Accessing Windows network shares

Configure a user account to access network shares in an IBM® Connections deployment on the Microsoft® Windows® operating system

Before you begin

This task applies only to deployments of IBM Connections environments where the data is located on network file shares, and where you have installed WebSphere® Application Server on Microsoft Windows and configured it to run as a service.

About this task

When WebSphere Application Server runs as a Windows service, it uses the local system account to log in with null credentials. When WebSphere Application Server tries to access an IBM Connections network share using Universal Naming Convention (UNC) mapping, the access request fails because the content share is accessible only to valid user IDs.
Note: When using a Windows service to start WebSphere Application Server, you must use UNC mapping; you cannot use drive letters to reference network shares.

To resolve this problem, configure the WebSphere Application Server service login attribute to log in with a user account that is authorized to access the content share.

To configure a user account for all WebSphere Application Server services, complete the following steps:

Procedure

  1. Click Start > Control Panel and select Administrative Tools > Services.
  2. Click the Log On tab and select This account.
  3. Enter a user account name or click Browse to search for a user account.
  4. Enter the account password, and then confirm the password.
  5. Click OK to save your changes and click OK again to return to the Services window.
  6. Stop and restart the service.
  7. Repeat steps 2-6 for each node.

What to do next

Your corporate password policy might require that you change this login attribute periodically. If so, remember to update this service configuration. Otherwise, your access to network shares might fail.