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Group Policy Preference mapped drives not applying if user logs in "too quickly"

Answered Group Policy Preference mapped drives not applying if user logs in "too quickly"

  • Wednesday, January 16, 2013 1:11 AM
     
     
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    Hi all,

    I'm experiencing a bit of a strange issue.  The behaviour I'm seeing is if a user logs in quickly (as in immedaitely upon the logon prompt being presented), their drives do not map correctly.  However, if the user waits a few seconds (10 is usually enough) or logs out and logs back in, the drives appear.

    One of the drives, their home drive (H:), is set via AD in the user object.  The other drives are controlled via a Group Policy using Group Policy preferences.  The Group Policy is linked to the OU containing computers, with the actual settings under User Configuration.  There is another group policy that enables Loopback Processing.  There are a large number of drive items in the group policy (in the case of one drive letter, there's about 60 mapping settings for it), with Item-level Targeting in use.  The targeting method is security group, so if the user is a member of the right security group, they get the drive.  Some of the drives are mapping to server-based UNC paths (ie. \\servername\folder) while others are mapping to a DFS-based location (ie. \\domain.com\folder\).  The drive mappings are set with the following options:

    • Reconnect is set to Disable
    • Use First Available is set to Enable
    • Run in logged-on user security context is set Yes
    • Remove this item when it no longer applies and Apply ones and do not reapply are set to No

    From some research I've done, there's things that could cause this sort of problem but they aren't valid in this case.  For example, the Group Policy setting "Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon" is set to Enable.  When the issue happens, there doesn't seem to be any obvious error messages in the event log.

    The environment where this is happening is at Windows 2003 forest and domain functional level.  The clients are running Windows 7 SP1 with the affected machines all being desktop computers connected via a LAN cable.  802.1x authentication is in place on the wired network.

    Is there anything else I could look at to fix this problem?  Thanks.

    • Edited by Astatine Wednesday, January 16, 2013 1:14 AM
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  • Thursday, January 17, 2013 7:57 AM
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    Hi ,

    Thank you for posting your issue in the forum.

    I am trying to involve someone familiar with this topic to further look at this issue. There might be some time delay. Appreciate your patience.

    Thank you for your understanding and support.

    Best Regards,

    Andy Qi

    TechNet Subscriber Support

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    Andy Qi
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  • Thursday, January 17, 2013 9:46 AM
     
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    Hi Astatine,

    first, we should confirm that if the "Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon"  setting is applied to the computers, because this is one of cause for this issue i think.  Also, pelase confirm if this issue still happens to  home drive (H:).

    Best regards, Jason Mei Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

     
  • Friday, January 18, 2013 1:33 AM
     
     
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    Hi Jason,

    Yes, the "Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon" is set to Enabled in a group policy.  The policy is linked to the OU containing the computer accounts. 

    With regards to the home drive, when the issue happens, the user's home drive doesn't appear at all.  Other network drives that are mapped via group policy are listed but they appear with broken visual indicators.

    One thing I did find after posting was a group policy that has a setting for "Set maximum wait time for the network if a user has a roaming user profile or a remote home directory".  It is set to wait a maximum of zero (0) seconds.  Could this be contributing to the issue?  Thanks.
    • Edited by Astatine Friday, January 18, 2013 1:35 AM
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  • Friday, January 18, 2013 7:06 AM
     
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    Hi,

    All the symptoms prove the network not ready when this issue is happenning. So please help enable port fast on the switch to see if there is any different.

    Best regards, Jason Mei Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

     
  • Wednesday, January 23, 2013 8:31 AM
     
     
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    HI,

    I'm just following to chekc if there is any update on this issue. please let me know current status of this issue.

    Best regards, Jason Mei Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.