Home Folders, Offline Files and Folder Names

Sorry if the topic is a bit ambiguous, but I have 2 questions :)

Our main fileserver (Server 2003) is failing and so I am about to move all the home folders onto another storageserver (Server 2008).

Moving them isn't the problem, changing the home folder path is also fine, the issue I'm worried about is the 60+ users with laptops who use offline files.

I know I'm supposed to use some "Client-Side Caching Command-Line Options (CSCCMD)" Tool to redirect their offline files to the new server but...

Do I do this before or after I move the home folders?
Should I wait for them to log on, sychronize and then do it?
Whats the best way to go about this so as cause as little disruption as possible?

Secondly, While looking through the lists of staff folders that I'm going to need to move, I noticed 3 of them are called "Documents" instead of their username (like all the others) - It's all the users who use or have used Vista.
Is there anyway to stop this happening as it'll get confusing if more people start moving to Vista and I suddenly have a folder full of folders named "Documents"...

Thanks guys, appreciate any suggestions you can give me.

I don't know about your mysterious documents folders but I do know that the CSCCMD has to be run after you move the folders.

It works very well... it's just a PITA because it works best if you do it manually on each client.

I'm thinking I might move the folders over night, and then put a:

csccmd.exe /moveshare:\\machineA\shareA \\machineB\shareB

Into the logon script, that shouldn't have any negative effects on users who don't use offline files should it?

This article will help you, but yes that command looks correct.

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Do I do this before or after I move the home folders?

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It's a good question. I would say (thinking logically) you should move the home directories first and then input that command to move the cache users have. It might be advisable to leave shares active on both servers. Just move user data and adjust their home directory in AD to point to the new location.

Once the command is run, you should be able to delete their old home directories on the failing server. Please note I haven't tested this procedure/theory and I am only speculating. I would advise you test with a dummy user before trying it.

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that shouldn't have any negative effects on users who don't use offline files should it?

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If other users have Offline Files disabled by GPO then I would guess it would be skipped/ignored.

As for the 'Documents' and Vista problem I am unsure about that but I agree with you, it would make managing them a little difficult. One of the many reasons I don't use Vista, sorry :)

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Originally Posted by Nick_Parker

Secondly, While looking through the lists of staff folders that I'm going to need to move, I noticed 3 of them are called "Documents" instead of their username (like all the others) - It's all the users who use or have used Vista.
Is there anyway to stop this happening as it'll get confusing if more people start moving to Vista and I suddenly have a folder full of folders named "Documents"...

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Sorry, but it's a feature of Vista, folder structures are different to XP and previous. This is one of the main reasons take up of Vista in the enterprise has been so slow (never mind the hardware issues!!!).

Most downgrade Vista to XP in a Networked environment until they're ready to upgrade all to Vista!!

X:\>csccmd.exe /MoveShare:"\\Fileserver\Staff$\nparker" "\\StorageServer\Staff Folders\nparker"
System error 2 has occurred.
The system cannot find the file specified.

This is what I keep getting...

The "FileServer" is gone and is completely offline
The "StorageServer" share is setup and ready and connectable.

X:\>csccmd.exe /Moveshare:\\Fileserver\Staff$ "\\StorageServer\Staff Folders"
The command completed successfully.

This seems to work but Synchronization still looks for "\\Fileserver\Staff$"

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Originally Posted by Nick_Parker

X:\>csccmd.exe /MoveShare:"\\Fileserver\Staff$\nparker" "\\StorageServer\Staff Folders\nparker"
System error 2 has occurred.
The system cannot find the file specified.

This is what I keep getting...

The "FileServer" is gone and is completely offline
The "StorageServer" share is setup and ready and connectable.

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Is this on a machine that does not have fileserver share available offline?

Ric_, they all see FileServer as offline because the machine is physically dead and not connected to the network.

Attached is a screenshot of what happens when I run that CSCMD file with the shares instead of the user folders, it all seems to complete successfully after a minute, but then Synchronization still keeps pointing to the "FileServer"

I just realised where you are going wrong... you shouldn't put the folder part in - Windows works it out.

The way Windows sees the offline files, it only considers the share name. If you unplug your machine from a network and browse the root of the share, only the offline folders will be visible - everything else disappears.

The command you need is csccmd /moveshare:\\fileserver1\share1 \\fileserver2\share2

Thanks Ric_, after much swearing, I'd figured that out, but if you look at the picture I attached in the above post, that command runs and completes correctly, but it doesn't seem to change the paths and it still tries to Sync with the FileServer.

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Originally Posted by Nick_Parker

Secondly, While looking through the lists of staff folders that I'm going to need to move, I noticed 3 of them are called "Documents" instead of their username (like all the others) - It's all the users who use or have used Vista.

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ive got some staff userareas on the server that have changed their name to documents. 18 of them. its odd. cos we dont have vista anywhere.

The "Documents" folder issue is to do with the desktop.ini file in the root of each documents directory. There are two ways around this, neither of which I have had the time to automate yet.

The best is to change the owner tag under the [DeleteOnCopy] to %username% which will restore the folder names to what they should be on the next session. You can also change the personalised name tag but this effects what the documents folder is called on the new start menu in Vista

http://www.xs4all.nl/~hwiegman/desktopini.html
desktop.ini

Code:

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  [DeleteOnCopy]
    Owner=username or foldername
    Personalized=5
    PersonalizedName=Documents

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Here is MS's rather unhelpful ideas on the subject http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947222

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Originally Posted by Nick_Parker

Thanks Ric_, after much swearing, I'd figured that out, but if you look at the picture I attached in the above post, that command runs and completes correctly, but it doesn't seem to change the paths and it still tries to Sync with the FileServer.

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Just a thought, the command runs and Completes Successfully, but it still tries to Synchronize with the old server, then what is the command actually doing?

you could try using File server Resource manager File Screening to block the writing of desktop.ini ?