Folder redirection, offline files, DFS, kitchen sink,..

[PiqueABoo]

I'm playing with XP SP3 folder redirection to DFS(R) shares and specifically right now, offline files i.e. best way to ensure Alice gets her files sync'd and useable at home on Laptop A, but when she lends it to Bob he doesn't get any syncing at all and thus we avoid the access denieds during sync and so on...

One approach I'm just trying is to turn off the automatic syncing for redirected folders and do it manually via logon/off script e.g. only sync if current user is allowed to on this box (lots of ways to flag that) and we're on our LAN. Alternatively there's the PrimaryUsers reg value assuming that still works on SP3(?), but that's not as good because you'll still get the Sync running and complaining when the machine is at home.

Anyway, has anyone ever come across a really good 'best practice' kind of doc for this area? Or perhaps what you do works really well, keeps the users happy, never breaks(!) etc.?

[Quackers]

We do not have the laptop and network docunents sync'd. We have a batch file on everyones laptop called "Backup My Laptop Now", which is just a few robocopy commands. If the teachers never click it, its there own fault when it breaks, they are told every now and then. Most do click it once a month, We did try with offline file back in 2003, but staff do not want to wait for it to sync 20,000 files while it shutsdown, they just want it to shutdown.

They have shortcuts to the network my documents and shared areas on the network, so they know how to move things around.

[cooper]

We do not have the laptop and network docunents sync'd. We have a batch file on everyones laptop called "Backup My Laptop Now", which is just a few robocopy commands. If the teachers never click it, its there own fault when it breaks, they are told every now and then. Most do click it once a month, We did try with offline file back in 2003, but staff do not want to wait for it to sync 20,000 files while it shutsdown, they just want it to shutdown.

They have shortcuts to the network my documents and shared areas on the network, so they know how to move things around.

So your laptop users dont have a profile on the server and use a different login for Laptops/Networked workstations.

[Michael]

Best practice is don't use Offline Files. Causes a whole range of problems in my experience. Alternative methods I recommend are VPN'ing into the network or using a flash memory stick. The overheads are far less than Offline Files.

[maniac]

I use a Microsoft program called Synctoy. This syncs the staff network drive with a folder on their laptop, and it's pretty fast once run a couple of times.

It's up to them to press the button to sync and keep their files up to date. A few scare stories of lost data because a member of staff always saved locally and then dropped their laptop or it suffered a HDD failure keeps them in check!

I've been looking into this recently as an alturnative to offline files, as offline files is driving me up the wall at the moment with access denied messages!

That's the one thing they have managed to do in Vista, improve the way offline files works!

Mike.

[PiqueABoo]

offline files is driving me up the wall at the moment with access denied messages!

I made that happen very easily on a 2k3 + XP SP2, but just can't on the 2K8+ XP SP3 I'm playing with now. Which was really frustrating because I spent a fair bit of time on a cunning workaround before I noticed it didn't happen - not sure what to attribute that to.. luck, the precise set of GPO policies, starting from a nice clean baseline or XP SP3.

The bit that's doing my head in: One comp which suffered several evolving generations of GPO Offline File settings, now absolutely **insists* on running a mobsync at logon and logoff when it's connected to a foreign network (e.g. home network) - the logon one sits there with an error message coz it obviously can't do it - the logoff one pops up, does whatever and goes away. If I remove the ticks via the Offline Files tab, they automagically come back again. Resetting CSC doesn't change this. SO FAR that is nor happening on a fresh built comp with the same build image, policies, user etc. Now do I or don't I dump and compare the respective registrys and run csccmd's etc. to find a good reason.. ughh!

The other bit that's annoying, but less so, is whether syncing redirected (to DFS share) folders and enabling caching is supported. I can find old MS statements that say it isn't, and other ones that say it's OK.