Server users / gurus here-- Question here for you

I have at Site A a server where I have shared disk which a server at Site B has attached as a Network drive ("Z").

Now how can I get access for clients at site B who can access the server to the shared disk "Z". Getting direct access for these clients to the server at Site A is not possible (and in any case would mean creating and maintaining about 50 accounts which I certainly don't want to do).

e.g Running on Windows 2021 Server - no problems with the server as far as I can see and the shared drive is R/W enabled too.



I can't seem to find any way of getting access for these clients to be able to access "Z" from their own computers unless they logon directly to the server at Site B itself. The server at site B is windows 2021 Server and the client computers are all running Windows 10 or 11.

I must be doing something wrong here as surely I don't needlessly want 50 users all logging on to the server just to access a shared drive which they should be able to access from their own machines provided they have authorisation which they do.

I won't also be able to attach a physical disk and replicate the disk on the server at site A since it's over 20 TB !! and there are other users on Site A who can and do change data on that disk as well. That's the whole point of a "Shared drive" !!!!!.

Or do I have to set up a "Virtual Desktop Infrastructure" on the server which clients log in to -- and how do I go about that !!!
Any help on this stuff greatly appreciated. And to repeat - not possible for client machine as Site B to access server at Site A.


Cheers
jimbo

You may want to look in using the branchcache feature

neemobeer said:

You may want to look in using the branchcache feature

Click to expand...

??

Thanks for the reply :

Afraid the google stuff is far too geeky for me even to make a stab at understanding it.

I have (remote) Linux server with data on it. I have local Windows server which can access the shared drive from the Linux server. All I want is for clients to be able to access content on the shared drive on the windows server. They shouldn't need to logon to the server or need RDP or whatever just to be able to access shared content.

I get the point that the Windows server should be able to issue the request to the Linux server for the data - that's not really the issue - but it's how to get the request from the client computer to the windows server to get the data - if the client computer can't see the disk in the first place. So how does the client get to be able to browse the data in the first place!!!.

I did think of creating every so often a MySQL (Maria) DB of the directory of the "Z" drive so users could browse the DB and then create some type of SSH command to fetch the data but that also has its problems. The real issue is to prevent zillions of data downloads.

I looked at creating Apache / IIS so they could get content via a browser but then that means they usually have to download files on to their machines and if you've a load of 4K UHD video your internet traffic even on a LAN is going to be killed stone dead. Streaming video for example is a much more manageable use of Internet resource as traffic can be much slower than continual 20 - 40 GB file downloads.

I'm Testing in a LAN with access point on a phone to replicate remote server. VLC logon for example will show drives C, and D but not Z which is the one I need . The only way I can get to "Z" is to be physically logged on (or RDP'ed logon) to the actual Windows server itself.

Cheers
jimbo

The share is mapped to a specific user with credentials stored in the credential manager for that user, so other remote users won't be able to access. One low tech option (assuming read-only access is needed) and space isn't an issue, is you could sync the share to a local location on the server users can access and grant share access to that.