Jump Drive Letters in Web Server URL

Question

We have an internal only web server. Let's call it 'blink'

'blink' is running Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard

'blink' has a D: drive with a folder structure of D:/path/to/file.filetype

The web server is located at C:\inetpub\wwwroot

I don't have to worry about outside access, so I am trying to accomplish a Web URL that will allow me to access files on the D: drive in the path/to from the web server.

My thoughts are to create a folder at wwwroot called 'Assets'

Then create a shortcut in 'Assets' that points directly to path/to. I am very familiar with the folder structure in D:/path/to/ and so it then becomes very easy to craft a URL to those files like so...

blink/Assets/path/to/fileA.filetype

blink/Assets/path/to/another/path/to/fileX.filetype

But I'm wondering what the best, most efficient, method for doing this?

Symlink? Windows Shortcut? Dollar sign? (blink/assets/d$/path/to/fileB.filetype)

I'm not sure how to move forward.

Answer 1

I would use an application level configuration to do this. In IIS they would call this a Virtual Directory. In Apache they call it a Directory Alias. Below is a link to the IIS configuration instructions.

https://www.iis.net/configreference/system.applicationhost/sites/site/application/virtualdirectory