Configuring Local Drive Mapping

In Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG), you can use Local Drive Mapping to map internal network folders shares to local network drives on a remote endpoint. You can enable access to multiple shares by adding multiple local drive mapping applications to a portal trunk, one for each share. Shares can be added to Windows Explorer shares on the endpoint as soon as a user logs on to a portal home page, or are accessible to users via a portal link. Endpoint users can connect to shares directly, and (depending on policy configuration) can download and upload files to and from those drives.

Local drive mapping is supported on endpoints running Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Microsoft Windows 2000 Server. It is not supported for endpoints running Windows Vista or Windows 7.0. You should only enable this feature for endpoints that comply with your corporate access policies.

The following steps describe how to configure Local Drive Mapping:

Mapping local drives—Map a Windows share by adding a Local Drive Mapping application to a portal for each share. You can specify how each share is accessible to remote users. Note that using local drive mapping to connect to a Windows Server 2008 file server is not supported for any client operating system.
Configuring support for Windows 2003 and Windows XP—To enable local drive mapping on client endpoints running Windows XP, Windows 2003, and Windows 2000 operating systems, you must add the application Local Drive Mapping Setup (Windows XP/2003) to the portal.

Mapping local drives

To map local drives

In the Forefront UAG Management console, select the required portal trunk, and in the Applications area, click Add.
To add the local drive mapping application, in the Add Application Wizard, in the Client/server and legacy list, click Local Drive Mapping.
On the Server Settings page of the wizard, define mapping parameters and complete the wizard.
On the toolbar, click the Activate configuration icon, and then on the Activate Configuration dialog box, click Activate.

Configuring support for Windows 2003 and Windows XP

To configure support for Windows 2003 and Windows XP

In the Forefront UAG Management console, select the required portal trunk, and in the Applications area, click Add.
On the Select Application page of the wizard, in the Client/server and legacy list, click Local Drive Mapping Setup (Windows XP/2003) to enable access to a Windows share for client endpoints running Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
On the Server Settings page of the wizard, do not select the Start the application automatically at user logon check box. If you select this check box, users will be prompted to restart the client endpoint each time they access the site.

On the Portal Link page of the wizard, select the Add a portal and toolbar link check box to make available the setup application on the portal home page. Note that this is not required on client endpoints running Windows 2000 Server.

Important:
Running local drive mapping setup disables server message block (SMB) over TCP/IP. To enable local drive mapping on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, the relevant client endpoints must connect to the portal and run the local drive mapping setup application once. At the end of the setup, users are prompted to restart the client endpoint. Note that to run the application, users must be logged on to the local client endpoint with Administrator privileges to enable registry changes. Note that running this application might decrease SMB performance (there is no direct hosting), and might impact applications that rely on SMB over TCP/IP. Do not define the local drive mapping setup application as a prerequisite for the local mapping application, or users will be prompted to restart the client endpoint each time they access the mapped share.

Important:

Running local drive mapping setup disables server message block (SMB) over TCP/IP. To enable local drive mapping on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, the relevant client endpoints must connect to the portal and run the local drive mapping setup application once. At the end of the setup, users are prompted to restart the client endpoint. Note that to run the application, users must be logged on to the local client endpoint with Administrator privileges to enable registry changes. Note that running this application might decrease SMB performance (there is no direct hosting), and might impact applications that rely on SMB over TCP/IP. Do not define the local drive mapping setup application as a prerequisite for the local mapping application, or users will be prompted to restart the client endpoint each time they access the mapped share.

On the Forefront UAG Management console, click the Activate configuration icon, and then on the Activate Configuration dialog box, click Activate. After adding the application to the portal trunk and activating the configuration, the share will be accessible to remote users as soon as they log on to the portal home page.