Multidrive

Background

Multidrive used Microsoft distributed file system (DFS) technology to allow the multidrive to contain links to a dynamic list of shares. When the drive is mounted by the user, the server will customize the information presented to the user to show the drives that they have access to.

The multidrive is currently an East Engineering Computing Network (EECN) service. The other Engineering clusters are looking to use this system later in the 2007-2008 academic year.

This is to replace the current EECN "magic drive" system. This new system elimitates the confusion of a drive letter changing as new drives are added to a users configuration. It also was designed to make is easier to access all a users shares in one drive letter (both on campus and off).

Supported Platforms

Currently, the DFS magic involved only worked with Windows XP or newer. When the drive is mounted from the mac, the user could view the "readme.txt" file to show what is being linked from where. If you mount drives by hand, please be aware that the underlying server names will change from time to time and we will only update the multidrive config. So, please beware that currently Mac support is not present. We are looking at a few clients that support DFS on OS X, but they would need to be purchased.

Example of drive reduction

This image shows the sub-directories of the multidrive and the reduced drive mounts

Remote access to multidrive

1. Open a web browser and goto http://vpn.mtu.edu and sign in.
2. Select the "get an MTU address" link and wait for "Network Access Connection successfully established".
   This may require a plugin to be installed
3. Mount network drive using your favorite method:
   Note: The drive will mount if you forget to put the "MTU\" in front of your username, but the drive will not function properly.
   • Windows Explorer
     1. Open windows explorer
     2. Select "Map network drive" from the Tools menu
     3. Enter Folder of "\\multidrive.iso.mtu.edu\multidrive"
     4. Click Finish
     5. When the "Connecting to multidrive.iso.mtu.edu" popup shows up.
        When asked for "user name", use "MTU\username". [Be user to change username to your username]
        When asked for "password", use your ISO password.
   • Using command shell
     1. Start a command shell by entering "cmd" in the Start->run dialog box
     2. enter "net use * \\multidrive.iso.mtu.edu\multidrive"
        When asked for "user name", use "MTU\username". [Be user to change username to your username]
     3. When asked for "password", use your ISO password.

Support Issues