World of Webdav

WebDav Folders Issues - IIS 7 and Sharepoint

2010-04-08T08:31:00.000-07:00

Long time no post... sorry. Here's a new one I found today about the new IIS 7 WebDav in Windows 2008 and some Issues witch Sharepoint 2007. Good to know:

WebDav Folders - no full functionality

Cheers,

Joelle

WebDAV 7.5 - Update for IIS 7 WebDav (Locking)

2009-03-18T03:03:00.001-07:00

Well, I have not expected to see this "that fast" - but it was released this week:

Microsoft IIS 7 WebDAV 7.5 / FTP 7.5 Extension

This should solve the issues with Apple OS X and the other WebDAV Clients like Subversion, Git, etc. which need locks. I will give it a try later this week and see if it fulfills the expectations.

Here's an article on IIS.NET which gives a detailed How-To about the Locking Configuration.

IIS 7 DAV LOCK und Apple OS X

2009-02-18T05:18:00.001-08:00

While trying to access a Windows Server 2008 WebDAV Share with Apple OS X I was only able to get read access. After some research it looks like this is the explanation:

I suspect this has to do with the WebDAV server
implementation. When you mount a DAV file system
on the Mac, it is using /sbin/mount_webdav
under-the-hood. The manual page states the
following:

> If connecting to a Class 1 compliant WebDAV
> server, the rdonly option will be set even if it
> was not specified because mount_webdav will
> not allow files to be opened with write access
> on servers which do not support the
> DAV LOCK method

I read somewhere recently that the IIS 7 WebDAV extension does not currently implement locking, which means OS X clients cannot write.

Hello Redmond? True? Why?

There is a discussion on IIS.NET, but currently there is no solution.

[Update] It looks like Microsoft is aware of this issue. There are some very interesting posts in the comments of an old IIS 7 Team blog article - Julian Reschke is again doing a great job.

What the heck is a SharePoint Protocol?

2008-11-13T04:45:00.001-08:00

I have found this very good article about the inside out of the "Sharepoint Protocol", which is very much WebDAV-related but not quite the same. Just see for yourself, it's based on the technical details of what Alfresco is doing - if you don't know Alfresco and have not already deployed Sharepoint you should really have a look at this very interesting product.

Source: What the heck is a SharePoint-Protocol

Inside SharePoint Integrating Office Applications

2008-09-13T06:06:00.001-07:00

Very detailed article about the "inside" of Microsoft Sharpoint 2007, especially about the WebDAV Client Redirector architecture. Even better, there is a code download included to get around some of the shortcomings of the current Sharpoint Client communication possibilities:

Source:
Inside SharePoint Integrating Office Applications

Update on WebDAV Credentials in Vista

2008-09-13T03:28:00.001-07:00

Here's another good article about the WebClient Credential issue on Windows Vista with some more details:

Source: Prompted for Credentials when Accessing Documents in MOSS 2007

Windows Vista / Windows 2003 and WebDAV over HTTP (not S)

2008-08-30T15:01:00.001-07:00

There's a good article about the problem to do a WebDAV connection without SSL on Vista / Win2003:

SharePint, WebDAV, and http (not https)

Here's the abstract:

Fire up regedit.exe (if UAC is enabled you'll have to approve it of course)
Navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters
Change the setting BasicAuthLevel from its current value (default 1) to 2 (0 means disabled, 1 is https only, 2 is both http and https)
Enter the following commands:
1. net stop webclient
2. net start webclient
3. net use x: "http://yoursharepointprovider.tld/somesharename" /user:"whateverdomain\yourusername" /persistent:yes
4. Enter your password when prompted

Update:

For Windows 2003 server the DWORD value you must add to the registry under the Parameters key above is UseBasicAuth and set its value to 1 and you'll also want to update the AcceptOfficeAndTahoeServers key from 0 to 1. You cannot just net stop/start webclient; instead you must net stop mrxdav then net start webclient. I found this out from KB841215.

