Hello,

I am currently working on refining the process of how roaming profiles
are currently setup. I have noticed that there are some users that
have Desktops with many large files as well as My documents. I wanted
to know if it is okay to use "Exclude directories in roaming profile"
in the group policy to remove the Desktop and My Documents from the
roaming profile. Instead, I would setup a home folder that maps a
network drive for each user and they would put there files there.
Primarily this would be done so that users must copy their own
important/critical data to a new location that we can effectively
backup. Is this a good idea?

Also, as of now it seems that the Folder Redirection is enabled on the
server so that the My documents does not have to be syncronized each
time a users logs on or off. However, I have noticed that each user
has their My documents in their respective profile folder and the
files are not going into the location specified by folder redirection.
What would cause this? Ultimately, it does not really matter since I
would like to get rid of this a just use the home folders.

There are a couple users that for some reason do not have profiles and
the folder redirection appears to be working properly. My next
question, if I disable the folder redirection, will they still be able
to access their files or will I have to copy them from the server back
to their deskop?

Finally, once I go ahead a exclude the Desktop and My documents from
the Profiles, what will happen to the users? Does it still have a
local copy of their profile and all personal files on the desktop or
will it only remain on the server? It seems to me that once it is
disabled they will not be able to access the files, what would be the
best way for this to be implemented?

I appreciate any help regarding this issue.

Thank you,
Aaron

Aaron <bikefaster@gmail.com> wrote:
The answer to this is "folder redirection" via group policy....read on.

I don't think so - but if you use properly configured folder redirection,
it's moot.


You could create home directories for your users (set in their ADUC profile
tab), and set up folder redirection for both My Documents and Desktop to
subfolders of \\server\home$\%username%. You can also redirect Application
Data and Start Menu, but I don't - those are usually small enough that they
don't cause problems, whereas I've heard of performance problems if you do
redirect tem.

If you implemented folder redirection with its defaults, the data will be
moved automagically ....otherwise, I'd set up a robocopy batch file and I'd
take care of this myself, at each workstation. Users don't like lost data. I
ampresuming your network isn't that large...so this shouldn't be that big a
deal.
Folder redirection <> offline files.
I strongly suggest that you disable offline files for your desktop users,
via group policy (and even for laptop users, I prefer other stuff to sync
data).

Can't say, as it isn't really clear where things are being redirected to.
Running rsop.msc as a user on their workstation may help as will looking at
event logs - and running GPMC on the server/s will help you manage your own
policies.

Roaming profiles work if they're tiny - not well if they're large. I suspect
that's the main cause of your problem. Also make sure all computers are
running the latest version of the User Profile Hive Cleanup service from MS.

Yep - they aren't related.

Do not disable folder redirection - fix it. It's mandatory, in my book, if
you're running roaming profiles - and is a really really good idea if you
aren't running roaming profiles.
....which you shouldn't, as per above

Hope the above helps....

On Jun 12, 11:41 am, "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
<lanwe...@heybuddy.donotsendme.unsolicitedmailatya hoo.com> wrote:
Thank you for your quick response to my issues regarding the roaming
profiles. I understand that you like Folder Redirection and suggest
that is the way to go. I am however rather hesistant as I don't want
to have all that information on our servers. We only want company
information pertinent to work to be on the servers. As of now we have
about 70 users on the network. The amount of information that has been
copied over due to the roaming profiles ie. desktop and my documents
is rather large and overwhelming. You dismissed excluding folders in
the profile saying, "if you use properly configured folder
redirection, it's moot." How do I configure it properly? So that I
don't have all the needless data. Loss data certainly is not pretty,
but what is key is the company critical data. And by enforcing
employees to copy those critical files to their personal home folder I
feel that it has accomplished what we want.

Truthfully, if I had my way I would agree with you in an attempt to
save all the data. However, I am working with an "IT Dept" that is
set on only have the "critical data" (whatever that means) and nothing
more. I know that roaming profiles work well if they are small and
that is the goal of making these changes. You never mentioned what was
wrong with using "Exclude directories in roaming profile"? As of now,
there is no way that I'm going to keep people's desktops (not after
the 3.5 GB one I saw today). Is there are way to place a quota on just
the desktop? If so, then I would be willing to keep it and not
exclude. With regards to My Docs, I really don't care to keep people's
music and videos. I appreciate all of your help and advice about
getting this to work properly and look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you,
Aaron

Aaron <bikefaster@gmail.com> wrote:

<snipped for length>

Ah...then perhaps you really don't want all that information on any computer
on your *network* at all. This is a common enough company policy.

I can imagine! I'll also bet users are seeing some really long login times.

Re My Documents & Desktop, yes.

....get the needless data off your network entirely.

I think you're going to end up with a mess - can pretty much guarantee that
a lot of new data will continue to go into your now entirely
unmanaged/backed up local My Documents folders.

You'll want to make sure that "critical data" is clearly defined. IT needs
to implement policies devised by *management* - not in a vacuum, by an
admin.

