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By default, InterPlot requires that offline raster files be written onthe plot server's local harddrive. This can be inconvenient for some custom workflows or forcentralized management of a group of plot servers. With the stepslisted below, you can modify the system to support UNC filenames (filenames of the form \\servername\sharename...).
The primary obstacle to using UNC directory names and filenames withInterPlot is Windows security. When a plot job arrives on the plotserver and enters the printer queue, the InterPlot print processor usesWindows impersonation to acquire the user rights of the submittinguser. In theory, this means that a given plot job should be able towrite to any UNC share that the submitting user is able to write to.However, for reasons Microsoft was unable to provide, the impersonationis incomplete, and the job runs in a credential-less mode--with no username or password assigned to networking operations. When no user nameand password are present in a file share connection request, this istermed a "null session."By default, the Windows file sharing software prohibits null sessionusers from accessing file shares. However, on Windowsit is possible to modify a registry key to allow null session accesson a per-share basis.Enabling Null Session SupportSuppose you have a plot server named PLOTSRV and a file server namedBIGSRV. On BIGSRV, there is a share called "plotfiles" in which youwant to store offline files generated by InterPloton PLOTSRV. You have enabled "full control" for all users and all userscan write files to \\BIGSRV\plotfiles. Now you must enable "NullSession Support" for the share as described in Microsoft knowledge basearticle Q121853. Perform these steps on BIGSRV. 1. On BIGSRV, start Registry Editor and locate the following Registry subkey in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree: \SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters 2. Select the NullSessionShares value. 3. From the Edit menu, choose Multi String. NOTE: values will already exist and should not be replaced. If the values are accidentally deleted, just choose Cancel and try again. 4. Select the first blank line after the values that currently exist. (The lines above should not be highlighted.) Add the name of the share you want to accept null sessions. (For example, if the UNC path is \\bigserv\plotfiles, then you you put the share name "plotfiles" (without the quotes) in the NullSessionShares value.) 5. Choose OK and exit Registry Editor. 6. This step is mandatory. You must either shut down and restart Windows NT or from a command prompt type: NET STOP SERVER. Then type: NET START SERVER.Offline Driver with UNC NamesThe InterPlot Offline Raster Driver includes the InterPlot Batch Portmonitor. The Batch Port monitor automatically writes offline rasterfiles according to a user-specified configuration. You can select theoutput directory and the file naming convention based on series number,job names, user name, etc.Unfortunately, the port configuration dialog box uses a directorybrowser to select the output directory. This means that you cannotmanually key-in a UNC directory. To set the UNC directory, you must usethe registry editor. Use these steps on the plot server: 1. These steps assume that you already have the Offline Raster driver configured and are using it to create offline raster files in a directory local to the plot server. If this is not true, create a queue and configure an Intergraph Batch Port as desired. 2. On the plot server, start Registry Editor and locate the following Registry subkey in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree: /SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/Print/Monitors/ Intergraph Batch Port/Ports 3. Select the name of the port you wish to change. 4. In the right half of the registry editor, double click on the "Directory" field. 5. You should now be presented with the "String Editor" dialog box. Enter the UNC name of the directory you want offline files written to. To use the previous example, you could enter \\BIGSRV\plotfiles 6. Select OK. 7. The next plot sent to this offline queue will be written to the UNC directory you entered.