PowerShell Test-Path returns False when testing a network share

Question

The user has appropriate permissions to read the share, and the share maps properly. This issue seems to happen only in PowerShell v2.0.

If I remove all mapped drive

Answer 1

SHORT ANSWER

if(-Not(Test-Path "filesystem::\\$server\c$")) {Write-Error "Server not found: $server"; continue} If Test-Path fails unexpectedly then make sure SMB2=1 (or other SMB setting) is set on both client and target server.

MORE INFO

IMPORTANT SMB NOTE: Both current system and target system must have at least on common SMB protocol enabled for Test-Path to succeed. (SMB2 or later strongly recommended.) For example, if target has SMB1 enabled + SMB2 disabled and client has only SMB2 enabled then logic above will return "Server not found...". This threw me off track until I finally checked my target server (Win7) and found it had SMB2=0 (disabled) and no entry for SMB1 (enabled by default). I fixed by setting SMB2=1 per article below.

SMB OS-specific and scripting details: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2696547/detect-enable-disable-smbv1-smbv2-smbv3-in-windows-and-windows-server

Excerpt: Win8/Win20012

Detect: Get-SmbServerConfiguration | Select EnableSMB1Protocol
Disable:    Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableSMB1Protocol $false
Enable: Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableSMB1Protocol $true

Excerpt: Win7/Win2008R2Server

Detect:
Get-Item HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters | ForEach-Object {Get-ItemProperty $_.pspath}
Default configuration = Enabled (No registry key is created), so no SMB1 value will be returned

Disable:
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters" SMB1 -Type DWORD -Value 0 –Force

Enable:
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters" SMB1 -Type DWORD -Value 1 –Force

---

Code sample: Copy-Item a folder (recursive) only if target server exists

$scriptRootPath="." 
$scriptToolsPath="$scriptRootPath\Tools" 
$targetServerList="$scriptToolsPath\DeployServerList-INT-POC.txt"   #DeployServerList-INT.txt, DeployServerList-QA.txt, DeployServerList-PROD.txt
$stageTargetDrive="c"
$stageFolderPath="$stageTargetDrive$\staging"

$VerbosePreference="Continue"                                       #"SilentlyContinue" (default), "Continue", "Stop", "Inquire"
$InformationPreference="Continue"

Write-Host "Getting list of servers from $targetServerList to stage deployment files to..."
    $serverList = (get-content "$targetServerList")
    Write-Verbose "scriptToolsPath=$scriptToolsPath"
    Write-Verbose "serverlist=$serverList"
    Write-Verbose "stageFolderPath=$StageFolderPath"

Write-Host -Separator "-"
Read-Host -Prompt "READY TO STAGE FILES: Check info above, then press Enter to continue (or Ctrl+C to exit)."
Write-Host "-------------------------------------------------"

Write-Host "Staging files to $stageFolderPath on each target server..."
foreach ($server in $serverlist) {
    # Input validation
    if([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($server)) {continue}
    if($server.StartsWith("#")) {Write-Verbose "Comment skipped: $server"; continue}    # Skip line if line begins with hashtag comment char
    Write-Verbose "Testing filesystem access to $server..."
    if(-Not(Test-Path "filesystem::\\$server\$stageTargetDrive$")) {Write-Error "Server not found: $server"; continue}
        # TIP: If Test-Path returns false unexpectedly then check if SMB2 is enabled on target server, check SMB1 disabled for both src and target servers.

    Write-Verbose "Staging files to $server..."
    Copy-Item ".\" -Destination "\\$server\$stageFolderPath" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction Continue
    Write-Information "Files staged on $server."
}