Using a network path for the server import or export directory

Akshay Davis
Akshay Davis Experian Super Contributor
edited December 2023 in General

It may be desirable to have Data Studio v1 or v2 import and export data from a network path. This will allow users who do not have access to the physical machine have access to their relevant data folders.

Note: Doing this incorrectly may cause Data Studio to fail to start up, or fail to read/write from those folders.

Use the full UNC path for the drive

The first step is to configure Data Studio to use the full UNC path for the drive location. For example, my G drive is configured as shown below

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If I wanted to to use the G:\GPD\Public\Akshay\Export folder as the Data Studio export folder. The path I would enter would be:

\\corp-qas-fs01.mydomain.com\public\akshay\export

Note that I've used the fully qualified domain (mydomain.com) to be safe.

You then set this in the server.properties file as follows:

DirName.EXPORT=path\=\\corp-qas-fs01.mydomain.com\public\akshay\export

for the export directory, or

DirName.IMPORT=path\=\\corp-qas-fs01.mydomain.com\public\akshay\import

for the import directory.


Ensure data studio has permissions to that drive

In a domain environment, you can grant access rights to computer accounts; this applies to processes running on those computers as LocalSystem or NetworkService (but not LocalService, which presents anonymous credentials on the network) when they connect to remote systems.

So, if you have a computer called MANGO, you'll have an Active Directory computer account called MANGO$, which you can grant permissions to.

The data studio service runs as the LocalSystem  on the machine, so this machine account needs to have access to the shared folder.

First go to the folder you wish to use, then right click and select properties->security->edit permissions->Add.

Next change the object type to be computers, by default this will be turned off.

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Then enter the machine name that is running Data Studio followed by a '$' symbol, select check name to validate that this is recognised, and give this account full control over the folder.

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Finally, restart Data Studio and ensure the import/export directories are created as you expect.

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