The Curious Case of the Missing File Shares on SAN

Every once in a while, we will be dumbfounded by strange issues that we encounter during our course of deployment setup and support. One case that I encountered was the case of the missing file shares on SAN.

a

In this case, a file server using disks presented from an iSCSI SAN hosts normal NTFS files shares that are mapped to user logon scripts. Apparently after rebooting the file server, all the shares disappear though all the contents are there. This does seem strange and can make an IT admin scratch their head, but thinking logically will lead you to suspect of the Server service running on the file server. After all the Server Service is responsible for file, print, and named-pipe sharing over the network. Indeed restarting this service on the file server will reapply all the file shares.

a

The cause of this case is documented on

a

MS KB article 870964 "File shares on iSCSI devices may not be re-created when you restart the computer"

a

According to the symptom, "You use the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator service to connect to an Internet SCSI (iSCSI) disk device. The file shares that you create for folders that are located on your iSCSI device may not be re-created when you restart the computer that the shares are created on."

a

The cause is stated as "This issue may occur when the iSCSI Initiator service is not initialized when the Server service initializes. The Server service creates file shares. However, because iSCSI disk devices are not available, the Server service cannot create file shares for iSCSI devices until the iSCSI service is initialized."

Apparently the Server service may start first during a restart causing it not to apply shares on the disks on iSCSI as the iSCSI service has not started yet. To resolve the issue, you can make the Server service dependent on the iSCSI service using the services.msc console or through regedit.

a

Windows XP and Windows Server 2003

Start Registry Editor.

Locate and then click the following subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanManServer
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Multi-String Value.
Type DependOnService to name the new registry entry, and then press ENTER.
Double-click DependOnService, type MSiSCSI in the Value data box, and then click OK.
Exit Registry Editor.

a

For more on the KB article, you can click on this link

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/870964