Creating a Junction Point on a remote Server (Networkdrive)

Question

I'm trying to create Junction Points in PowerShell. This command on my local Drive works very well:

$Local = New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path C:\install\junction -value C:\cygwin64

This is the same command but for a Network Drive (Remote Server)

$Netwo = New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path I:\TRANSFER\Junction -value I:\somewhere

This command does not throw an error, so the junction point got successfully created

I also tried to do it with UNC-path \\server\share\somewhere and even with the Local Path from the server like D:\Data\somewhere but it still doesn't let me access the Junction I created on the Remote Server.

Does anybody know why?

This is the error screenshot, unfortunately in german, but it basically says "the path is not available"

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 02 '18 at 23:09

I realize this question has already been asked and answered to the OP's satisfaction. But I'm wondering if there is another interpretation of the question that was missed. Specifically, I don't think he was asking to make a junction whose target is a remote share.

Instead, I think he was trying to create a normal local junction on a remote server which is entirely doable with the use of typical powershell remoting type commands like this:

# using cmd's mklink
Invoke-Command -ComputerName Server -ScriptBlock { & cmd.exe /c mklink /j c:\junction c:\real }

# or if you want to keep it 100% powershell
Invoke-Command -ComputerName Server -ScriptBlock { New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path c:\junction -Value c:\real }

To the client who has I: mapped to a \\Server\c$ share, this would be the equivalent of creating an I:\junction pointing to I:\real.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered May 04 '17 at 14:17

The sysinternals junction util mentions:

Note: that Windows does not support junctions to directories on remote shares.

I can't find any MS KB article that confirms this, but I'm inclined to believe Mark Russinovich on this as he really knows his stuff.

Creating a Junction Point on a remote Server (Networkdrive)

2 Answers2