"Drive mapping refers to local drive" error

[SummaCollege]

I am having a nasty problem and i can't figure out what's causing it.

We use DEM to create drivemappings. One of the drivermappings isn't being created and shows an error in the flexengine.log

[ERROR] Drive mapping refers to local drive 'H' (Homedir.xml)

To me it looks like driveletter H is occupied at the moment DEM is trying to create the drivemapping.

When i do a -UemRefreshDrives after login, the mapping is created.

I have looked in the golden image and there is no H: drive in use, only C: and sometimes 😧 (cdrom)

After some help from DEMdev​

You could try to investigate with a Before profile archive import Logon Task, running something like cmd.exe /c DIR H:\ >"%USERPROFILE%\H-DIR.txt".

I have found the culprit. The H drive is indeed in use:

Volume in drive H is CVApps

Volume Serial Number is AEE0-8B16

Directory of H:\

04-09-2019  00:48                 0 allvolattached.bat

04-09-2019  00:48             1.355 allvolattached_shellstarted.bat

04-09-2019  00:48               320 cache.dat.initial

20-01-2020  14:19             1.472 cv_prestartup.log

20-01-2020  14:20               408 cv_prov_post.log

20-01-2020  14:20             6.225 META.ZIP

20-01-2020  14:20    <DIR>          METADATA

20-01-2020  14:19    <DIR>          OfficeTokensBefore

04-09-2019  00:48               261 prestartup.bat

04-09-2019  00:48             7.043 prov_post.bat

04-09-2019  00:48               372 shellstart.bat

20-01-2020  14:22            24.349 snapvol.cfg

04-09-2019  00:48                 0 startup.bat

04-09-2019  00:48               384 startup_postsvc.bat

28-08-2019  02:12           102.640 svoffice.exe

28-08-2019  02:09               228 svoffice.exe.config

04-09-2019  00:48            16.452 tokens.dat.initial

04-09-2019  00:49                20 version.txt

28-08-2019  02:12                87 VERSION32.txt

28-08-2019  02:17                87 VERSION64.txt

              18 File(s)        161.703 bytes

               2 Dir(s)  21.300.944.896 bytes free

To me it looks like an appstack or writable is attached before login and is using drive letter H: and a bit further in the process the driveletter is released as it is not visible afer login.

We do use Writable Volumes and Appstacks so that makes sense, but i never had any issues with driveletters before.

Do you have any idea what could be te cause of this?

These are the registry settings on HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\svservice\Parameters

[sjesse]

Did you manually set the drive leter to fix an issue

VMware Knowledge Base

[SummaCollege]

sjesse No, not that i know of...

[sjesse]

I'd check the registry key in the kb, normally writables or standard appstacks  drives don't get drive letters since everything is redirected to the c drive.

[SummaCollege]

I have checked the registry key and the "DriveLetterSettings" key is not present.

The strangest this to me is the fact that it has a Driveletter during login, but looses it during the process. Why is that happening.

Edit:

Info from KB Configuring Drive Letter Settings :

The default registry value is 3. This means that for writable volumes, the drive letter is hidden, and for AppStackvolumes, the drive letter is not assigned.

So if the writable is assigned a driveletter but it is hidden, it could mean that the writable is possibly assigned the letter H and thats why the mapping is not created.

What i do find strange is, why is the driveletter released from the writable a few min later?

[Ray_handels · Accepted solution]

Nope, is an issue with Appvolumes that has been addressed a while back and came back in Appvolumes 4.

You need to set the nodefaultdriveletter value for the appstack, here's the official KB article.

VMware Knowledge Base

Downside is that you need to edit this or all appstacks..... Good news is that it will al least work after that...

And as you can see it says CVApps, not CVWritable. This is your appstack, not the writable.

[SummaCollege]

Thanks for the info and KB! Was out for a vacation, but will check this asap and report back here

[SummaCollege]

Thanks Ray! Problem solved based on your info.

Had to set the NODEFAULTDRIVELETTER attribute on all our appstacks as it was not set (or previously removed). After changing the attribute the issue was gone.

Thanks for the help!