A bit Off Topic: Virtual Tape Driver

2008-08-17T03:58:00.001-07:00

Last week I was searching for a solution how to do "Cloud Backup" in a datacenter. This is not directly related to WebDAV, but what other reliable file protocol would anyone use when storing file based data on a remote storage solution - especially if the storage solution is something "in the cloud" like Amazon S3 or similar.

Well, the first question was about how to do a good Windows 2003 / Windows 2008 backup - eventually with Microsoft Data Protection Manager (Microsoft DPM) - when there is no tape infrastructure. All the Microsoft tools want to have some kind of tape. But tapes in datacenter clouds... not good.

Here's what I have found last week, I am now running a test pilot but it looks like a perfect solution: Virtual Tape Driver.

Firestreamer Virtual Tape Driver for Microsoft Data Protection Manager / Microsoft Backup

It supports not only all kind of physical media but also network shares, NAS and.... WebDAV.

Maybe some of you may have the same situation and this information could help.

EFS in Teams on Network Shares

2008-06-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

Hi,

today I have found a great article about productive usage of EFS in teams. I mean everyone who have ever tried to use EFS in a multi-user environment may have seen the same unbelievable shortcomings: SMB EFS works with server based profiles with a bunch of issues as a result of this concept. And even with WebDAV there is still a major issue: multi-user server shares with EFS will not work because you can't inherit the EFS "ACL" and a new file will only be decryptable by the file owner. No comment.

Well, here's the link:
http://geisbauer.blogspot.com/2008/06/sharepoint-dateien-verschlsseln-teil-1.html
http://geisbauer.blogspot.com/2008/06/sharepoint-dateien-verschlsseln-teil-2.html

But sorry... it's in German. Maybe some of you folks can read it?

Joelle

WebDAV Redirector Registry Settings

2008-03-11T07:55:00.001-07:00

In Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 there is an updated WebDAV redirector which has several settings available through registry.

Rober McMurray has documented all currently available settings in his blog, it's a great resource and I have to copy it especially for my own memory.

The base registry hive is:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters

The know settings are:

Value & Description	Type	Values	Default
AcceptOfficeAndTahoeServers Specifies whether the WebClient service can connect to web sites that are running SharePoint or Office Web Server.	DWORD	0 = False 1 = True	1
BasicAuthLevel Specifies whether the WebClient service can use basic authentication to talk to a server. Note: Using basic authentication can cause serious security issues as the username/password are transmitted in clear text, therefore the use of basic authentication over WebDAV is disabled by default unless the connection is using SSL. That being said, this registry key can override the default basic authentication behavior, but it is still strongly discouraged.	DWORD	0 = Basic authentication is disabled 1 = Basic authentication is enabled for SSL web sites only 2 = Basic authentication is enabled for SSL and non-SSL web sites	1
FileAttributesLimitInBytes Specifies the maximum size that is allowed by the WebClient service for all properties on a specific collection.	DWORD	Size of attributes in bytes	1,000,000 decimal (1 MB)
FileSizeLimitInBytes Specifies the maximum size in bytes that the WebClient service allows for file transfers.	DWORD	File size in bytes	50,000,000 decimal (50 MB)
InternetServerTimeoutInSec Specifies the connection timeout for the WebClient service uses when communicating with non-local WebDAV servers.	DWORD	Time in seconds	30 decimal
LocalServerTimeoutInSec Specifies the connection timeout for the WebClient service uses when communicating with a local WebDAV server.	DWORD	Time in seconds	15 decimal
SendReceiveTimeoutInSec Specifies the timeout in seconds that WebDAV the WebClient service uses after issuing a request, such as “GET /file.ext” or “PUT /file.ext”.	DWORD	Time in seconds	60 decimal
ServerNotFoundCacheLifeTimeInSec Specifies the period of time that a server is cached as non-WebDAV by the WebClient service. Note: The WebClient service maintains a list of non-WebDAV servers that have been contacted. If the server is found in this list, a fail is returned immediately without attempting to contact the server.	DWORD	Time in seconds	60 decimal
SupportLocking Specifies whether the WebClient service supports locking.	DWORD	0 = False 1 = True	1

Note: After changing any of these settings you will need to restart the WebClient service.

