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Until today, we had a 2003 DC, all my folder mappings were done in the login script. (net use...)

we have now moved to 2008 R2, and I would like to create/manage the new mappings "The easy way"

If I have several mappings, to several groups (some are Read Only/ others are Read/Write) What will be the easy way? Should I create a single GPO per OU (each of our departments has it's own OU) - and add the drive mappings there (NOT folder mappings) ? *there is no reed/write option

Or should I keep managing that from the share folder properties itself? (right click on the share name on the NAS)

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First things first, all security should be managed using NTFS permissions on the folder and share (Remember, these are 2 sets of permissions and are mutually exclusive) itself. To do this you'll need security groups, and there is no way round that. Not mapping somebody to a drive is not 'security'.

Secondly, to MAP the drives, I'd be using Group Policy Preferences. As above, it won't handle the file and folder permissions, but it will let you map drives very easily and cleanly.

Finally, the beauty of Group Policy Preferences is that if your environment suits it, they will allow to you use 1 single GPO to map many different shares for many different users, using item level tar targeting to filter based on OU, Security Groups etc.

Seriously, if you've just moved to 2008 (And I kind of hope you meant 2008 R2 seeing as 2008 is already now 2 editions old) then read up on Group Policy Preferences. Oh, you may need to patch any XP / 2003 clients to get them to work.

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  • Defo on the R2 :-). thanks. I actually thought that I can get rid of the script file (it has tons of if/else for the mapping + I use Security groups for authorization to the shares. I really hoped for something easier. I looked at Windows File Services. can't see if this will make my life easier or not, still playing with it. – Saariko Jul 15 '12 at 13:02
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    Group Policy Preferences will replace your script file - that's the point. But you still need to secure your files and shares the 'old fashioned' NTFS way :) – Dan Jul 15 '12 at 13:22

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