howto access server's hdd remotely through RDP session? (MSTSC)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rudolf Thilo
  • Start date Start date
R

Rudolf Thilo

Guest
Hi,

is there any way to get access to a folder on the local HDD of a
Windows 2003 Server (R2) from the workstation running the RDP client?

It's about distributing AntiVirus Updates to the RDP clients.


As a last solution it would be sufficent to transfer these files the
RDP client's HDD. That I could do (ab)using the feature to "map" the
client's local drive(s) to the RDP session, but this wouldn't be quite
a work, as I will have simulate the AV update steps Sophos EM Library
uses to guarntee consistent data. (some files have to be hidden, the
update runs, then they re-appear and finally the versioning info file
is updated)

So if there would be a straight way to configure a dedicated folder on
the TS server as "present to the RDP client's host PC as Drive X:"
would be perfect, using google I couldn't find anything like this.
Hoping I just missed it ;-)


Thanks for any suggestions, Rudi.
--
Windows 2003 Server R2
RDP Client, TS Client, MSTSC
remotely access server's HDD folders folder files file
Update Antivirus on RDP client PC Machine
transfer files from terminal server to RDP client machine
 
Re: howto access server's hdd remotely through RDP session? (MSTSC)

I don't think that this is the way to go.
You can share the folder on the server and with a logon script on
the TS present this folder as a drive to the rdp client session, or
instead of sharing it, you can use the subst command, like in
subst X: C:\test\my_folder

but this only makes the folder accessible within the TS session.
And that's running on the server, not on the client. The client
won't see anything of what is available within the session.

I assume that these clients are not on the same LAN as the server?
You can't use a shared folder and connect directly to it from the
client, outside an rdp session?

Maybe there's another approach to the problem. You might want to
investigate TSRemoteExec, a freeware utility to execute any command
on the local client from within a remote session, by Thomas Tran.
You'll find it here:
http://www.mqtechnologies.com/products/TSRemoteExec/

_________________________________________________________
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
TS troubleshooting: http://ts.veranoest.net
___ please respond in newsgroup, NOT by private email ___

Rudolf Thilo <rt.news@gmx.de> wrote on 19 feb 2008 in
microsoft.public.windows.terminal_services:

> Hi,
>
> is there any way to get access to a folder on the local HDD of a
> Windows 2003 Server (R2) from the workstation running the RDP
> client?
>
> It's about distributing AntiVirus Updates to the RDP clients.
>
>
> As a last solution it would be sufficent to transfer these files
> the RDP client's HDD. That I could do (ab)using the feature to
> "map" the client's local drive(s) to the RDP session, but this
> wouldn't be quite a work, as I will have simulate the AV update
> steps Sophos EM Library uses to guarntee consistent data. (some
> files have to be hidden, the update runs, then they re-appear
> and finally the versioning info file is updated)
>
> So if there would be a straight way to configure a dedicated
> folder on the TS server as "present to the RDP client's host PC
> as Drive X:" would be perfect, using google I couldn't find
> anything like this. Hoping I just missed it ;-)
>
>
> Thanks for any suggestions, Rudi.
> --
> Windows 2003 Server R2
> RDP Client, TS Client, MSTSC
> remotely access server's HDD folders folder files file
> Update Antivirus on RDP client PC Machine
> transfer files from terminal server to RDP client machine
 
Re: howto access server's hdd remotely through RDP session? (MSTSC)

Rudolf Thilo <rt.news@gmx.de> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> is there any way to get access to a folder on the local HDD of a
> Windows 2003 Server (R2) from the workstation running the RDP client?
>
> It's about distributing AntiVirus Updates to the RDP clients.
>
>
> As a last solution it would be sufficent to transfer these files the
> RDP client's HDD. That I could do (ab)using the feature to "map" the
> client's local drive(s) to the RDP session, but this wouldn't be quite
> a work, as I will have simulate the AV update steps Sophos EM Library
> uses to guarntee consistent data. (some files have to be hidden, the
> update runs, then they re-appear and finally the versioning info file
> is updated)
>
> So if there would be a straight way to configure a dedicated folder on
> the TS server as "present to the RDP client's host PC as Drive X:"
> would be perfect, using google I couldn't find anything like this.
> Hoping I just missed it ;-)
>
>
> Thanks for any suggestions, Rudi.

