Moving Servers - Profiles and My Documents

[benIT]

Hello,

 

We are moving all our User Areas and Profiles from one server to another.

 

I am going to use Backup Exec - Folder Redirection to keep permissions etc.

 

Question???????

 

If I Stop sharing the User Shares on one server, And Copy to another server -What happends to teachers offline files?, For example.

 

Sat - I Stop the old user Shares, Copy the folders to new servers, under new shares, change the AD to point to new location.

 

Sun A Teacher on their laptop at home makes a new document - not connected to the network.

 

Monday Teacher will not be able to Sync (as folder does not exist),When they Sync again....

 

 

Q1 Will they loose document???

Q2 Will it auto Sync to new location?

Q3 Will File Sync think its a new document and ask about conflicts?

Q4 Will Sync Lock all documents until Sync Problems resolved?

 

 

Any ideas ????

[plexer]

To redirect offline files to point to the new server share you use csccmd.

 

You need a copy of csccmd available from MS

 

Then I used the following in a batch file:

 

if not exist h:\flag.txt goto move

goto end

:move

\\server\public\StaffOnly\ICTSupport\csccmd.exe /moveshare:\\server02\%username%$ \\server03\%username%$

echo . > h:\flag.txt

pause

:end

 

Ben

[benIT]

Many thanks Plexer.

 

Found the MS Tool - It;s here Features and functions in version 1.1 of the Client-Side Caching Command-Line Options command-line tool

 

The Scripts a good Idea, I assume you run the batch file at startup Plexer??

 

Would this also work for Redirected My Documents? via GP, I could just use same method as flag.txt on desktop, if their then leave in place.

 

How long did you leave script in place for ??

 

Thanks

[srochford]

If you've not already started this then make life easier for next time (because there will be a next time ...) by using DFS

 

Basically, what you do is share the folder as usual and then use DFS to give it a domain share name - eg your files are on server2 in a share called home so you refer to them as \\server2\home etc DFS allows you to use \\domain\share and this doesn't change when you get a new server; you just change the DFS so that it knows that \\domain\share is now on server3 rather than server2

[benIT]

Good Thinking srochford, I was looking at implementing this.

 

Does this mean I would put \\domain\share\%username% in My Doc Path in AD??

 

Furthermore I assume this has no effect on file sync??

 

Many thanks

 

Ben

[FN-GM]

When moving the files and shares personally i would use this: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/upgrading/nt4/tooldocs/msfsc.mspx

[benIT]

When moving the files and shares personally i would use this: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/upgrading/nt4/tooldocs/msfsc.mspx

 

mmm Looks good, just checking to see if it goes to 2008 server, had a change of heart and whilst building new doc server I have gone 2008!!!

 

Many thanks GreaterManchester

[jcollings]

The other way is to leave paths etc as they are now in AD and alias your new server so it still answers to the same name. That of course only works if you are rebuilding the old one or decommisioning it.

[FN-GM]

hmm my post has gone again. Anyway i think that tool does work with server 2008.

 

Thanks for the thanks

[srochford]

Good Thinking srochford, I was looking at implementing this.

 

Does this mean I would put \\domain\share\%username% in My Doc Path in AD??

 

Furthermore I assume this has no effect on file sync??

 

Many thanks

 

Ben

 

 

Yes (to home folder path) and yes (it won't break file sync)

 

@jcollings - good idea (we use it!) but watch out for a quirk of Server 2003 (and I'd guess 2008) which prevents you accessing file shares using an alias. You need to set the registry value to disablestrictnamechecking and the server itself won't be able to access its own shares using the alias (not sure why; just know it breaks!)

[benIT]

For anyone reading this for their own use......

 

Update on the File Server Migration Toolkit running on Windows 2008....

 

Re: Server 2008 File Server Migration Toolkit - TechNet Forums

 

Seems MS have not included it to work on 2k8 - Discussion was 2-Jan-08 So not sure if any updates / developments on this. that said it may run anyway!!

[jcollings]

Yes (to home folder path) and yes (it won't break file sync)

 

@jcollings - good idea (we use it!) but watch out for a quirk of Server 2003 (and I'd guess 2008) which prevents you accessing file shares using an alias. You need to set the registry value to disablestrictnamechecking and the server itself won't be able to access its own shares using the alias (not sure why; just know it breaks!)

 

Yes - we had to do all that. We now have a small number of boxes with multiple identities. Think I'll just keep taking one away and see what happens a la Jenga!

[plexer]

csccmd v1.1 has more features than ver 1.0 but only 1.0 is available to download from MS for v1.1 you have to contact them.

 

for moving shares v1.0 will be fine for deleting existing shares you need v1.1

 

Ben

[contink]

For anyone reading this for their own use......

 

Update on the File Server Migration Toolkit running on Windows 2008....

 

Re: Server 2008 File Server Migration Toolkit - TechNet Forums

 

Seems MS have not included it to work on 2k8 - Discussion was 2-Jan-08 So not sure if any updates / developments on this. that said it may run anyway!!

 

Just to update this as I've been looking into this:

 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d00e3eae-930a-42b0-b595-66f462f5d87b&DisplayLang=en

 

Win2k8 (including R2) seem to be compatible now...