[Permissions] Problems with students saving specific files

[CHiLL]

We have an issue where students are having issues saving and/or opening some specific files, which is essential for their GCSE work and I'm somewhat stuck!

 

Students are using Audacity to create projects, and they're saving their projects in their home folders (H: ) without issues. However when they open the Audacity project file, Audacity states that it is unable to to open the file.

If we copy the exact same Audacity project files from the students' home folder to the student shared area it opens without issue.

 

Students are also using Serif DrawPlus X5 to create an image file, and saving their into their home folder without issue. However, when they come to import the image into Serif MoviePlus X5, Serif complains about an error and it will not import the file.

If we copy the exact same DrawPlus image saved from the students' home folder to the student shared area, it will import into MoviePlus without issue.

 

Students are also using Serif PagePlus X5 to create an image to export it as a PDF file. When they export and save to their home folder, the file size appears as 0KB and Adobe Reader will not open the PDF.

If we export the file to another location, it obtains a normal file size and Adobe Reader will open the file without issues.

 

If we use the ICT Teacher's account to perform the exact same steps using their own home folder, we have no issues.

 

There are some very obvious correlations there, but I'm struggling to get to the bottom of what's causing the issue.

 

Student home folders (H: ) drive have the following permissions (assuming the student's AD account is 'teststudent'):

Owner: \\SERVER\Administrators

Full Control: teststudent, \\SERVER\Administrators, Domain Admins, \\SERVER\Administrator, SYSTEM

Modify: DOMAIN\All Staff

 

Student shared area (K: ) drive has the following permissions:

Owner: \\SERVER\Administrators

Full Control: SYSTEM, \\SERVER\Administrator, \\SERVER\Administrators, Domain Admins

Modify: DOMAIN\All Staff

Read & execute: DOMAIN\All Students

 

Staff home folder (H: ) drive has the following permissions (assuming the user is 'teststaff'):

Owner: \\SERVER\Administrators

Full Control: DOMAIN\TestStaff, \\SERVER\Administrator, \\SERVER\Administrator, SYSTEM, DOMAIN\Domain Admins

 

If we look at the advanced permissions for both the staff and student home folders, they have every permission ticked.

 

These permissions are by design (implemented by a third party contractor) so that users have full control over their home folders, and staff can have access to them too. The student shared area is specifically for staff to share information to multiple or all students, without the students being able to use the area as a dumping ground for MP3s, etc.

 

Can anybody help?

Edited May 24, 2016 by CHiLL

[sted]

is their home area nested ie \\server\users\2009\username and if so do they have permissions to all the folder upstream of their folder (so can they get to \\server\users or \\server\users\2009)as ive had office complain before if it couldnt read folder higher up than the user home folder

[CHiLL]

is their home area nested ie \\server\users\2009\username and if so do they have permissions to all the folder upstream of their folder (so can they get to \\server\users or \\server\users\2009)as ive had office complain before if it couldnt read folder higher up than the user home folder

Yes, home folders are nested. However, students are not specifically stated in the higher folders.

What setting would I need to allow them access, but still not allow them to view other students' home folders?

[sted]

Yes, home folders are nested. However, students are not specifically stated in the higher folders.

What setting would I need to allow them access, but still not allow them to view other students' home folders?

 

just allow their group read only and this folder only

 

[CHiLL]

just allow their group read only and this folder only

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]36981[/ATTACH]

This folder and subfolders all inherit permissions. If I enable All Students Read & Execute on this folder only, that will replicate down the folder structure. Would that have any problems?

[sted]

This folder and subfolders all inherit permissions. If I enable All Students Read & Execute on this folder only, that will replicate down the folder structure. Would that have any problems?

 

it wont thats why its set to this folder only

[CHiLL]

it wont thats why its set to this folder only

Cheers for all of that, it may well have sorted the issue. I'm getting our ICT teacher to test these issues later to see what happens.