Excel allowing muliple users to edit

[Nadnerb]

Hi.

I'm currently having problems with the likes of Excel.

 

The problem is that files stored on the shared drive can be opened by multiple users with write permissions at the same time.

When the file is open and being edited by one user, Excel 'should' inform other users who try to open it, that the file is in use but they can open a read only copy if they like. This is not happening.

 

Things to note:

When two users have the workbook open, they can only see themselves within share notebook window (Excel->Review->Shareworkbook)

The file is not setup for workbook merging.

If I share a file from a different location eg. another workstation c:\, I do receive a message saying that I can only open a read only copy if the file is in use.

 

I'm a bit flummoxed to be honest. Any ideas please feel free to throw them my way!

[dapaulio]

Have you shadow copy enabled? (Previous versions) Edited January 29, 2016 by dapaulio

[Nadnerb]

Indeed I do....

[dapaulio]

i am not that familiar with shadow copy and will stand corrected if i am wrong but i believe the symptoms you are experiencing are because shadow copy is enabled. The basics are the users are not actually accessing the same file but a version of it.

 

to prove this theory create a share on a volume that is not shadow copied enabled and try opening the file from two different places.

 

it was a while ago, we use to have shadow copy enabled then we disabled it for that reason on shared resources.

[3s-gtech]

Do you also use DFS-R on that share?

[Nadnerb]

Thanks dapaulio, I'll give that a try.

Yeah 3s-gtech DFS is running.

[3s-gtech]

If you have DFS-R (rather than just DFS), it'll defeat the file lock in some instances because users can be opening separate files on separate servers, which are just linked by replication. The Conflict and Deleted system will then decide which one stays, and the other gets trashed. We turned off replication for one share, which is dedicated to marksheets, for exactly this reason. Edited January 29, 2016 by 3s-gtech
SPG

[dapaulio]

If you have DFS-R

 

That was it, not shadow copy. my mistake.

 

we stopped using both when we changed our network, and backup strategy

[Nadnerb]

Indeed we are running DFSR. That all makes sense actually.

Many thanks to you both. [emoji106]

[Nadnerb]

Thanks for the info.

A colleague of mine came up with another solution (if you want to keep DFR-R running). It basically pushes all down the same DFS target by priority. If that server is not there for example, it will then use the other DFS target. This allows you to keep your files replicated.

In DFS management, select your name space and click on a folder.

Right click on the folder target you want to be your priority server and select properties.

Select Advanced.

Tick Override referral ordering, and select first among all targets.