Problem using Shared folder files

[klamerus]

Okay, so this may be a challenge to follow, but here goes.

My host OS is Vista Ultimate Business (SP1) which I use on a laptop. This is new, previously I was using Win XP Pro (SP3). I just installed Vista last weekend.

I have lots of tools and utilities and have been using VMWare Workstation for quite a while. At this time I have v 6.0.5.

I use MS Outlook 2007 for email with my company's Exchange servers.

The company supports using an older edition of AT&T VPN client - but this doesn't install on Vista, so I thought I'd be clever.

I installed a copy ov Win XP Pro (SP3) in a VM and installed Outlook 2007 and the VPN software there.

I'm able to VPN from that, but I'm struggling with Outlook.

What I did was share the folders on my Vista host that hold my mail files to my guest OS. I then pointed my Outlook install at the same Outlook Offline Folder Files (*.ost) in those shared folders.

It doesn't work. I have the ability to create new files in this folder from the guest (Vista) so I know the folders are shared - but when Outlook starts up it says "File access is denied. You do not have the permission required to access the file H:\Mail\XXX.ost".

I'm pointing at these same files in my host and it works. I'm not running Outlook in both at the same time. It appears to be due to some sort of Vista security thingy.

So, does anyone have any idea what security issue is at work here and how to fix it?

[continuum]

Don't use vmware-shared-folders together with any Office-stuff or Outlook - it behaves strange - use regular file-sharing.

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description of vmx-parameters:

VMware-liveCD:

[guyrleech]

It's not ideal but I suspect that you will need to use different OST files for different installations of Outlook. Outlook seems very fussy about OST files. It will create them for you automatically when you first connect Outlook. I guess the only problem comes if you file lots of stuff in your mailbox as opposed to PSTs so the OST is large. I file in PSTs so my Mailbox is only really my Inbox, which is quotad so can't get that big, so I have a separate VM I can run with our VPN client in that I run on VMware Server which I can use when my laptop isn't available. Should be able to share PSTs but I haven't tried that through VMware shared folders.

[klamerus]

I haven't had too many issues with sharing use of OST and PST files previously - particularly not PST files.

I pretty much copy the PST files around as I upgrade or install/reinstall my desktops over time.

It is usually necessary to recreate my OST when I create a new profile.

I keep these on a separate partition on my laptop hard drive (Windows install on C:, data install on D:), which makes this easier.

I think you have hit on something about new OSTs / profile though. I hadn't thought about it, but there may be a "key" in the OST that ties it to a profile - and hence they can't be shared. I hadn't thought of that. It would seem very likely.

So far as file shares and sharing from the host (Vista) to the guest (XP), that would be a problem. They are not in a domain and therefore I can't - unless I entirely open up Vista security (which I can't even figure out how to do).

I'll start googling on shared use of OSTs.

[Scissor]

OST files are tied to the Outlook Mail Profile that created them.

[klamerus]

Yes, I understand that.

What I had been thinking temporarily was they were not only tied to the profile, but also unique to the installation of Outlook and so Outlook in my VM could never use them.

However, I then recall that what does work is copying the *.ost from the host to another directory in the guest (which Outlook points to) and this then works fine - so my theory is shot.

My opinion at this point is simply that the file sharing is simply very shaky. I think this is supported by the fast that the Outlook sessions might sometimes open my *.pst files and sometimes not. Also, I found that even if I did not have Outlook open in the guest, the host would still sometimes complain about files not being available.

So, I've kind of concluded is that EMC gave it a try and didn't really achieve what they were shooting for with this. Probably not something in high demand or it would work better.

[Scissor]

...

I think you have a few things going on here at the same time...

What I had been thinking temporarily was they were not only tied to the profile, but also unique to the installation of Outlook and so Outlook in my VM could never use them.

