Questions on redirectors

I have some questions on redirectors:

  • under what circumstances NT sets the
    FILE_CREATE_TREE_CONNECTION flag in IRP_MJ_CREATE IRP?
    Can it be specified from umode in CreateFile?
  • under what circumstances the redirector must connect to the server?
    Explicit IOCTL from NP DLL - surely. But what on ordinary IRP_MJ_CREATE
    requests?
  • under what circumstances the redirector must disconnect from the server?
    Explicit IOCTL from NP DLL - surely. But what on timeouts?
  • is there any ways (like LsaCallAuthenticationPackage) to retrieve the
    current user’s password in cleartext from LSA to send it to the server
    without
    bothering the user to type a password?
  • what is a proper way to cache credentials (I mean username/password
    pairs) in the redirector? Must it be done by using LSA via
    LsaCallAuthenticationPackage? Or the redirector must maintain its own
    cache and use the logon session termination callback to wipe the stale
    entries?
  • will NET.EXE (I mean “net use” command) call the MPR and then my NP
    DLL or it is tightly bound to SMB network only?
  • how to specify the NP order in NT4 or w2k? I remember the explicit dialog
    box for it in NT3.x - but looks like it is gone in NT4…
  • in the RDBSS sample from the IFS kit, I saw that sometimes
    username/password information is passed to the redirector in the EAs
    specified to CreateFile. Is it a mandatory thing for redirectors or some
    RDBSS proprietary thing?


Maxim Shatskih
StorageCraft Corporation
xxxxx@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com