Source: Robert McMurray's Blog

Great Microsoft EFS articles and tools

2007-11-23T03:37:00.000-08:00

Microsoft EFS (Encrypted File System) can be used in combination with SMB and WebDAV. With SMB on network shares it makes not much sense (see my other notes) because of the strange implementation of using server side profiles and keys. But on local disks or with WebDAV on network filestores it's a great security enhancement out-of-the-box.

But there are a lot of issues and caveats you have to know when you want to deploy EFS in an enterprise infrastructure. Today I found the "ParanoidMike" blog which is a great resource for some of EFS related question:

EFS Certificate Updater
EFS and SYSKEY backgrounder
Why EFS makes no sense on servers

Source: ParanoidMike

Mounting WebDAV Servers (RFC 4709)

2007-09-13T02:27:00.000-07:00

Found this RFC today. Well, it's an October 2006 document, I am sorry if this is old news for you :-).

RFC 4709

It's Julian Rescke (greenbytes) again and he does a good job in not only describing an WebDAV announcement technology already used by SAP and others but also included some Windows client script to make the transparent mounting work in any native Windows environment.

Worth looking into because if you plan an infrastructure where WebDAV is used instead of file servers it is a real need to think about a link notation which does not result in the well known "browser view" of WebDAV shares but instead opens an explorer view of the data. Julian's document describes such a way.

On the other hand at least in Windows Vista it is possible to use a file share URL to connect to WebDAV:

\\server.domain@SSL\DavWWWRoot

I will try to collect some more pros and cons about the different ways to mount a WebDAV share - happy about your comments.

Windows Server 2008, the storage story

2007-09-04T00:46:00.000-07:00

On the Windows Server Division Weblog, Claude Lorenson is writing about "the future of SMB". He delivers some very interesting details about Windows Server 2008 (Longhorn) and the new features of SMB 2.0. It's obvious that Microsoft invests in SMB, especially to make it usable for the loosely coupled branch offfice scenarios:

SMB 2.0 greatly improves the scalability of SMB 1.0; there is now more open files on a server supported as well as a higher number of shares supported. The protocols have been enhanced to reduce the “chattiness” that makes file sharing on a WAN sometimes painful. With SMB 2.0, customer data has shown the ability to download a 300MB file 35 times faster than with SMB 1.0 using a 100 Mbps link (from 24 minutes to 41 seconds). SMB2.0 will also support transactions, symbolic links and client side encryption. All these features are fully functional when Vista clients are used in combination with Windows Server 2008.

But there is also an important side note which may change a lot when planning next generation storage infrastructures:

The following sentence: "SMB2.0 will also support transactions, symbolic links and client side encryption" is not correct. Transaction support and client side encryption will not be available in Windows Server 2008 and therefore are not in the beta 3 release either.]

Wow... still no SMB encryption. I remember Microsoft is promising this feature since the late 90's. It looks like WebDAV will continue to be the only native file access protocol in Windows Clients which support communication encryption.

See the full story here:
Windows Server 2008, the storage story

Microsoft White Paper: Understanding and Troubleshooting Sharepoint Explorer View

2007-09-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

Well, ever thought about the strange behaviors in working with Sharepoint when connecting with Windows Explorer, WebDAV, Applications File Dialog, etc?

This White Paper explains a lot:

The Explorer View feature that is included with Windows SharePoint Services and is also available in Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server lets users access files stored in the SharePoint database using the familiar Windows Explorer interface. To the end user, this appears to be a very simple and robust feature. In reality, it is the result of a complex series of interactions between many individual components provided by separate Microsoft products.

