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RunWithLogon Fails From Netware Share

 Keywords:  RunWithLogon Fails From Netware Share Client 4.83

Question:

So i am attempting to use the RunWithLogon for my project, to see if i can at least have a solution for Windows 2K and XP, but i am having problems on my Win2K machine, in that i always get the message Login failure.

The password is correct, and the login name is correct, but i only get this on a bare windows 2000 system.

It seems to be specific to whether or not it is running from the network or local. If the exe's and dll's reside on a network drive, then it will fail to log in, but if the files reside locally, it works in all cases.

Note: it works fine from a Microsoft mapped drive, but not with a Novell mapped drive. Currently using Novell client 4.83. I guess this is a problem with the Novell client.

Answer:

You've encountered a problem caused by something called a "Security Context". In a nut shell, each process tree on NT/2K/XP that has a common set of credentials [e.g. they all are descended from a single process created at logon time using one set of credentials], then they have their own "sand box" that they play in w/respect to their identity in the NetWare/NDS environment. If a process is created that uses a different set of credentials [e.g. via RunWithLogon()], that process gets its own separate "sand box" to play in w/respect to its NetWare/NDS identity.

The end result of switching security contexts is that your previous set of NetWare/NDS credentials are instantly invalidated and all servers & volumes that you had access to are no longer accessible. In terms of RunWithLogon(), this means that the new process gets created but then immediately finds out that it doesn't have any rights to execute the program file that it was supposed to execute.

You will have to copy those scripts down to a local drive or to a share on a NT/2K server in order to run them using RunWithLogon().

This problem is not caused due to a bug in WinBatch, and it isn't even really a bug in the Novell Client since the Microsoft Client for NetWare behaves the same way. It has mostly to do with the way that security is implemented w/respect to how credentials are handled for 3rd party network providers on the NT platform family.

Something to consider....
Have a "master" script compiled into a .EXE file. Copy the master script to a local hard drive and execute it using RunWithLogon() to give it admin rights on the local workstation. In the master script, use the NetWareX extender to authenticate to your NDS tree using a set of credentials that are "safe" to embed in the script for use during software distribution. Then have the master script proceed to run whatever setup/install programs it needs to run that are located on your NetWare server(s).


Article ID:   W15572
File Created: 2003:05:13:11:29:00
Last Updated: 2003:05:13:11:29:00