Folder Redirection Un-Buggering (not for the faint of heart!)

[Miscbrah]

Hi boys and girls, got a sticky one. :/

 

Last summer I tried and failed to get Folder Redirection working. Brief cliffs are that we have Linux file servers here, AD points home areas (W: ) to \\(name of my file server)\homes and then the Linux server (Samba ofc) maps the drives by the connecting users' credentials and name. Lovely, only that doesn;t give me an absolute file path and does NOT play nice with folder redirection.

 

Basically, I think I know enough now to get things working if I CAN get an absolute file path, as Folder Redirection isn't fundamentally that hard when you're not feeling the pressure to sort it, but I'd really like to get it nailed like it worked in every plain Windows environment I ever worked in.

 

But to do so, I need something. I need to get back to a clean slate.

 

During the experimentation process, a lot of Folder Redirection policies got deleted or changed, and as such there's a lot of orphaned "Move contents" or "Leave contents" of old profile folders in the registries. They are consistent as they are across my users and not giving problems as such, but the trouble is they're not a clean slate, and I really need to know how to get back to a clean slate.

 

Yes I can change the registry settings by merging a .reg file (prompts the user though atm) but with a salad of crap in the profile location, the folders themselves are a little disorganised (as in, a test account has about four "My Videos" folders, as well as the regular folders, and ALSO has links to their W: drive (which is home area) if shell folders in the registry are changed by force with a .reg file on login to point to eg "W:\My Pictures". And then W: doesn't contain a folder called "My Pictures" because it's not been done with the GP settings and so on...)

 

Quandry is also, what DO I do if I can't get an absolute path for the GP options to work, and if I have to resort to registry fixing for it, how do I know 100% it's working afterwards?

 

But for know, need to know how to undo what's been done before.

 

Anyone got any ideas at all? :/

[mrbios]

With over 100 views without any answers I'm going to ask the question.....is there any specific reason for using linux for your file server(s)? Seems like your problems would magically disappear if you were using windows ones, unless of course there's a genuine benefit (besides the meager cost advantage) to using linux in your environment?

 

To semi answer your question (not sure if I'm understanding it correctly though so i apologise if not) I don't think you can so much as "clear" those settings, group policy will remove (or rather, override depending on the type of profile) any manually configured settings in the user profile though so long as you configure folder redirection for everything you've tried to set manually....end of the day GP will always take precedence over whatever is set in the profile, so there's no need to worry really about what else remains (though i can understand the desire to have a "clean" setup, which is mainly why the vast majority of my users are on super mandatory profiles ).

[Miscbrah]

Cheers for that Mrbios!

 

Well, the Linux servers have to stay; boss' baby. Only thing I can really do is work with them. I can potentially get an absolute file path though.

 

As for the tombstoned policies, I'd like to get them out the way if at all possible. Really would be a hack and slash script job getting all the folders redirected, their contents moved, then making provision for users fiddling with folder names in their home areas alongside registry chopping of shell folders. But I guess it can be done.

 

Bloody bloody Linux, how I loathe it.

[seawolf]

Cheers for that Mrbios!

 

Well, the Linux servers have to stay; boss' baby. Only thing I can really do is work with them. I can potentially get an absolute file path though.

 

As for the tombstoned policies, I'd like to get them out the way if at all possible. Really would be a hack and slash script job getting all the folders redirected, their contents moved, then making provision for users fiddling with folder names in their home areas alongside registry chopping of shell folders. But I guess it can be done.

 

Bloody bloody Linux, how I loathe it.

 

The only way I think you could really have a "clean slate" is to create a new share location and re-image the clients affected.

 

As for the problems you're experiencing with the Linux file server, I think perhaps you aren't doing something right. I've used both OSX Server and FreeNAS as file servers in this way without the issues you've stated. Take a look at this reference guide for setting this up http://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba_&_Windows_Profiles

[Miscbrah]

Thanks for that seawolf; yes I've seen this article before. It's not quite the way I'm doing things though but if I were setting things up from scratch (and suffered severe head trauma and wanted a Linux file server. Just kidding Tux fans!) that'd be the way I'd do it.

 

It seems I'll have to just ask the bossman for an absolute file path, and then go from there with just what's in group policy so that can take care of the move to new location bit and police itself. If that doesn't work I've got the registry method to fall back on and refine but ultimately if that GP method doesn't work then I doubt it can be done with our setup.