NetWare Drives Inaccessible to CIM and MMTA

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.51
• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 3.51

SYMPTOMS

When multiple processes contend for a drive resource through the Novell NetWare redirector (NWRDR), applications may intermittently fail to access the drive resource.

For example, when you use the Windows NT Multitasking MTA (MMTA) configured with Compaq Insight Manager, the MMTA may fail when it attempts to connect to Microsoft Mail postoffices installed on a NetWare server. If this happens, the drive resource cannot be accessed until Client Services for NetWare is restarted or the system rebooted. Failure may also occur if, while the MMTA is accessing dynamic drives for data, you select a drive in File Manager or perform various file I/O using another process.

When the MMTA tries to use an inaccessible drive for connecting to the postoffices on NetWare servers, the following error message may be displayed continuously:

   NT MMTA:

      Drive is used, local, or greater than last drive

   C:\users\default>net use X:  \\NetwareServer\share

   System error 85 has occurred. The local device name is already in use.

NOTE: Although this example discusses File Manager, Compaq Insight Manger, and MMTA for Windows NT, the problem can occur with other applications operating on Windows NT using Client Services for NetWare and NWRDR.

CAUSE

During drive connection and disconnection I/O, the Windows NT CSRSS drive table entry representing the NetWare drive connection becomes corrupted. A NetWare client connection established under one process, such as the MMTA, cannot be accessed by another process, such as through File Manager; if access is attempted, an Access Denied message will be returned. The NWRDR on Client Services for NetWare assigns a separate user context for each process. This is not true for the SMB redirector, RDR. When multiple processes begin to contend for a drive, the drive table entry can become corrupted. Contention can occur for a number of reasons. The Windows NT MMTA connects and disconnects dynamic drive resources. CIM periodically accesses drive resources to obtain information. Also, File Manager can be used to access drive resources.

Any of these operations accessing a common drive resource simultaneously can result in drive resource contention. If a failure occurs, Client Services for NetWare must be restarted to access the orphaned drive letter. The drive resource can no longer be accessed even though the drive appears to be available.

RESOLUTION

Basesrv.dll has been corrected to prevent NetWare drive resources from becoming orphaned or corrupted.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 3.51. This problem was corrected in the latest Windows NT 3.51 U.S. Service Pack. For information on obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

   S E R V P A C K

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   Article-ID: Q148348
   TITLE     : PC NTMMTA MMTA: Fails with Compaq Insight Manager

   Article-ID: Q146122
   TITLE     : PC NTMMTA: Error 2140 When You Try to Start Instance