automation (formerly Guaranteed State) – capabilities. 1E Endpoint Automation (formerly Guaranteed State) rules map the network drives based on user preferences (location/site/department/project etc.) Admins can set different rules for different groups of users and locations. 

One common reason for network drives becoming disconnected is that the VPN isn't connected on the end user's device. 1E Endpoint Automation (formerly Guaranteed State) rules ensure that as soon as VPN connectivity is established, network drives are mapped again for the user.

1E Platform provides an out-of-the-box remediation for all network drive mapping issues which can be downloaded from 1E Exchange . 

The solution consists of a check, fix, and a trigger.  

  • Check: checks for network drive-mapped state. If a network drive isn't mapped, a fix is run to map the correct drives.  
  • Fix: based on user's access criteria, network drive is mapped. Users get access to the network drive file server and directories which they are entitled to.  
  • Trigger: on schedule/VPN Connected/User logon  

The solution can be further extended to meet specific requirements. 

Sharing of files and folders through mapped network drives is quite common in organizations and the 1E Platform provides the automation for effective management. This not only improves the user's efficiency and productivity, but also results in better DEX for the organization.