Laptop roaming profile issue

[oden08]

Hello, wondering if someone might have an idea on some help for this issue we are experiencing.

We have a network utilizing roaming profiles across the board which has been functioning pretty smooth up to this point. We recently began adding a few laptops (Dell Latitude D531's AMD x2) to the network also using roaming profiles. What we are experiencing with these laptops is that they will download the profile already on the network but it will not upload or update that profile.

We checked for any errorlogs and there were none and have tried reloading the laptop / updating drivers. We purchased about 10 of these laptops at different times and are experiencing this on all.

I'm lost at this point, can anyone help me out?

[Michael]

If you navigate to the Profiles folder on your server and take a look at the profile in question, does the NTUSER file read .DAT or .MAN?

If necessary, enable the viewing of file extensions through My Computer > Tools > Folder Options.

If it reads .MAN, the profile will erase all changes made when logging off. This is useful for keeping consistency across the network; especially for pupil users (for example). If you want changes to be saved (if the user is a teacher), then rename NTUSER.MAN to .DAT.

[oden08]

It has a NTUSER.DAT. This user is having their desktop (which was previously syncing perfectly) replaced with a laptop (which we can not get to sync.

[Michael]

As these laptops are new, have you moved them into the relevant OU within Active Directory? This is important so it picks up computer based policies.

It could also be a permissions issue. From the MMC, locate the Local Users and Groups snap-in. Add Domain Users to the local Administrators group on each laptop. Now reboot and see if this helps.

[oden08]

Yes, the Laptop is moved to the proper OU and is setup with local administrator rights. Thanks.

[Michael]

So could you give me an example of what changes you or your users are making which are not being saved at logoff?

[oden08]

Thank you for your help by the way. For instance, what has happened with the laptop we are currently working on is after the PC is loaded and working we join it to the domain and login with the new user. The system then updates the profile for the user on its system (downloading from the network the user profile settings / desktop files / my docs / etc.). I can then delete documents and add new ones but the system does not then upload those documents to update the roaming profile when the user logs off.

[Michael]

What you should use is Folder Redirection in Active Directory. By creating a folder matching a domain username and sharing it on a file server (with a dollar sign), this becomes the users home directory, which could typically be mapped as H:\

By looking at Properties for a user, under the Profile tab, you can specify a Home Folder. You need to specify a UNC path -

\\SERVERNAME\Username$

\\SERVERNAME\jbloggs$

\\SERVERNAME\jbond$

etc...

The dollar makes the Home Folder private (which is recommended). Now if you have lots of users (which is more than likely the case), you can use a free tool called Autoshare which'll do the hard work for you. It's recommended you specify in Autoshare to give Domain Admins and the individual users themselves Full Control to their folder/drive.

When a user logs on, their roaming profile (typically containing application data primarily) is downloaded from the file server (as you already know), however a network drive is also created, pointing to the share on file server we created earlier.

I hope this makes some sense Please feel free to ask more questions.

[SYNACK]

\\SERVERNAME\Username$

Or

\\SERVERNAME\users$\username

Which ends up with a whole lot less shares to deal with and you can use NTFS permitions on the users folder to block students from seeing the folders contents or meddling with it.

I think that it may use less server side resources as it limits the number of shares that it must listen under and look up rules for. Just another way to organize it but both seem to work fine