Folder redirection

[the_quick]

In the last few month we have random occurring problem for our students. When they login their documents folder are empty, the N drive (which is their home drive), libraries are linked to their home drive. So they can save either going to documents/music/pictures etc or directly to N drive - same thing. But sometimes it just not there, they get W drive which is network share to exchange files and resources with teachers.

 

Sometimes login off and log in back again helps, sometimes we have to restart PC, sometimes we have to move student to a different PC. There are some folder redirection warning in the even viewer but no errors as such.

 

We are bit baffled, as it is random, no errors on the server and problem just started few months back.

 

Anyone had something similar?

 

Our setup, Windows 10, file server is windows 2016, students have local profiles that are deleted on start of computers in the morning.

 

Many thanks

[mproffitt1983]

Just so I understand correctly, does the N drive show files inside it when the libraries (documents, music, pictures etc) are empty?

[fredbayker]

So is the n drive still being mapped with no content or is it now showing up at all?

[TheLion]

When they are missing what happens if you manually go to the path in file explorer?

 

If they appear it must be a mapping issue, if they still don't appear it's more to do with the file share server or permissions.

[mproffitt1983]

I was going to suggest to check some settings to do with 'fast boot', 'Always wait for network before logon' and hardened paths.

 

Now I wonder if your deleting of profiles on startup isn't quite finishing before the user logs on, maybe this is preventing some of the policies from being applied.

[the_quick]

Hi Guys

Thanks for your replies.

To answer some points. Libraries and Mapped N drive doesn't show - so they can't get to their documents. And it is random, so we can have 29 kids in one classroom being fine and 1 kid that has this problem.

I don't think it is permission related, as above would affect all the pupils. We already have policy "always wait for network before logon" - what do you mean by hardened paths?

 

I will check if deleted profiles might be the issue.

 

Thanks again for suggestions

[mproffitt1983]

I think this thread will explain hardened unc paths better than I can. http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-server-2012/199443-group-policy-not-working-correctly.html

 

We tested with these commands/regkeys

 

%COMSPEC% /C reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\NetworkProvider\HardenedPaths /v "\\*\SYSVOL" /d "RequireMutualAuthentication=0" /t REG_SZ

 

%COMSPEC% /C reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\NetworkProvider\HardenedPaths /v "\\*\NETLOGON" /d "RequireMutualAuthentication=0" /t REG_SZ

[the_quick]

Thanks for that. Added that. But isn't that if GPO have problem with being applied? As the redirection policy do apply, it just throw errors, like one below:

 

Failed to redirect the folder because the destination folder "\\server\share\username" is offline, Error details "The network path was not found" Event ID 502

 

Just seen this error in the classroom, 18 kids are all gone, one has this error - even moved to different computer and still same. But in event viewer I can click on that path and no problem, it opens. It just like it wasn't ready when user was logging in.

Logged to same computer with different user, all fine.

 

All users are created in bulk with same settings etc. I'm really confused.

[mproffitt1983]

This is an odd one and I can only speculate the causes. (scenarios 1-3 should all be resolved by a delayed logon)

 

1, Cold boot - Network not ready. - what happens if you power up devices 5 minutes before they are used, does this prevent the issue?

 

2, NIC driver issue. Could you try another driver?

 

3, Delprof still running during logon - Is the user account being removed while they log on (if they frequently use the same PC)?

 

These two are probably not relevant :-

 

4, DC's not syncing DNS or stale DNS - are failed accounts connection to a specific DC? - cmd - echo %logonserver%

 

5, DFS Drive Mapping -

 

We had issues with DFS shares that required a regkey fix to work correctly. This was affecting our mapped drives rather than homedirectories causing a timeout.

 

[TABLE=class: subtable]

[TR]

[TD]Hive[/TD]

[TD]HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Key path[/TD]

[TD]SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Value name[/TD]

[TD]autodisconnect[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Value type[/TD]

[TD]REG_DWORD[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Value data[/TD]

[TD]0xFFFFFFFF (4294967295)

 

[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Edited June 10, 2019 by mproffitt1983

[Oaktech]

I've had something that smells a lot like this, and I'm not sure which thing I did cured it - I gave domain computers read access to the affected GPOs and I also restarted the fileserver over night. since I did that a couple of weeks ago nothing has failed to redirect.

 

I was seeing it with redirected documents and start menu.

 

https://redmondmag.com/articles/2016/06/16/june-patch-breaks-group-policy-settings.aspx

[the_quick]

Hi All

 

Just an update, we have noticed some DFS replication errors originating from the older domain controller (2008R2). I was already planning to retire it over the summer as sometimes there were issues with DHCP on it. So basically moved DHCP to DC with 2019, moved FSMO roles etc. Still have old DC running, but no roles on it . I think there was some authentication errors when user was logging in. Anyway, the move have sorted this issue, no more DFS replication errors and users have no problems with documents redirection.