Enabling folder redirection - any caveats?

[localzuk]

I've finally got some time to go about speeding up our network.

 

One way of doing this is going to be to use Folder Redirection for My Documents, Desktop and Application Data.

 

Now, I have a basic idea of this process but need to ensure that when I do it, it will be smooth and seamless to users.

 

So, if I enable folder redirection, can someone answer the following for me:

 

1. Will the files in their redirected folders be available offline for when they go outside school with their laptops?

2. Will the system move files from their existing roaming profiles to the new redirected location, or will I have to manually do this?

3. Anything else I should know...

[soveryapt]

Redirected folders: If you have the folders redirected via GPO based on the individuals user name etc then it does become available as an offline file so that staff can access with their laptops etc. In terms of the moving, generally it does it all for you, but if you get an impatient member of staff, you might find it half done with a hard boot done, so my advise, tell the staff that you're doing this and that they may find login/logoff time are a little extended whilst the system settles itself.

 

The other bonus of this of course if that if they log onto another computer in the school that they should be able to access all their files (that's more the reason I went for this option).

 

The only other things you should know are the permissions, generally you can set it so that staff have explicit access to it and write into your AUP that this is the case unless asked by SLT/SMT to look into their folder, but they you get into the taking ownership side of things and then making sure you replace the ownership afterwards. Iv'e got round this by having it accessible to admin by default as well as the staff, but it's written in that this won't be abused etc, but actually comes in useful when staff go "can you help me find this file .. it was there" etc

 

If you're using 2008 / W7, you can also go down the route of using the redirection for things such as Favourites too, which is a delight for the staff to find that they can pretty much access everything on different machines here.

 

The only issue I've ever had has been when a member of staff has been working on various files using their USB to transfer it between their staff laptop they leave at home all the time and the school computers as then the system can get a little confused as to which version of a file to save on the server etc, but this is easily resolved using the Sync Centre.

[localzuk]

We're using Windows 2003 R2 and XP (hence the forum I posted in).

 

I don't understand what you're trying to say about permissions?

 

Also, you say that things are a bonus as they can get access to them on any machine - this is the case with their existing roaming profiles as it is. The issue is using roaming profiles and redirection together.

[Mcshammer_dj]

make usre you exclude my music.

[localzuk]

make usre you exclude my music.

 

Why? If I want to reduce the amount of files copying back and forth on login to new machines, surely I specifically want that included?

[CyberNerd]

Why would this speed things up?

by splitting the roaming profile data on to different servers?

[Pete10141748]

Roaming profiles + redirection here, anything redirected can still be made available offline as normal, had no problems with doing so.

 

The way I have it set here is that in AD for each user a mapped drive (U:\) is pointed to \\FileServer\Staff\%username% where anyone who is a member of the "Staff" group in AD can access the \\server\Staff folder and then only the individual %username% and myself as Administrator can access the individual folders.

 

My Documents folders are then just pointed at U:\ within the profiles. No issues with anything being available offline, been running smoothly for nearly 4 years this way now

[localzuk]

Why would this speed things up?

by splitting the roaming profile data on to different servers?

 

Because, the files would not sync during login, but after login. So, initial login would be significantly faster. ie. if someone has a profile which is hitting 500Mb, that entire lot is copied to a machine when they log in. If 475Mb of that is put in redirected folders, only 25Mb needs to be downloaded on login, and the rest is available on the servers.

[Pete10141748]

Why would this speed things up?

by splitting the roaming profile data on to different servers?

 

It'll be quicker because when a person logs on to a machine it's not having to download their massive My Documents/Pictures/Music etc folders to the machine as part of the logon.

 

EDIT: Localzuk beat me to it! lol

[CyberNerd]

 

The way I have it set here is that in AD for each user a mapped drive (U:\) is pointed to \\FileServer\Staff\%username% where anyone who is a member of the "Staff" group in AD can access the \\server\Staff folder and then only the individual %username% and myself as Administrator can access the individual folders.

 

 

Why don't you redirect it to a directory within their home folder instead? it sounds like you just created them another homedrive.

[soveryapt]

We're using Windows 2003 R2 and XP (hence the forum I posted in).

 

I should really learn to read the forum headings too! Sorry.

 

I started it off using the same setup and it still did it automatically, but there were more issues with the syncing of files, plus XP always seemed to want to run a full sync if the previous had failed, even if it was a different user was logged in. Not an issue for if it was me (or another member of staff with basic admin rights) but if it was a pupil then that caused an issue as they didn't have the permissions to access the staff folders, but as I guess you're talking about staff laptops then this shouldn't be an issue.

 

I don't understand what you're trying to say about permissions?

 

Permissions: basically, in the folder redirect area, you can tell it to grant permissions to only the member of staff for their work, so that noone else, including admins, can view those files unless you take ownership. I don't know what your AUP includes there, so it might be that you have access to all the files for administration purposes in which case make sure the tick box to grant exclusive rights to the staff isn't checked. If you do grant exclusive rights to the staff and you find you need to access a file / folder at a later date, you will have to take ownership as an admin on the server to ensure you get access rights, but then this can lead to problems on the odd time for that staff saving files etc.

