Arthur Posted March 22, 2019 Posted March 22, 2019 After almost two decades, it looks like Microsoft will soon have a replacement for roaming profiles by integrating FSLogix's products into Windows itself. Read more at the link below. https://christiaanbrinkhoff.com/2019/03/21/the-future-of-roaming-profiles-add-fast-logon-performance-and-office-365-support-to-your-virtual-desktop-vdi-daas-environment-with-microsoft-fslogix-profile-container-including-existing-uem-sol As said earlier, all the FSLogix products, such as Profile and Office container, but also AppMasking, and Java Redirection will become part of the core technology of Windows (and Windows Virtual Desktop). Additionally, if you own or subscribe to anything on the following list, you’ll also be entitled to FSLogix (it’s a pretty broad list, so there’s a good chance you are entitled!). Microsoft 365 E3/A3 Microsoft 365 E5/A5 Windows 10 Enterprise E3/E5 Windows 10 Education A3/A5 Windows 10 VDA per user Remote Desktop Services (RDS) CAL Disruptive technology – why containers are better… Disruption is a term in IT that we hear a lot these days because disruption among competitors drives innovation, right? Roaming profiles have been around for over 20 years, and have remained largely the same during that time even though the way we used them changed. In other words, they were ripe for disruption. Folder Redirection was there to rescue you when the size of the user’s profile became too large. However, this all works on file-based storage; you always had limited options. Profile container work though filter-drivers which are block-based. The profile streams it directly, whether it’s 1GB or 100GB in size – it doesn’t matter anymore. No file transfer takes place on the background, which overcomes the corruption of profiles as well! Compare it when watching a movie through Netflix or downloading it yourself – you must wait longer. This filter-driver technology is also one of the base fundamentals why this product works best with all the Office 365 products, such as OneDrive and Teams. The size of the profile is becoming bigger and bigger due to this and becomes a bottleneck for roaming profiles as well – using a filter-driver – caching disk technology is the only way to leverage Office 365 services on top of VDI correctly… Some important disadvantages to know about roaming profiles... Large roaming profiles take a long time to download, extending logon times that can be measured in minutes. In fact, 20.5% of customers surveyed by VDILIKEAPRO in 2019 – and the state of the union 2018 survey – recorded logon times of greater than 1 minute, though the majority of respondents (57%) indicated <25 second logon times. Logon times of over 10 minutes have been encountered. Roaming profiles also need to be uploaded at logoff, and if this process is interrupted the profile could be left in a corrupt state. When this happens, temporary profiles are created. These profiles are completely empty and IT intervention is needed to resolve the problem. Customers using folder redirection place an increased load on their network by creating large amounts of SMB traffic between the desktop and the file server. Each request to a file is treated as a new connection–an effect that uberAgent’s Helge Klein calls a "mini denial of service attack on your fileserver." Differences between the profile and office container explained FSLogix Profile Container puts a user’s entire profile into a VHD or VHDX container. This container is typically stored on a file server and attached dynamically as the user logs on. Profile Container can be used with any 3rd party profile solution. It also adds the support for Outlook cache plus Search, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, Skype, OneNote and the cache of the Office 365 ProPlus computer activation license. The FSLogix Profile product. Encapsulates the entire user profile, including the registry, in an in-guest container (VHD/VHDX) i.e. %USERPROFILE% and NTUSER.DAT. Can also include the Outlook cache, OneDrive cache and Search Index**. VHD(x) is automatically created and saved on a File Store. Improve login times. Persist critical files between sessions and devices. Eliminates folder redirection**, especially %APPDATA% The FSLogix Office Container is a subset of the FSLogix Profile Container feature plus the ability to roam the Windows Search database with the user. Profile Container solve the issues that Office 365 has in a roaming profile environment. It also adds the support for OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, Skype, OneNote and the cache of the Office 365 ProPlus computer activation license – all based on an existing roaming profile management solution. Note: It is possible to use Profile and Office Container together to for example separate the OneDrive data in a separate container on cheaper and/or different storage locations. This could be beneficial in some use-cases. Filter driver architecture As mentioned in the previous section, profile container are not the same as roaming profiles. FSLogix products, such as Profile Container let the operating system think that the Office 365 product folders are local. This can be achieved by using smart filter drivers in Windows, which inject the folder mountings of Office 365 on the file system level so the operating system cannot detect any mounting points. Because of this approach, Microsoft Outlook, Search, OneDrive and Teams are working inside FSLogix container products. Also, it does not matter anymore how big your profile because FSLogix works in a streaming manner. Folder redirection can be eliminated when implementing Profile Container because it doesn’t copy the profile back and forth like roaming profile solution do.
kmount Posted March 22, 2019 Posted March 22, 2019 We've been using FSLogix with customers for a couple of years now and its a very good acquisition for MS to have made.
PotNoodleTech Posted March 22, 2019 Posted March 22, 2019 Roaming profiles used to work excellently. I have no real idea why on earth they decided to force us to move away from it.
bald_pig Posted March 22, 2019 Posted March 22, 2019 Roaming profiles used to work excellently. I have no real idea why on earth they decided to force us to move away from it. Key word there is "used to". In the last 20 years, file sizes in general have increased massively, it's no longer practical to transfer that data back and forth between the machine and the server.
DJ-1701 Posted March 22, 2019 Posted March 22, 2019 Well, looks like we would need to pay more for licensing if we wanted to use it as it doesn't appear to be in our ES-OVS agreement for the standard desktop licensing and we only have the free Office 365 A1 Plus not one of the new Microsoft 365 packages.
mullet_man Posted March 25, 2019 Posted March 25, 2019 Roaming profiles used to work excellently. I have no real idea why on earth they decided to force us to move away from it. Surley?! hahahah
FishCustard Posted March 25, 2019 Posted March 25, 2019 We still use roaming profiles with Windows 10 and haven't found any issues beyond those we saw from time to time with Windows 7. That said, this looks interesting and I will definitely want to experiment with it.
synaesthesia Posted March 25, 2019 Posted March 25, 2019 Well, looks like we would need to pay more for licensing if we wanted to use it as it doesn't appear to be in our ES-OVS agreement for the standard desktop licensing and we only have the free Office 365 A1 Plus not one of the new Microsoft 365 packages. Targetted more towards VDI style deployments, so if you've any CAL's for remote desktop then you're covered. And I'm quite sure your OVS agreement probably has those?
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