Microsoft Knowledge Base Email Alertz

Explorer view or mapped network drive does not open SharePoint library when using load balancer on web front ends

Search KbAlertz

Advanced Search

Receive Microsoft Knowledge Base articles by E-Mail?

Every night we scan the Microsoft Knowledge Base. If technologies you're interested in are updated, we'll send you an e-mail. You only get one e-mail a day, and only when new articles are added.

Click here to create a
FREE account
Already have an account?
[Click here to Login]











Microsoft Knowledge Base Article

This article contents is Microsoft Copyrighted material.
©2005-©2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use | Trademarks

Article ID: 2388749 - Last Review: September 22, 2010 - Revision: 6.0

Explorer view or mapped network drive does not open SharePoint library when using load balancer on web front ends

SYMPTOMS

When using a load balancer to distribute client requests across multiple web front ends, the Explorer View functionality may fail to operate properly. The failure may be represented to the client as repeated prompts for authentication, or the client may receive a generic "Page cannot be displayed" error message.

This problem may appear inconsistent across clients depending on the configuration of the client computer. This is because the Explorer View feature relies on IE Web Folder Behaviors (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms531432(VS.85).aspx) to provide it’s functionality. The IE Web Folders Behavior can leverage either of two possible protocols to produce the Explorer View experience:
  1. The Windows Web Client Service which uses the standard WebDAV protocol.
  2. The FPRPC protocol (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd587455(v=office.11).aspx) as provide by the Web Extender Client components.

Clients which do not have the Web Extender Client components installed will experience this problem, while clients that do have these components installed may be immune. The Web Extender Client components were originally shipped as part of the Office suite and within 32-bit versions of the Microsoft Windows operating systems. Starting with Windows Vista, these components were no longer provided with the operating system. 

CAUSE

The SharePoint Explorer View feature requires certain standard WebDAV verbs to provide its expected functionality. Any load balancer need to be configured to forward these verbs to the SharePoint Web Front End servers in order for the Explorer View feature to work correctly.

RESOLUTION

Configure the load balancer to forward all of the following verbs:

GET, POST, OPTIONS, HEAD, MKCOL, PUT, PROPFIND, PROPPATCH, DELETE, MOVE, COPY, GETLIB, LOCK, UNLOCK

Note This is a "FAST PUBLISH" article created directly from within the Microsoft support organization. The information contained herein is provided as-is in response to emerging issues. As a result of the speed in making it available, the materials may include typographical errors and may be revised at any time without notice. See Terms of Use (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=151500) for other considerations.

APPLIES TO
  • Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003
  • Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2.0
  • Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
  • Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010
  • Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
  • Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
Keywords: 
KB2388749
       

Community Feedback System

Very often, it takes hours to solve a problem. Very often, you've looked high and low, and have tried a lot of solutions. When you finally found it, chances are, it was because someone else helped you. Here's your chance to give back. Use our community feedback tool to let others know what worked for you and what didn't.

Please also understand that the community feedback system is not warranted to be correct, it's simply a system that we've built to let people try and help each other. If something in a feedback response doesn't make sense to you, or you're not comfortable making changes that the feedback talks about (like registry edits), please consult a professional.

Thank you for using kbAlertz.com Feedback System.

-- Scott Cate