This white paper is an effort to accomplish three things:

Provide an overview of the Explorer View architecture.

Document the causes and resolutions of problems you are likely to encounter when using the Explorer View in a corporate environment.

Describe basic troubleshooting steps to be performed before engaging Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS).

Everyone working with WebDAV and/or Sharepoint should have a look into this paper - it may solve some of your day by day problems.

Source:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads

Mirosoft WebDAV DLL and Redirector Versions and Issues

2007-08-28T08:24:00.001-07:00

A small German based company (greenbytes, one of the owners is included in some of the WebDAV RFCs) has done a terrific job in collecting all kind of informations about the MSDAIPP.DLL (Web Folder Client) and the MRXDAV.SYS (WebDAV Mini-Redirector).

You can find all Windows and Hotfix Versions of these files and links to all available Microsoft KB-Articles and documents related.

Give it a try:

Web Folder Client (MSDAIPP.DLL) Versions and Issues List
http://greenbytes.de/tech/webdav/webfolder-client-list.html

WebDAV Mini-Redirector (MRXDAV.SYS) Versions and Issues List
http://greenbytes.de/tech/webdav/webdav-redirector-list.html

DavCopy - The WebDAV robocopy edition

2007-08-28T08:03:00.000-07:00

This one is a must have for everyone working with native WebDAV or Sharepoint as a WebDAV Server:

DavCopy
http://www.bluedoglimited.com/Downloads/default.aspx

It's a kind of xcopy / robocopy for WebDAV, you can do simple thins like

DavCopy.exe test\folder\readme.doc “http://server.com/shared documents/”

or funny things like

/s /xf *docs\*c* w* /xd reports how-to lang

and most important, it supports command line authentication for batch jobs.

Microsoft WebDAV Hotfix - KB 933771

2007-08-28T01:22:00.000-07:00

Last one for today - this one is really ugly: Microsoft Windows Vista crashes when using encryption with WebDAV. Sometimes I wonder about the quality of test procedures at Microsoft - based on several good articles found on microsoft.com WebDAV is the preferred protocol to work work securely against file servers because it is the only protocol offered by Microsoft which encrypts the communication over the network - in addition to the encrypted EFS files.

But it seems no one cared - copy one small EFS-encrypted file to a WebDAV share says goodby to your Explorer.

Details:

In Windows Vista, the Svchost.exe process stops responding when you try to copy encrypted Encrypting File System (EFS) files to a Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) resource. If you use Windows Explorer to do this, Windows Explorer stops responding. You may have to restart the computer.

Note The Svchost.exe process hosts the WebClient service.

When you try to save an encrypted 2007 Microsoft Office document to a WebDAV resource, you may receive an error message that says that the document cannot be saved.

The KB Article can be found here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933771

Microsoft WebDAV Hotfix - KB 931770

2007-08-28T01:11:00.000-07:00

Another update - this time it's a hotfix - coming from Microsoft Support. This one addresses the following:

On a Windows Vista-based computer, when you try to copy files from a server on a network, the copy process may stop responding (hang), and you may receive a message that resembles the following:

Calculating Time Remaining
0 minutes remaining

This problem may occur only occasionally.

The detailed KB Article can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/931770

Well, the bad new is that even when the hotfix is installed on my Vista machine the copy or move process fails quite often. Sometimes with an error message (I am still digging into this issue) and sometimes it just freezes.

Microsoft WebDAV Software Update - KB 90703

2007-08-28T01:02:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has releases a Software Update for Windows XP and Windows Vista which solves the following issues:

This update fixes various issues that may occur when you use Web folders from the client computer to connect to a server that supports Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV).

This update fixes the following issues:

A document that is opened from a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 site may be downloaded two times when you click Edit in Microsoft Office program.
The download progress indicator does not work for some documents on the SharePoint site.
You cannot rename or copy files that have a display name in a non-Internet Information Services (IIS) Web folder.