 

Also, you say that things are a bonus as they can get access to them on any machine - this is the case with their existing roaming profiles as it is. The issue is using roaming profiles and redirection together.

 

Ah, didn't know you were using Roaming Profiles as it wasn't mentioned. This one I don't know as I don't use roaming profiles, but I don't see there would be an issues. Looks like Pete1014174 has answered that for you though.

[Pete10141748]

Why don't you redirect it to a directory within their home folder instead? it sounds like you just created them another homedrive.

 

Not sure what you mean by their "Home folder"?

Are you saying 1 folder that has their roaming profile data and their documents inside it?

[CyberNerd]

Not sure what you mean by their "Home folder"?

Are you saying 1 folder that has their roaming profile data and their documents inside it?

 

"Home Folder" - we use a mapped network drive for this that is the "my documents"

I don't see why not. Create a hidden folder within a mapped drive that has the profile data in it. Any problems with this?

[SYNACK]

Redirected folders and offline files even worked fine back in XP, you will want to define 'administrativly offline files' to point to your \\server\dfs\docs\%username% and disable the automatic offline cacheing. The automated stuff will do it usually but will also try to grab all mapped resources and can lead it to try and sync stuff in shared mapped drives and depending on software stuff like SIMS? from shared drives which causes massive issues.

 

It will do the move for you but I would seriously try to do it manually as you get teachers killing the machine, rebooting and killing again as it starts teh move again. Much easier to do it manually or at least tell them firmly that it is happening.

 

I am suprised that it has been tennable to have roaming profiles without redirection as the profiles must be truely huge.

[Pete10141748]

"Home Folder" - we use a mapped network drive for this that is the "my documents"

I don't see why not. Create a hidden folder within a mapped drive that has the profile data in it. Any problems with this?

 

Just different ways of doing the same thing I guess.

 

Personally I like having my \\server\Staff\%username% and \\server\Pupils\%username% for document redirection and \\server\Profiles\%username% for profiles. That way, I know that anything I do with the contents of the profiles folders (deleting, renaming, restoring, previous versions etc) has no chance of having an effect on the documents folders and contents, and vice-versa.

 

If it was all held together, I can envisage that if a profile corrupted and needed deleting, at some point one would forget that their documents are all inside the same folder and erase the lot....

[CyberNerd]

What about the c:\documents and settings\users\local settings ?

Does this become part of the roaming profile ? Sometimes the temp folder in there can become very large. Is it necessary to redirect this locally or do roaming profiles ignore this?

[SYNACK]

@CyberNerd - by default local settings does not roam but you can specify exceptions in the GP to preven certain folder from roaming.

 

How to prevent folders from roaming with a profile in Windows Server 2003

 

somewhere on these forums there is also some .adm files that allow you to redirect favorites to the user documents folder and I think that I made one that could redirect the My Music and My Pictures ones seporatly as well but I can't find either at the moment.

Edited May 26, 2011 by SYNACK

[SYNACK]

Here is an old school ADM to redirect Favorites via GP to a folder, useful when switching to 7 also as you can unify such things during a switchover.

http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/guyt/archive/2006/11/18/Redirecting-IE-Favorites-via-GPO.aspx

[gshaw]

Noticed the words Application Data on the original post, that's the one that might cause some problems with XP and the Adobe products of doom!

 

Also note as far as I understand it XP roaming Appdata always writes to the server as it's in use...

 

Should AppData be Redirected or Left in the User Profile? | sepago

 

Might be worth bearing in mind. Also if you set up the shares use the Traverse folder permission as that has been mooted as a fix for the Adobe \ Appdata issue

[localzuk]

Noticed the words Application Data on the original post, that's the one that might cause some problems with XP and the Adobe products of doom!

 

Also note as far as I understand it XP roaming Appdata always writes to the server as it's in use...

 

Should AppData be Redirected or Left in the User Profile? | sepago

 

Might be worth bearing in mind. Also if you set up the shares use the Traverse folder permission as that has been mooted as a fix for the Adobe \ Appdata issue

 

That link is RDS specific, and also 2k8/vista/7 specific, not XP/2003.

 

Also, which Adobe products have issues? We don't have any installed on staff computers - except Adobe Reader/Flash Player/Shockwave Player.

[gshaw]

Think the point he makes is still relevant on PCs though, see this rather nice article towards the bottom

 

Best Practice: Roaming Profiles and Folder Redirection (a.k.a. User State Virtualization)

 

I think 7 splits Appdata into a local and roaming section which works out more efficient but XP doesn't make the differentiation between them

 

Adobe product of doom would mainly be Adobe Reader although some others do it as well. Iirc 9.4 works OK but X doesn't, although you might be able to get around it with the correct folder permissions as Adobe stuff wants to be able to see every folder down the tree in order to get to the Appdata folder. I'd use the permissions from the Microsoft article below anyway so should be OK...

 

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/592829?decorator=print&displayFullThread=true

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/274443

Edited May 26, 2011 by gshaw