Connecting to special shares
Most special shares end with the $ symbol. Although these shares aren’t displayed in File Explorer, administrators and certain operators can connect to them (except for NETLOGON and SYSVOL). If your current logon account has appropriate permissions, you can connect directly to a special share or any standard share by typing the UNC path for the share in File Explorer’s address box. The basic syntax is:
\\ServerName\ShareName
ServerName is the DNS name or IP address of the server and ShareName is the name of the share. In the following example, you connect to the D$ share on CorpServer25:
\\CorpServer25\D$
If you always want the drive to be listed as a network location in This PC or need to specify credentials, you can connect to a special share by following these steps:
1. When you open File Explorer, the This PC node should be opened by default. If you have an open Explorer window and This PC is not the selected node, select the leftmost option button in the address list, and then select This PC.
2. Next, tap or click the Map Network Drive button on the Computer panel, and then tap or click Map Network Drive. This displays the Map Network Drive dialog box, shown in Figure 3-11.
FIGURE 3-11 Connect to special shares by mapping them with the Map Network Drive dialog box.
3. In the Drive list, select a free drive letter. This drive letter is used to access the special share.
4. In the Folder text box, enter the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path to the share. For example, to access the C$ share on a server called Twiddle, you would use the path \\TWIDDLE\C$.
5. The Reconnect At Sign-In check box is selected automatically to ensure that the network drive is connected each time you log on. If you need to access the share only during the current logon session, clear this check box.
6. If you need to connect to the share using different user credentials, select the Connect Using Different Credentials check box.
7. Tap or click Finish. If you are connecting using different credentials, enter the user name and password when prompted. Enter the user name in Domain\Username format, such as Cpandl\Williams. Before tapping or clicking OK, select Remember My Credentials if you want the credentials to be saved. Otherwise, you’ll need to provide credentials in the future.
After you connect to a special share, you can access it as you would any other drive. Because special shares are protected, you don’t have to worry about ordinary users accessing these shares. The first time you connect to the share, you might be prompted for a user name and password. If you are prompted, provide that information.
Viewing user and computer sessions
You can use Computer Management to track all connections to shared resources on a Windows Server 2012 R2 system. Whenever a user or computer connects to a shared resource, Windows Server 2012 R2 lists a connection in the Sessions node.
To view connections to shared resources, enter net session at an elevated command prompt or Get-SMBSession at an elevated Windows PowerShell prompt. You also can follow these steps:
1. In Computer Management, connect to the computer on which you created the shared resource.
2. In the console tree, expand System Tools, expand Shared Folders, and then select Sessions. You can now view connections to shares for users and computers.
The columns for the Sessions node provide the following important information about user and computer connections:
■ User The names of users or computers connected to shared resources. Computer names are shown with a $ suffix to differentiate them from users.
■ Computer The name of the computer being used.
■ Type The type of network connection being used.
■ # Open Files The number of files with which the user is actively working. For more detailed information, access the Open Files node.
■ Connected Time The time that has elapsed since the connection was established.
■ Idle Time The time that has elapsed since the connection was last used.
■ Guest Whether the user is logged on as a guest.
As shown in the following example, the output of Get-SMBSession provides the session ID, client computer name, client user name and the number of open files for each session:
| SessionId | ClientComputerName | ClientUserName | NumOpens |
|---|---|---|---|
| 601295421497 | 10.0.0.60 | CPANDL\williams | 2 |
Managing sessions and shares is a common administrative task. Before you shut down a server or an application running on a server, you might want to disconnect users from shared resources. You might also need to disconnect users when you plan to change access permissions or delete a share entirely. Another reason to disconnect users is to break locks on files. You disconnect users from shared resources by ending the related user sessions.
To disconnect individual users from shared resources, enter net session \\computername /delete at an elevated command prompt or Close-SMBSession at -Computer Name computername an elevated Windows PowerShell prompt. In both instances, computername is the DNS name or IP address of computer from which the session originates.
You also can disconnect users by following these steps:
1. In Computer Management, connect to the computer on which you created the share.
2. In the console tree, expand System Tools, expand Shared Folders, and then select Sessions.
3. Press and hold or right-click the user sessions you want to end, and then tap or click Close Session.
4. Tap or click Yes to confirm the action.
To disconnect all users from shared resources, follow these steps:
1. In Computer Management, connect to the computer on which you created the share.
2. In the console tree, expand System Tools, expand Shared Folders, and then press and hold or right-click Sessions.