What kind of connectivity do you have to the users' computers? Your
centralized antivirus software ought to have the option to automatically
update from both your internal antivirus server as well as from the internet
if the former is not available. The server ought to be pushing updates to
the client rather than requiring a pull, anyway. If you aren't running
decent centralized AV, I'd say forget about this.....
 
Re: howto access server's hdd remotely through RDP session? (MSTSC)

Hi,

> What kind of connectivity do you have to the users' computers? Your

Both sides aDSL 6000kbps

> centralized antivirus software ought to have the option to automatically
> update from both your internal antivirus server as well as from the internet
> if the former is not available.

The EULA of Sophos Antivirus doesn't limit to update all the clients
against the Sophos CID. The Customer has to update against his own
(2ndary) CID. This is no issue when the PCs are in the same LAN: It
simply will use a share for this process.

With TS Clients this doesn't work. (AFAIK, that's my question about)

A solution is to simply use a web service and to update using a TCP:80
forwarding in the DSL Router on the central location. But some kind of
"reverse HDD Access" for the PC running MSTSC.EXE would be much more
convenient.

> The server ought to be pushing updates to
> the client rather than requiring a pull, anyway.

Pushing files from the TS-Server to the PC running MSTSC sounds
perfect: Howto?

A pretty simple workaround would be to copy in the TS session the
updated files to the local drive of the PC running MSTSC. Using
robocopy /mir should do and will only copy changes. But some kind of
direct file access would be much more convenient ;-)


Regards, Rudi.
 
Re: howto access server's hdd remotely through RDP session? (MSTSC)

Rudolf Thilo <rt.news@gmx.de> wrote:
> Hi,
>
>> What kind of connectivity do you have to the users' computers? Your
>
> Both sides aDSL 6000kbps
>
>> centralized antivirus software ought to have the option to
>> automatically update from both your internal antivirus server as
>> well as from the internet if the former is not available.
>
> The EULA of Sophos Antivirus doesn't limit to update all the clients
> against the Sophos CID. The Customer has to update against his own
> (2ndary) CID. This is no issue when the PCs are in the same LAN: It
> simply will use a share for this process.

I wouldn't use this product, if this is the case. I want to be able to
instigate a "push" automatically. There should be no "pull" going on.
>
> With TS Clients this doesn't work. (AFAIK, that's my question about)

Actually, it sounds like your question is about users local computers, and
TS is mentioned only because that's their sole means of connectivity.

>
> A solution is to simply use a web service and to update using a TCP:80
> forwarding in the DSL Router on the central location. But some kind of
> "reverse HDD Access" for the PC running MSTSC.EXE would be much more
> convenient.

There's nothing like that that I know of. One of the main points of TS is
that it's just a "window" the user opens up - there is no connectivity. Your
question really isn't a TS one :-)

>
>> The server ought to be pushing updates to
>> the client rather than requiring a pull, anyway.
>
> Pushing files from the TS-Server to the PC running MSTSC sounds
> perfect: Howto?

No. Nothing to do with TS. If these computers are supposed to be managed by
you, then you need some sort of connection between their computers & your
servers - VPN, perhaps. If you don't have something like that, you can't
manage the computers. You don't mention the network setup, geographical
distribution, or whether these are company-owned computers, etc - something
like SAV or Trend's OfficeScan can be installed & configured to download
updates from the Internet, although you won't be able to manage them
remotely.
>
> A pretty simple workaround would be to copy in the TS session the
> updated files to the local drive of the PC running MSTSC. Using
> robocopy /mir should do and will only copy changes.

Yes, but the overhead is something awful. I wouldn't do this.

> But some kind of
> direct file access would be much more convenient ;-)
>
>
> Regards, Rudi.
 
Back
Top