How do I find the local path for a share on a clustered file server?

Question

Hello,

I have a number of shares on two file server clusters (one 2012 R2 and one 2019). I am moving our data from the old cluster to the new one. The old file server cluster has some shares that are apparently buried deeper in the folder structure. I know they are being shared out but I don't know where they are locally.

On both clusters, I am unable to use Computer Management or "net share" to see anything other than the administrative shares. I found information suggesting that this is because the file server is clustered, but I can't find any information on how to see the existing shares and what their local paths are. I looked in Failover Cluster Manager but couldn't find anything. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Zachary Hamilton

Answer 1

Hi,

Please check if you are looking for the following powershell command to find the Cluster shares:

Get-WmiObject Win32_Share | FT -Property Name, Caption, Path

Besides, you may check the cluster shares in the Cluster manager like below:

Thanks for your time!
Best Regards,
Anne

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Answer 2

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/failover-clustering/deploy-two-node-clustered-file-server provides detailed instructions on how to create a file share cluster. At the very end of the article it presents step-by-step instructions on how a clustered file share is created. By reading those instructions you should be able to see how the shares were created on your cluster. Key to understanding share creation is the creation of a different server name and IP address for each share.

Answer 3

@TimCerling(ret)

I can't seem to reply to your last comment. The Submit button won't work in any of my browsers.

At this point, I have copied all the shared folders that were on the root of the old file server (for example, "Accounting", "HR", "IT", "Shipping", etc.) to the new file server and deactivated the old shares. All those shares are now running off of the new file server.

Now, from any other machine, I can type in the old server name in Windows Explorer (for example, "\MyOldServer") and I still see two remaining active shares at this point. They are "Recruiting" and "Sustainability Studies". Neither of these is off of the root of any of the old file server drives, so my conclusion is that a subfolder somewhere is shared out.

However, if I RDP into MyOldServer, both "Computer Management" and "net share" only show me administrative shares like C$, D$, etc. "Recruiting" and "Sustainability Studies" just aren't there.

I have searched for subfolders with those names and found some hits, but none of them are shared. I'm not sure what my next step is.