SSIS: Mapped Network Drives and Accessing remote files on network

In short, avoid using mapped network drives inside your SSIS package for things like file paths, control flow settings, log file locations, etc… Instead use UNC path notations. (serversharedirectory)

Why? Well, if you’re always running an SSIS package by hand using dtexec.exe, or through Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS), dtexecui.exe, etc… you don’t really have to worry about this. However, if you’re running the package via a scheduler such as SQL Agent, you’ll run into perceived permission problems, or reports that files cannot be found. The issue with schedulers such as Agent is that they run under a “service account” that does not have access to mapped network drives.

Mapped network drives are set up for your user-session when you log on to a computer. Even if you log in with the same account that the SQL Agent service uses, the service will still not have access to…