Configuring Mapped Drives – CloudM

If migrating PST, EML, MBOX, Groupwise archives, NSF files or file system/NAS files from a mapped drive using multi server, the following must be configured in order for the CloudM Migrate service to be able to access the drive(s).

CloudM Migrate runs under the SYSTEM user and any network drive mappings must be created in a way that the SYSTEM user has access to them. Mapping a drive as a regular windows user so that it appears in the file explorer will not usually work. The same drive must be mapped on both Primary and Secondary servers.

There are 2 methods that you can choose from:

Create a Scheduled Task using Task Scheduler (restart required)
Create a Mapped network drive using SysInternals PSTools (restart not required)

Create a Scheduled Task

A batch file (.BAT) should be created on the secondary server(s) containing the following command:

net use z: "\\servername\sharedfolder" /persistent:yes /user:username password

Any available drive letter can be used.

'username' and 'password' should be the credentials of an account with access to the mapped folder.

Create a Scheduled Task using Task Scheduler

Open Task Scheduler (taskschd.msc), select Create Task and enter a Name.
Under the Security option, select Change User or Group and enter SYSTEM then OK.

Go to the Triggers tab and select New
Change 'Begin the task:' to At startup and select OK

Go to the Actions tab and select New
Set Action to Start a program and browse to your BAT file

Select OK and restart the machine. The drive will then be mapped on startup and accessible to CloudM Migrate.
The drive may show as disconnected in Explorer but the migration will still work.

Alternatively:

Create a Mapped Network Drive using SysInternals PSTools

Download PSExec in the migration server and extract the zip file from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/downloads/psexec
Open an elevated (run as administrator) Command Prompt and navigate to the unzipped PSExec folder

Run psexec -i -s cmd.exe

Whoami will confirm that you're logged in as SYSTEM

Run net use z: \\servername\sharedfolder /persistent:yes to connect to the shared drive as the SYSTEM User. Optionally add /user:username to map the drive as a different user.

The z drive can then be seen and used by Migrate as the document path and must be done on each migration server.

The Desktop view of the network drive may show a red X but it will migrate, as the system user, rather than the desktop user has access.