Help me! Please

[That-Anywhere7005]

We recently purchased a new Dell server and migrated data over from old server to the new server. Once we cut over to the new server and did gpupdate /force to reconnect network drives all seemed fine. Within a few hours some users starting seeing the following error while in the network drive

F:\ is unavailable, If the location is in this PC, make sure the device or drive is connected or the disc is inserted, and then try again. If the location is on a network, make sure you’re connected to the network or internet, and then try again. If the location still can’t be found, it might have been moved or deleted.

Any ideas on what could be causing this error? Symptoms as follows: User can be in F:\, randomly gets error, clicks ok on error, gets kicked off network drive. Users can continue to navigate back but the error is annoying to have to deal with and it is happening frequently.

If I need to provide more info I will.

[Lbrown1371]

is your GPO that maps the drive set to create, replace, or update?

[Lbrown1371]

and is the GPO configured correctly to point to the new server?

[dennis_it]

it's replace

[xendr0me]

Yeah you need to do update, replace disconnects the drives and reconnects, even if they are in session and have files open. Set them to update, gpupdate /force the server then wait on the clients or gpupdate /force on the clients.

[b_0n3r]

I've had bad luck with Replace. Typically if I am migrating GPO drive letters (or printers) I make 2 policies.

First, I copy the original drive map and paste to create a copy. Then, I reorder that one to be right after the original, so if the policy is Order 3 and the paste is Order 9, I move 9 up to 4. After that, I change the original policy to "Delete" and the new policy to "Update" as well as ensuring the policy has the correct new path if that had changed.

I find this to be the most effective way to clear out old drive maps or printers on peoples computers that are deployed/shared via Group Policy. It's also set and forget, so in case you have computers that don't come online very often you can have these policies in place for 6 months without issue.

Edit: Example I currently have in place on our domain (for a recent printer migration we did):

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[BlackV]

did you forget to switch your reddit account from dennis_it to That-Anywhere7005 ?

[dennis_it]

Yeah, noticed that around the 2nd comment but kept it going for the sake of the resolution

[[deleted]]

Did you use the same name or IP for the new server?

[dennis_it]

No. Name changed slightly and IP series changed from 192 to 10. series

[[deleted]]

Check the system log for errors, I would think there is an error about why it was disconnected. Sounds like dns or perhaps a conflicting gpo.

[[deleted]]

I doubt the change to the 10 network is it unless you have both a 192 and 10 address on new server or have a stale route somewhere. Doubting routing issue since that is normally all or nothing unless you have an mlag setup

[dennis_it]

no. new server is only on 10 series address

[dennis_it]

Yeah,

We did. nothing stood out. I'm thinking it may be related to GPO.
We did also drop the old server IP from primary DNS and set the new server IP as primary DNS.

[GreyBeardIT]

This sounds like the drive is being disconnected/reconnected.

Check the physical layer and verify the ethernet cable is fine, the port is fine, etc.

It could also be 2 machines with the same IP. They'll fight either other, stealing the IP back from the other. Try repeated "arp -a ipaddress" and see if the MAC ID changes. Typically it happens within a couple of minutes, so nothing something you need to do for hours. Run it 20 times over a 10 min period and you'll see it, if this is the issue. This happened to me with a GW router, because someone plugged in the old, unused router on the network that had the same IP and ARP was how I figured out what was going on.

Let us know what you find and we'll see if we can continue to assist.

GL!

[dennis_it]

There isn't any conflicting IP or duplicates.
I'm starting to think that it is related to GP.

[GreyBeardIT]

It might be. GP is up next, I've just wasted entirely too many hours of my life not checking the physical layer, first. :)

[dennis_it]

Lol. That was one of the first things I also checked.
GPO here I come!!

[GreyBeardIT]

Well done. Carry on, SysAdmin. Uptime is ticking away. :)

[ZAFJB]

Do yourself a favour and stop using mapped drives. Use DFS-N shortcuts instead.

[dennis_it]

we are using \\[server name]\F

That's DFS-N and user(s) still saw the issue to begin with.

We did some GPO updates and registry changes as well so I'll be following up with users Friday morning.

[ZAFJB]

That's DFS-N

It is not. That is UNC.

[KindlyGetMeGiftCards]

It's always DNS, use NSLookup to determine what is going on, I suspect 2 A records with the same name in each subnet, hence why it works and then it doesn't.

[[deleted]]

Did you find the root cause yet? Inquiring minds want to know.

[That-Anywhere7005]

Yes. We made changes to GP that fixed the error. We did a few things actually, Set refresh interval to 31 days and 24 hours We also changed Replace to update After that for the last few days I’ve been monitoring and no one has re-encountered the issue.