However, I then recall that what does work is copying the *.ost from the host to another directory in the guest (which Outlook points to) and this then works fine - so my theory is shot

.ost files are tied to the Outlook Profile that created them. You might be able to move them around on a file system, but only the Outlook profile that created the OST should use it. (there may be some 3rd party utilities that can extract data from an OST file, but that's beside the point to this discussion),

What I'm not clear on is why you even care about sharing the OST file between two computers. Just create a new Outlook Profile in your Guest VM and resync your mailbox -- that will create a new .OST file for you. You can have more than one copy of Outlook (and, by extension, more than one OST file) running against your Exchange Mailbox at the same time. The OST file management is automatically handled in the background by Outlook.

My opinion at this point is simply that the file sharing is simply very shaky. I think this is supported by the fast that the Outlook sessions might sometimes open my *.pst files and sometimes not. Also, I found that even if I did not have Outlook open in the guest, the host would still sometimes complain about files not being available.

That is true. VMware Shared Folders are not very stable. Best to avoid using them when possible and instead rely upon standard Windows file sharing techology instead (share a Host folder over the network and then map a drive letter to it from your Guest).

But even if you went that way, MSFT does not support Outlook accessing PST files over a network anyway. Eventually PST files will become corrupted if they are accessed that way. And only one copy of Outlook can open a particular PST file at a time (with some small exceptions -- for example, if Outlook is idle for long enough it will disconnect itself from the PST file and reconnect to it when it becomes active, but that behavior is not user configurable and should definately not be relied upon).

Some more reading on the matter is here:

http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2007/01/21/network-stored-pst-files-don-t-do-it.aspx

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297019

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I understand that your real desire is to access your Work mailbox from your Vista laptop when you are away from the office. Depending on what version of Exchange Server your company uses, you could ask your IT department to enable Outlook Anywhere (formerly known as RPC over HTTPS) for your mailbox -- that would allow Outlook to sync your mailbox over HTTPS without having to VPN in first. If your company already allows Outlook Web Access (webmail), enabling Outlook Anywhere consists of just flipping the feature on for your maibox (if I recall correctly).

VPN Clients can be tricky. You state that you are using an "older edition of AT&T VPN client". Can you install a newer version? I see that version 7.2 of the AT&T VPN client supports Vista: http://attnetclient.com/v7/faq.php

I'm still waiting for Cisco to come out with a VPN client for 64-bit Vista -- 2 years after Vista was released!

[klamerus]

I'll explain the situation again.

I need to be able to do company mail from home. The company uses Outlook and Exchange. The company suppliest AT&T VPN software, but it doesn't run on Vista.

Not an issue while I was using Win XP, but I use Vista now (I use my own laptop). So, I thought maybe I could install a copy of XP and Outlook on a VM and do company mail - and I can.

The reason for using the same set of OST and PST files is to keep in sync. I don't leave much in my OST file, but it does have a local copy of contacts, calendar, etc. If I work offline I risk getting the whole thing out of sync and losing or getting duplicate messages.

This may not be an issue any longer though. I found a group in the company working on a release of a later version of the AT&T VPN software (not out yet). The version they're working on works on Vista as well and it seems to work for me.

So, I no longer need to do the above.

The doesn't mean I should have had any issue in using these files this way, but I'll need to read up on the links. My guess is that MS is working with these files at a very low level - which should work, but probably doesn't, over any sort of network. Of course, these shared folders were something I thought would get a bit more attention to not be in that same category.

[klamerus]

I've ready both of these articles now and they seem maybe to differ on opinion on what Outlook is doing or maybe the authors aren't expressing themselves consistently.

For the non-MS writer he seems to be suggesting that Outlook read an entire PST file into memory or something. Otherwise, his example of 200 people each reading a 1 GB mail file (uncommon) at once would be 200 GB of network traffic to open and another 200 to close situation. if MS is reading an entire structure (ISAM like) file into memory they're nuts.

On the other hand, if MS is working with these files in an ISAM-like say (which I would) then they are making faily low level calls that might be getting messed up by OS buffering - which you might attempt to "fix" with lots of flushing, which would slow things down.

Regardless, I was hoping that host/guest file sharing was done a little better than network file sharing - but I guess not.

Also, as I said, I seem to have found a way to not need to do this yesterday. I do appreciate the help though and the useful articles.

Outlook/Exchange is one product family MS definitely needs to work on.