"I won't think microsoft would allow folder re-direction if it ate a tons of
resources."
Last I checked, folder redirection is something you would want to deploy on
a well connected network. I.E. lan speed connected clients and servers.
Why? Because if you redirect their folder then all traffic they normally
would read/write from/to the hdd has to be redirected to the server. In a
well connected scenario, this isn't always a big deal. In a high-latency or
low-bandwidth connection, this can be highly noticeable and detract from the
value.
If you don't think your consultant was correct, how about testing it under
various conditions. The proof is in the testing of course and I would guess
that different client versions will have different impacts due to technology
changes and driver changes. I can think of no version that would do well for
my use of redirected folders that work well over high-latency/low-bandwidth
links however.
There is more documentation available on the Microsoft site. There's also
context help in the GPO settings associated IIRC.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pr...Kit/cb6e238a-7920-45a4-9c54-fe048c87f9a2.mspx
is a good start. As you read it, think to yourself that these users will be
running and saving all their data from applications such as Word or Excel to
their home drive folder, vs. thinking it's local. That's the speed
difference and that's why people tend to not deploy it in all situations
especially if bandwidth is a concern. FWIW, I've seen workstations stay
glued up for hours due to this policy being enabled. Granted, that was
first run and it was about 100mb of data, but it was many many hours before
that device was usable again. There was a bandwidth concern (it was a
802.11b connection) but that to me is unusable.
And from:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pr...Kit/cb6e238a-7920-45a4-9c54-fe048c87f9a2.mspx
If you have mobile users who travel with portable computers, working
exclusively with folder redirection might not be feasible. To provide the
benefits of folder redirection to mobile users while still making their data
available to them when they travel, you can combine Offline Files with
folder redirection. Offline Files allows users to download copies of their
files from a server when they are connected to the network. If they modify
files when they are not connected to the network, those files can be
resynchronized with the server the next time the system is connected to the
network. You can configure Offline Files options in a Group Policy object in
the Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Network\Offline Files
node of the Group Policy Object Editor.
Al