Well - I like to use My Documents. Since most Windows apps respect that
path, it's the easiest way to get your users to store data in a single place
by default. And My Documents redirection to the server ensures that when a
user saves or opens files, they're looking at the server. I usually redirect
it to the home directory, but if you wanted, you could direct it to a shared
folder too (but watch out for unwanted subfolders getting created).

Youch! I think there's a training issue here too.

Not with MS built in stuff - there are third party quota management tools,
tho. Google should be useful there.

Nor should you - so I think the question is, why are people allowed to store
them at all?

As a wise man said, "There are seldom good technological solutions to
behavioral problems." I suggest that before doing anything at all, you have
a discussion with management & HR. Perhaps there needs to be an announcement
made that any personal data must immediately be removed or deleted, by
such-and-such a date. I'd bet that most of your users have access to
computers at home! Right now, it sounds like there's quite a mix of business
& personal data, and any technological solution to putting it on the server
is going to put *all* of it on the server . Redirecting My Documents (and
Desktop....unless you have a very strict policy that states, "never store
any files on your desktop") will ensure that *data* is stored on the server,
where you want it stored. This is just my $.02, but what I've described is a
very standard and easy-to-support configuration.

We use Roaming profiles strictly on our two Citrix/TS servers. We also
set up all our users with a home drive and configure all the
applications so that they default to that drive for files. I'm still
considering redirecting their My Documents folders to be sure that their
profiles remain small.

I deal with a client base consisting primarily of nurses who are very
computer illiterate and get confused and irritated when *anything*
changes. We once inadvertently changed the label of an icon from "Misys
Homecare Client" to "Misys Homecare". We receives numerous calls the
next day, "Where is my Misys icon?"...

Because of this I have to test out *any* changes before we go into
production. I would like to implement redirecting the My Documents
folder to their home drives but be able to fall back if necessary.

My question is, when does the folder redirection happen? Immediately
after changing the GPO or the first time they log on? I would like to
change it, log a test client on and document any changes the user will
see. I have to either send out a document describing the changes they
will see or hold a training session to show them. Obviously, I'd like to
be able to stop and say "Never mind...".

Can this be done?

TIA.

Regards,
Hank Arnold

Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] wrote:

Hank Arnold <rasilon@aol.com> wrote:
I'd redirect both My Documents and Desktop. To subfolders under each user's
home directory - e.g., H:\My Documents and H:\Desktop.
Understood.
Check the options in the folder redirection settings to make sure you know
what will happen if you change/revert this.

The first time they log in.

On Jun 18, 9:28 am, "Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"
<lanwe...@heybuddy.donotsendme.unsolicitedmailatya hoo.com> wrote:


I like the idea of redirecting both the My Documents and Desktop to
the users' home folder. When I go into the Group Policy, for the My
Documents, I have the option to redirect to the user's home directory.
However, this redirects to the root directory of the users home
folder. Can I get it to go into H:\My Documents? I tired using this
path but for some reason it still did not want the items to be
redirected.

Also, it seems from the reading that I have done that the Desktop can
not be redirected to the users home folder, is this true? How do I go
about properly getting the Desktop to be directed into the users home
folder. If this is not possible then I would like to at least exclude
the desktop from the users profiles. Due to the size of a number of
users desktops, the logon time has increased because their profiles
are so large. When I exclude the Desktop, will they still have a local
copy of their desktop?

Thanks,
Aaron

Aaron <bikefaster@gmail.com> wrote:

<snip>
Don't use the home directory setting then- use "create a folder under the
main folder" (sorry, I'm paraphrasing) - and specify
\\server\homedirshare\%username% -
Dunno, but I wouldn't.

See above.

Yes - but it would be better for each user to end up with
\\server\share\%username%\my documents" and
\\server\share\%username%\desktop in that case. Or use the home directory
for My Documents, and \\server\userdesktopshare\%username%\desktop for the
Desktop


Try posting in m.p.windows.server.group_policy for more help / suggestions.

As usual.... Thanks........... :-)

Regards,
Hank Arnold

Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] wrote:

Hank Arnold <rasilon@aol.com> wrote:
You're most welcome.

<snip>

Hi,

I have a small network of 15 computers + 1 server. On server I have
Windows Server 2000 and everything is working fine on it.
Now I bought this NEW server (dell power edge 2900) with Windows Small
Business Server 2003 Premium Edition.
Well due to some reason i m not able to do one thing on this new
server and I dont know what to do.

On (old) Server 2000 I had set it up in a way that all the profiles of
the users would go and save in the D: drive (NOT the boot dir).
Well on the (new) server 2003 i m not able to do it - i m not able to
save the profiles of the users on a different drive. It just
AUTOMATICALLY saves the profiles on the C: drive *boot drive* which i
dont want. I want to save the profiles on the other drive !!

Please let me know if there is a way to fix it.

Thanks

AL