Moving redirected profiles

[cookie_monster]

We are removing a 2003 server that holds staff redirected appdata folders, what is the best way to move these to another server, can they be copied then the policy changed to point to the new server?

Cheers.

[Michael]

Yes I would copy the folders, then change the servername accordingly in the UNC path. Then you can either leave the existing folders or delete them (depending if you have active users or not).

[srochford]

How urgently do you need to do this? The other option would be to set up DFS for your existing server and then change the users to point to that; at the moment nothing actually moves (so they're now something like \\server\profiles\username - that changes to \\domain\profiles\username)

Once you've got that working, you set up a new set of folders and copy everything to it - you can do this with replication if you want but you don't need to. Once everything's copied (might do this over days, copying just what's changed) you can change DFS so \\domain\profiles now points to the new server and nothing has to change in AD so nothing has to change for the client - they will just magically find the new location.

[cookie_monster]

I'm thinking about using DFS for a share that deploys MSI files as i'm about to go through the pain of moving that so I might look into a profiles share as well. I currently have our profiles loaded across two server as we have so many would I have to have two DFS shares one pointing to each server for this?

Cheers.

[azrael78]

Not necessarily - no.

You load all the profiles onto 1 server, keep the sharename on both servers - then use DFS.
So you do need 1 share per server for DFS to work but DFS will load-balance (somewhat) your profiles so there wouldn't be a need to have them split across 2 servers.

HTH,

Az

[cookie_monster]

Ah ok so for eg all 1000 profiles would be identical on each server and when someone logs on they would get a random server?

[_techie_]

Thank god we use mandatory profiles LOL!!!

[srochford]

Ah ok so for eg all 1000 profiles would be identical on each server and when someone logs on they would get a random server?

It depends :-) Are you all on a single subnet (single Active Directory site)? If so, then you ought to get a random server but I've seen the same server returned and I could never work out why. If you're split across multiple sites then you will get the server on the same site as you unless it's unavailable.

[srochford]

Thank god we use mandatory profiles LOL!!!

Obviously much easier but may give a much poorer experience for the user. If users basically sit at the same machine then you can have local profiles for the user and they'll always get the same settings.

For students you may want to make sure they don't get any flexibility - you're then certain that if they mess things up, log off and log on fixes it all which is good.

Even with mandatory profiles you might want to look at serving them from DFS (even if it's only a single server) - makes life easier when that server gets replaced because you don't change anything in the user properties, just update the DFS location.

[cookie_monster]

All on one site and subnet.

The reason i'm looking into DFS is to make it easier to change servers in future.

[cookie_monster]

So guys any 'good' links on setting up DFS on 2008, any things common setup issues and so on that I should be looking out for?

Cheers.

EDIT

I installed DFS from within server manager but the service fails to start not the best start. "The Dfs service cannot be started. The dependancy service or group failed to start."

Sorted it it requires the remote registry service which is disabled by default

[Michael]

I can't say I've ever used DFS for a roaming profile share, however I did find this from Microsoft (just so you're aware):

Microsoft does not support storing roaming profiles on DFS shares that are replicated by using FRS and that are made offline-available.

[cookie_monster]

Scratch the profile idea then i'll just use it for apps and user folders.

[teejay]

Personally wouldn't use DFS for redirected folders either. The easiest way to do this is with robocopy, do:

robocopy oldserververlocation newserverlocation /E /ZB /COPYALL /DCOPY:T

this can be done first with users connected, just don't change the redirection in Active Directory yet
Make sure everyone is off, then rerun the above robocopy to update any changes made and then change the redirection in Active Directory.