Additionally, this update includes security enhancements to Web folders.

The detailed KB Article can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=907306

Well, it looks like Microsoft starts to care about WebDAV... somehow.

Map a drive via FTP or WebDav

2007-08-24T04:53:00.000-07:00

Source: Map a drive via FTP or WebDav

Talking about an alternative approach to connect to WebDAV shares, there is an application out there I tried some time ago (Novell "Net Drive" aka "Webdrive"). I was not too happy with this application because of heavy issues with the cache consistency and the many explorer freezes I had, but Simon writes in his blog about the licensing confiusion I din't know about before. Good reading.

WebDAV, Branch Offices and Sharepoint 2007

2007-08-24T02:38:00.000-07:00

Given the numerous options a customer has to plan an enterprise wide storage architecture it is not easy to decide about. But during the last 24 months a lot of customers have thought about their enterprise architecture in general and their branch office infrastructure in detail.

Some have chosen to continue to use SMB/CIFS with the help of DFS and delta-replication in R2 and may have even invested in helper technologies from several 3rd parties which offer “branch office boxes” to help cache SMB traffic. These customers will benefit a lot from the upcoming Vista client replication and offline capabilities offered with the Vista release of CSC.

But on the other hand especially the large enterprises do not want to continue the heavy investments of redundant server islands in sometimes hundreds of branch offices and these customers search for combined enterprise storage and document platform solutions which could be offered from products like SharePoint 2007. A lot of good arguments could make this plan working:

There’s a trend to NOC service centric infrastructures driven by the concepts of the Jericho group and evangelists like Microsoft’s Steve Riley called the “death of the perimeter”. Consolidating the enterprise infrastructure services (storage, collaboration, etc) in secured network operation centers and offering these services to desktop and mobile clients worldwide.

There’s a general understanding to use more intelligent file servers with collaboration and workflow capabilities

There are a lot of Microsoft Evangelists praying to use SharePoint instead of file servers

Only WebDAV offers encrypted network transport when not using IPSec

That said it is an attractive strategy to plan upcoming infrastructures around SharePoint 2007. There is a lot of uniqueness against competition in such an infrastructure and it would be a win-win for Microsoft and its customers: The customer can benefit from a streamlined, very productive and scalable architecture and Microsoft establishes the fundament for a long term Vista/Office/Server environment.

But instead of investing in a good implementation of WebDAV as an alternative approach for enterprise storage the reality in XP and Vista shows an unfinished WebDAV client:

WebDAV/EFS support in Vista results in instant deterministic crashes which leads to the assumption that it was not even worth testing to Microsoft QA

WebDAV/Windows Explorer often freezes the Explorer when used in copy operations and makes it instable or even unusable

WebDAV/CSC (Offline Folders) is not implemented at all. That means the very important technology to work with server documents while on the road is not possible with SharePoint. (The alternative approach to sync with Outlook 2007 has several caveats worth to write a separate document – most obvious the missing possibility to create documents while offline; Similar caveats exist when used with Groove).

Conclusion: Microsoft would offer an attractive technology with SharePoint/Office System 2007 in combination with Microsoft Vista if the underlying technology in Vista would support the obvious need to work with documents the way users are expecting: secure, stable and ready for mobile usage.

Why another Blog about WebDAV?

2007-08-24T02:14:00.000-07:00

The WebDAV specification was developed in the mid 90's and several RFCs describe the details about the protocol itself and other needed details like the attributes or security specs. But being available for nearly 10 years now it seems that there is still no perfect solution for a day-to-day usage of WebDAV as the primary protocol to access documents and other files in a corporate environment. Beside its obvious advantages like founding on the well known HTTP protocol and the well know SSL/TLS security channel it seems that the reality is affected by the poor Microsoft implementation in Windows XP and Vista, the poor implementation in several commercial server products and the absence of an offline solution.

The intention of this blog is to collect all available resources to make WebDAV a usable choice for corporations and private users.