Force Sync at Logon and Logoff

[Mr.Ben]

With Windows XP, there was a group policy to force an offline files syncronisation at logon and logoff.

 

On my 'Roaming' Laptops' I enabled this so that Staff laptops always synced when they logged on and off to ensure that Staff had the latest versions of documents when they took there laptop home.

 

In Windows 7 there is no option to do this. You can set a task in Sync Center to do this on logon, but I want it to happen automatically on logon and off, without having to set anything up on a per user basis.

 

Can I force this using a script? Can I do this with a scheduled task and GPP? and if so can I use Mobsync with a switch? Are there any other solutions?

 

My Google-Fu is coming up with lots of questions, but no definite answers!

Edited April 13, 2011 by Mr.Ben

[sukh]

Hi

 

You can configure the "Configuring Background Sync" and specify the "Maximum Allowed Time Without A Sync" to say 1 minute. As a workaround?

 

Configuring New Offline Files Features for Windows 7 Computers Step-by-Step Guide

 

Sukh

[Mr.Ben]

Cheers again sukh,

 

This is how I am approaching it at the moment, however would this not put a large and unneeded load on my network?.

 

I only have a few staff laptops here (30ish), but if they were all doing this at the same time?

[sukh]

Hi Ben

 

Yes, it would, would depend on the number of files which are changing etc. I will look into in more depth but I assume there will be delta changes and not full, so there would be minimal traffic generated.

 

Sukh

[Mr.Ben]

Update: The GPO for Configuring Background Sync only work when a 'Slow Link' is detected. When my users are in school they will always have a link that is better than the default policy, so I assume that I will have to raise the 'slow link' threshold to 54Mbps/100Mbps/1000Mbps for the shares to get this to work when they are either cabled in or connected by wireless?

 

That's a rather fast 'Slow Link'

Edited April 13, 2011 by Mr.Ben

[sukh]

Hi

 

Are you referring to the Configure slow-link mode policy, tihs is based on latency is MS. (offlineFiles.admx)

 

The Configure Slow link speed only applies to Windows XP (offlineFiles.admx)

 

Then you will have to configure slow-link mode policy.

 

I assume the users dont logoff at anytime?

 

The synch is a background task so I it will synch in the background and will keep files up to date unless a slow-link mode is detcted (latency) then it would fall into Background Sync.

 

Sukh

 

Sukh

[Mr.Ben]

I get it now, correct me I f I am wrong:

 

Within the school network, the link will be not be detected as a 'slow link', so syncronisation will happen when required (when a file has changed) as a background task.

 

This means that the "Configuring Background Sync" will have no effect.

 

I do not need the machines to sync when disconnected or connected via our VPN, that's not what I am after.

 

I do however want to make sure that the files have synced when the user logs off of their laptop within the school, or logs in in the morning but if it is always working as a background task then this should be the case?

 

So I Staff Member A creates a document offline, then logs on within the school and logs off (previously in XP this would ensure a sync) and goes to another machine it will be there!.

 

In my test enviroment, Syncing only seems to occur occasionally (every hour or so), so how do I force it to sync?

 

It may be that Staff have to get used to Manually starting a sync before they leave!

Edited April 13, 2011 by Mr.Ben

[sukh]

Hi

 

If you want to force at logoff then we can use some commands.

 

We can use .vbs script to manually sync offline files. The scripts are:

 

CscSyncAll.vbs (CscSyncAll.vbs)

CscSync.vbs (CscSyncAll.vbs)

 

 

Then you can create a .bat file to sync offline files. For example, to sync all offline file, create a .bat file with the following content (for convenience, let’s say the location of CscSyncAll.vbs is c:\CscSyncAll.vbs), and then users can manually run the .bat file to sync the files before logging off or you can try and use a logoff GPO.

 

Sukh

 

 

 

cscript c:\CscSyncAll.vbs

[sukh]

Hi

 

Did you see the scripts above?

 

Sukh

[Mr.Ben]

I did , I will give them a go!