Potential impact of redirecting My Documents to a server drive 6

[JPJeffery]

Hi

In considering a GPO to redirect users' 'My Documents' from the "C:\Documents and Settings\username" path to a more secure (and backed up) network drive or, more likely, a UNC path the following argument against has been raised:

"If the file server fails for any reason then Windows Explorer on everyone's PC freezes up because My Documents is now referring to a no-longer-available location."

Have any of you experienced this?

If it does happen, does it only happen when the 'My Documents' folder is redirected to a mapped drive (rather than a UNC path)?

JJ
[small][purple]Variables won't. Constants aren't[/purple]
There is no apostrophe in the plural of PC (or PST, or CPU, or HDD, or FDD, or photo, or breakfast...and so on)[/small]

 

[Sympology]

Would this cover laptop users?
If so what happens when off net? or at a remote branch?

Why not set up home drives and set this as default save location. Maybe a lot less messy.

Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.

http://alvechurchlounge.org.uk

 

[JPJeffery]

Well, we do have home drives (mapped as P and it is to there that we would set My Docs' to point to.

That would still leave apps which default to My Docs though. Plus user force of habit.

JJ
[small][purple]Variables won't. Constants aren't[/purple]
There is no apostrophe in the plural of PC (or PST, or CPU, or HDD, or FDD, or photo, or breakfast...and so on)[/small]

 

[JPJeffery]

Well, I've just proved the behaviour. If the user has their My Documents pointing to a network share and that network share becomes unavailable their whole PC pretty much becomes unusable.

Nice.

NOT!

JJ
[small][purple]Variables won't. Constants aren't[/purple]
There is no apostrophe in the plural of PC (or PST, or CPU, or HDD, or FDD, or photo, or breakfast...and so on)[/small]

 

[vacunita]

No, explorer should not freeze, it may take a little longer to load as it tries to find any files, but it should eventually finish loading sans any files in the My documents location.

My Docs is not an essential location for windows to run, its just there for the users own benefit and convenience.

You can use the aptly name Offline files to maintain access to the files when offline or if the server is unreachable for any reason.

Note that as Offline files synchronizes the files to the server it may also delay the loading of Windows a bit while syncing files.



----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Behind the Web, Tips and Tricks for Web Development.

http://behindtheweb.blogspot.com/

 

[JPJeffery]

"...No, explorer should not freeze..."

Perhaps not, but it does. I proved it. The behaviour probably happens because My Documents is a Special Folder.

When you open Explorer it tries to resolve it, even if you're not directly opening the My Documents folder itself. As the target folder wasn't available Explorer froze, perhaps temporarily, but still I couldn't get any responsiveness from the console beyond the initial opening of the Start Menu.

If that affects one person it's not a big deal, but if we had all of our London office users experience unresponsive PCs suddenly and at the same time we'd be VERY unpopular.

Try it.
[ol]
[li]Create a TEST share on PC01 (\\pc01\test).[/li]
[li]On (test) PC02 logon as a (test) user and redirect the My Documents folder to the \\pc01\test share[/li]
[li]Disconnect the network cable on PC01[/li]
[li]On PC02 click on the Start button[/li]
[li]Enjoy the freeze![/li]
[/ol]

It might well be temporary, but it'll be long enough, and if it effects everyone in an office, and perhaps everytime they click on Start (or similar) until the server comes back online, the helpdesk phones will be ringing...a lot!

Incidentally, you get a similar situation if you have a persistent drive mapping to a non-existent share, but this only happens when you open My Computer to see the list of drives and has less overall impact to the PC.

JJ
[small][purple]Variables won't. Constants aren't[/purple]
There is no apostrophe in the plural of PC (or PST, or CPU, or HDD, or FDD, or photo, or breakfast...and so on)[/small]

 

[guitarzan]

1. Are you on a domain? Roaming Profiles is really what you are looking for.

2. Did you look into vacunita's suggestion of Offline files? I have never used it myself so I'm not speaking from experience, but that should do what you are looking for as well.

 

[JPJeffery]

Even with Roaming Profiles I would still have preferred My Docs to not be on the C: drive, along with the Desktop Folder, to speed up logons and logoffs...until this behaviour popped up.

As it happens the new boss wants NO roaming profiles in order to speed up logons and logoffs.

Using Offline Files would work if what we wanted to duplicate was originally a network location whereas what we're trying to avoid is having any company data on C: drives at all. So, offline files are a no-no all round.

What looks I'm going to have to do is write a script (new boss's idea again) to copy/move any files saved in "C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\My Documents" to the user's P: drive, or one that detects when the user has saved a file to their My Docs and tell them not to.

JJ
[small][purple]Variables won't. Constants aren't[/purple]
There is no apostrophe in the plural of PC (or PST, or CPU, or HDD, or FDD, or photo, or breakfast...and so on)[/small]

 

[goombawaho]

What about a robocopy scheduled task to copy or mirror the My Documents folder to the network folder once per day (or more). Then you can let them save locally and the copy job will put things on the server when they are connected.

Best of both worlds??? I'd probably do a mirror so that deleted files will be deleted on the server as well.

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

no roaming profiles to speed up login times?

sounds like a simple case of profile management required or a network overhaul?

no roaming profiles means data loss if the PC goes bang.

tell the "new" boss to think again.

