How to allow laptop users to sync to server

[Little-Miss]

I'm almost at a stage where i can start sorting the staff laptops.

 

I've done a few things in preparation, but would like a kind of check list to make sure ive got everything right.

 

I've created an OU for Laptop staff...

I have a folder for their profiles..

I have a feeling i have to do something like go to the CP on the laptop, users, manage Passwords then add them there....is that right?

Make sure offline files is on...

 

Have i forgotten something fundermental? Got something wrong?

 

Thanks

[powdarrmonkey]

I would strongly suggest you switch offline files off if you are using XP clients. It is waaay more hassle than it's worth.

 

I've always given each user a local account with some additional power to use at home and domain account to use at work, and strict instructions that they are responsible for backups.

[Little-Miss]

So...offline files off...set them up a local account....do the files sync over to the server then or do you just get them to do it manually?

[sparkeh]

I also switch offline files off. Teachers have a mapped drive to their own area on the server where they manually backup.

[powdarrmonkey]

Staff will have to manage their own files - I've found a cheap, school-issued USB disk makes a good carrot. This is where "your files aren't back up if they're not on the network" really starts to matter.

[smadison]

We created a folder called local docs on the root of C, then added a shortcut for all users on the desktop to the folder so when they are away from a network or not using remote access (TS) they save all the work into the folder. But they have to back it up onto the network or loose it if the drives goes

[Little-Miss]

yeah, i suppose i was being a bit too adventurous and making more work for myself. Thanks guys.

 

So my best bet is to set them up a local account with some admin rights and put a shortcut to their home drive for them to back things up themselves?

[sparkeh]

So my best bet is to set them up a local account with some admin rights and put a shortcut to their home drive for them to back things up themselves?

 

I'd say so. Oh a good thing would be to include something about backing up in your AUP (if you have one). Ours states that users are responsible for backing up to the server, if they don't and lose it all its their fault.

[kmount]

We did similar at my previous place.

 

Rather than use local logons, we used their domain one but blocked inheritence of policies and did it ourselves but the upshot was that we had their documents and desktop held locally and provided a script to back it up onto their home directory on the network.

 

We figured meeting them halfway was OK plus we knew that it wasn't going to be back up the cruft we didn't want like their temporary internet files and cookies or personal music collections!

[Little-Miss]

Hmm, see that was my biggest worry, them filling the laptop up with crap and software. Suppose one thing would be to put it in there AUP and get them to sign it saying they wont...

 

I'm afraid everything you said went over my head Kmount....still learning all this policy nonsense....i understood the words...but dont understand how it works...

[kmount]

Don't worry, you can ignore the policy stuff if its not applicable to you.

 

If you put a folder on their C drive called "My Documents" and a shortcut to this on their desktop using a local logon if you want, a little script can be written to copy everything rom C:\My Documents to H:\ (whatever letter their home directory is when they're connected to the network).

[Little-Miss]

oooh now that sounds more like it....where would i get this script and where would i put it? Would they still need a local and domain login...?

 

Sorry to be thick...but im SLOWLY starting to get my head around this stuff...

[kmount]

It depends how many people you're looking at doing this for as to whether you persevere and work out how to use the domain accounts or create them a local account (in addition to their domain one) with the same username/password which if I remember rightly be enough to trick it into mapping drives without asking for domain credentials. (My place we used domain accounts no local ones so can't confirm... can someone else?)

 

If you're more comfortable giving them a local logon and putting a logon script in their "Startup" folder to map their drives etc that's fine you just need to remember that if anything changes on the network, a new server, or new mapped drive you'd need to do it on all of the machines separately unless you have another way.

 

The scripts pretty straight forward, I'll dig it out but it's effectively robocopy "C:\My Documents\*" "H:\My Backup" /MIR with some arguments to only make it try once to do a file before giving up (if its open/access denied/whatever) (I'm not on a windows machine at the moment, drop me a reminder tomorrow and I'll see what I have).

 

I'm sure powdarrmonkey and sparkeh amongst others will have loads of good ideas of what they do in their schools and between us all we'll help you learn and build something that works for you.

[Little-Miss]

Thanks that would be great.

 

I'm not planning on changing things for a while now! New server went in this summer and it'll stay there for a few years!...unless something unplanned happens.... (touching lots of wood!)

[sparkeh]

or create them a local account (in addition to their domain one) with the same username/password which if I remember rightly be enough to trick it into mapping drives without asking for domain credentials.

 

Our local accounts have mapped drives that use domain accounts to authenticate. Just tick the option to reconnect each time and its seamless.

[BatchFile]

The scripts pretty straight forward, I'll dig it out but it's effectively robocopy "C:\My Documents\*" "H:\My Backup" /MIR with some arguments to only make it try once to do a file before giving up (if its open/access denied/whatever) (I'm not on a windows machine at the moment, drop me a reminder tomorrow and I'll see what I have).

 

That's almost exactly what I've started to roll out here in the new laptop image. there's a folder on the C: drive called CpsWork where the staff are instructed to save anything they want backing up, then a script in the "All users" "startup" group to (robo)copy everything to a share I set up specially on the server called LaptopBackup. the script is "robocopy c:\cpswork \\servername\%computername% /r:0 /w:0 /s /mir" - using the %computername% means it works straight off the image

 

There's no reason why you couldn't use this to sync to a folder on their home drive - apart from if I'd done that here the server would have fallen over with all the extra data....

[kmount]

Yep, that's pretty much exactly what ours was minus the automatic running.

 

We had some exclusions such as *.TMP, Temporary Internet Files etc that we didn't want cludging the back up up with as we were backing up their 'profile' in effect with everything that had been redirected which included cookies etc.