# Path.data - Windows UNC Path **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [November 10, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/path-data-windows-unc-path/65694 "2016-11-10T15:46:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KlopgeestBE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/47e85d/32.png) [@KlopgeestBE](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/KlopgeestBE)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/path-data-windows-unc-path/65694/1 "2016-11-10T15:46:19Z")
A question for my configuration: When I setup a ES cluster on Windows, i'm able to define the path.data to (example) : S:\DataShare (which is locally a disk) When I map a network drive (so a UNC share to another server like \computer\ES1Datashare) to M: and map that to path.data: M:\ES1Datashare, this doesn't work: [2016-11-10 16:45:36,220][INFO][node] [esdata-3] version[1.7.5], pid[12652], build[00f95f4/2016-02-02T09:55:30Z] [2016-11-10 16:45:36,220][INFO][node] [esdata-3] initializing ... [2016-11-10 16:45:36,345][INFO][plugins] [esdata-3] loaded [], sites [] [2016-11-10 16:45:36,392][ERROR][bootstrap] Exception **org.elasticsearch.ElasticsearchIllegalStateException: Failed to created node environment** at org.elasticsearch.node.internal.InternalNode.(InternalNode.java:167) at org.elasticsearch.node.NodeBuilder.build(NodeBuilder.java:159) at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.setup(Bootstrap.java:77) at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:245) at org.elasticsearch.bootstrap.Elasticsearch.main(Elasticsearch.java:32) **Caused by: java.nio.file.FileSystemException: W:\ES-Data-3-Store\elasticcluster\nodes\0: Unable to determine if root directory exists** at java.nio.file.Files.createDirectories(Unknown Source) at org.elasticsearch.env.NodeEnvironment.(NodeEnvironment.java:132) at org.elasticsearch.node.internal.InternalNode.(InternalNode.java:165) ... 4 more Is it even possible to add a Windows share to the path.data config? Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 5:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/path-data-windows-unc-path/65694/2 "2016-11-10T17:52:27Z")
Using network dirs is a bad idea in general. You should prefer local disk. ---
**Author:** ![trondhindenes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/trondhindenes/32/10534_2.png) [@trondhindenes](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/trondhindenes)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2016, 9:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/path-data-windows-unc-path/65694/3 "2016-11-11T21:13:17Z")
Qre you running ES with your own user account? Drive mappings are a per-user thing in windows. The ES service runs as system by default, so it won't have access to your user account's drive mapping. ---
**Author:** ![KlopgeestBE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/47e85d/32.png) [@KlopgeestBE](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/KlopgeestBE)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2016, 8:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/path-data-windows-unc-path/65694/4 "2016-11-14T08:12:44Z")
So changing the Log On account to an AD-user will bypass this? How does this effect the ES-security model? Thanks for your replies. ---
**Author:** ![trondhindenes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/trondhindenes/32/10534_2.png) [@trondhindenes](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/trondhindenes)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2016, 8:28am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/path-data-windows-unc-path/65694/5 "2016-11-14T08:28:27Z")
I'm just stating that if you have mapped a drive using a different user than you're running ES with, it will _definetely_ not work. ---
**Author:** ![KlopgeestBE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/47e85d/32.png) [@KlopgeestBE](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/KlopgeestBE)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2016, 3:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/path-data-windows-unc-path/65694/6 "2016-11-15T15:03:04Z")
I was able to to bypass this by using the following: I ran the ElasticSearch application as an Active Directory User who has access to the newly created share. Afterwards I created a link in Windows to make the network path accessible by a _local_ Windows path: - command prompt as Administrator: mklink /D E:[Foldername to create] [networkshare] Example: mklink /D e:\ES-Data3-Store \networkshare\datastoreforES Afterwards I updated my path.data to the new local share: E:\ES-Data3-Store ElasticSearch node boots without issue. Extra notes: I'm aware that this is not best practice since there will be a latency on accessing a network share rather than directly connecting to a windows local (SSD) disk. ---
**Author:** ![KlopgeestBE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/47e85d/32.png) [@KlopgeestBE](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/KlopgeestBE)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2016, 2:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/path-data-windows-unc-path/65694/7 "2016-11-19T14:15:27Z")
What are the security risks by using this method? ---
**Author:** ![trondhindenes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/trondhindenes/32/10534_2.png) [@trondhindenes](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/trondhindenes)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2016, 11:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/path-data-windows-unc-path/65694/8 "2016-11-20T23:28:23Z")
I don't see any special risk with this setup. It might even be a good option - newer versions of the SMB proticol (SMB 3.0) is very geared towards running workloads using a network share (both hyper-v vms and sql databases are supported and encouraged to run over smb3), so this setup might in fact be very viable, tho not something that's likely tested by many. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 11:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/path-data-windows-unc-path/65694/9 "2016-12-18T23:28:28Z")
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