ACSS - SME
General Geek

 

[goombawaho]

Yeah, sometimes new bosses like to make changes just because they are new and their boss has said he wants to see things improve. It's like smoke and mirrors. We'll change this, we'll change that and everything will start to improve.

Different/change is not necessarily better, especially if it's not well thought out.

But don't argue with the new boss too much. I did that once - basically told him in a nice way that we didn't need him coming in here and changing everything just for the sake of changing things. Didn't go over too well.

 

[JPJeffery]

What about a robocopy scheduled task...

Not disimilar to what I mentioned in my last paragraph of 12 Aug 11 18:00. It just seems a bit messy/high maintenance.

no roaming profiles to speed up login times?sounds like a simple case of profile management required or a network overhaul?

Funny thing, at the behest of the newbie we are doing a network overhaul...subject to budget approval...

no roaming profiles means data loss if the PC goes bang

Hence the script/scheduled task to copy that data up.

The new boy's aim is an admirable one: Makes things better/faster. Personally, I think people (i.e. end users) understand there is a pay off between performance and resilience.

Or they should be MADE to understand!

don't argue with the new boss too much...

Trying not to!

I don't want to paint a bad picture of him. He is a techie, not just a suit, and a good lad, I just don't agree with every idea he has.

JJ
[small][purple]Variables won't. Constants aren't[/purple]
There is no apostrophe in the plural of PC (or PST, or CPU, or HDD, or FDD, or photo, or breakfast...and so on)[/small]

 

[goombawaho]

I see your previous comment about writing a script now (that I read the whole thing). But, how is your script going to be better than a Microsoft provided utility?

You could have a command in the batch file to change directory (CD S:\ or similar) to change to the network folder. If it didn't exist, you could exit the batch file, in case they aren't logged in.

Better yet, would be to have the script run at LOGIN, which would guarantee success. And it wouldn't take that long other than the first time if you used the MIRROR option.

That first time might be a long wait though.

 

[JPJeffery]

I see your previous comment about writing a script now (that I read the whole thing). But, how is your script going to be better than a Microsoft provided utility?

Well, quite (although my scripts are pretty good!)

But your point is well made. Why script something which would be covered by pretty much the equivalent of a tick box?!

JJ
[small][purple]Variables won't. Constants aren't[/purple]
There is no apostrophe in the plural of PC (or PST, or CPU, or HDD, or FDD, or photo, or breakfast...and so on)[/small]

 

[goombawaho]

I guess either/or if it works well, but make the new boss happy. Ha ha.

I think the original copy will be the obstacle. How to tell users that it may take a while to get logged in the first time the script runs. Unless you did the first script at some time that they are already logged in, which would just slow down the network and their PC but NOT STOP them dead during a login script execution of running the script.

 

[JPJeffery]

Well, if the MIRROR option works as suggested (I've not used to confirm, please: "Only copy files you need to"?) then I guess a LOGON script to copy down and a LOGOFF script to copy up...

JJ
[small][purple]Variables won't. Constants aren't[/purple]
There is no apostrophe in the plural of PC (or PST, or CPU, or HDD, or FDD, or photo, or breakfast...and so on)[/small]

 

[goombawaho]

Here's how I use Robocopy with the mirror option.

It copies every new or modified file to the destination directory. It ignores all files that are unchanged. It also DELETES anything that is no longer on the source directory.

Therefore, I don't know what you mean by running a "copy down at logon and a copy up at logoff". That would not be necessary.

You would only run it once (whenerer you decide, but at logoff is not a bad idea if you can do that) while the user is connected and it would basically replicate exactly the source directory to the target directory on the server.

Sample batch file
robocopy.exe C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\ \\Server\Users\UserName /MIR /ZB /R:2 /W:5 /LOG:"C:\Backup.log

 

[JPJeffery]

copy down at logon" on the off-chance that the user is at a different PC than last time...

JJ
[small][purple]Variables won't. Constants aren't[/purple]
There is no apostrophe in the plural of PC (or PST, or CPU, or HDD, or FDD, or photo, or breakfast...and so on)[/small]

 

[guitarzan]

Just my two cents, as it seems you are in a strange spot:

>"copy down at logon" on the off-chance that the user is at a different PC than last time...

Now, you have basically proposed completely recreating roaming profiles using a custom script, right down to accessing the user's files on other computers.

How will this be faster than roaming profiles? Or better?

The only potential benefit is making your boss happy (an important consideration, i admit). But unless there are real answers to the above questions, other than "boss doesn't like roaming profiles, so we will just rewrite it and call it something else", it's all just seems futile.

Other than appeasing your boss, I cannot think of any other benefit... in fact can think of a lot of negatives. Like, all the time spent writing and testing functinality that has already been written and tested. And, will your script be resilient enough to handle power failures? What happens if power is yanked, and there is no "Log off" and therefore no "LOGOFF script to copy up". How will you proceed???

 

[JPJeffery]

I KNOW! I KNOW!

JJ
[small][purple]Variables won't. Constants aren't[/purple]
There is no apostrophe in the plural of PC (or PST, or CPU, or HDD, or FDD, or photo, or breakfast...and so on)[/small]