Folder Redirection puzzle

[Mark Stinson]

Greetings:

I administer a Windows 2000 active directory domain and have been having an
ongoing headache with a folder redirection policy. When I initially created
the domain a couple of years ago, we were a pure Win2K environment with a
couple of hundred users. I set up a policy to redirect the users' My
Documents folder to a server so that they would be backed up regularly.
Aside from this, user profiles are local.

Our environment has changed somewhat with the addition of a couple of
hundred more Win2K desktops, about 150 WinXP desktops and a few hundred more
users, but the servers are still Win2000.

The redirect policy worked well initially, but I began running into problems
with the redirected folders. When a new user logs on from a Win2K box, the
user's folder is created, but the user account has no permissions and cannot
access their folder until I manually set the permissions. Aside from being
an annoyance, it isn't that big of a deal as all other permissions are
working as they should. However, when a new user logs on from a WinXP box,
the redirect policy isn't even being applied, the folder is not created and
everything stays local. Even if I manually create the user's folder, the
redirect is not being applied. If the user initially logs in from a Win2K
box and I set the permissions on their folder, the redirect seems to work OK
if they later log on from a WinXP box.

Thanks for any help, suggestions, ideas, or Valium. ;-)

Mark

 

[Mark Stinson]

Forgot to add -- I did try setting local policies on the XP boxes to force
synchronous policy processing a la Win2K. No joy.

Mark

 

[GT]

Take alook in the event log of the computer that the new user is logging in
to. I'm willing to bet the answer will be there (or at least more clues).

-GT

 

[lforbes]

Take alook in the event log of the computer that the new user
is logging in
to. I'm willing to bet the answer will be there (or at least
more clues).

-GT

 >> Greetings:
 >>
 >> I administer a Windows 2000 active directory domain
and have been having
 >> an ongoing headache with a folder redirection policy.
When I initially
 >> created the domain a couple of years ago, we were a
pure Win2K
 >> environment with a couple of hundred users. I set up
a policy to redirect
 >> the users' My Documents folder to a server so that
they would be backed
 >> up regularly. Aside from this, user profiles are
local.
 >>
 >> Our environment has changed somewhat with the
addition of a couple of
 >> hundred more Win2K desktops, about 150 WinXP desktops
and a few hundred
 >> more users, but the servers are still Win2000.
 >>
 >> The redirect policy worked well initially, but I
began running into
 >> problems with the redirected folders. When a new user
logs on from a
 >> Win2K box, the user's folder is created, but the user
account has no
 >> permissions and cannot access their folder until I
manually set the
 >> permissions. Aside from being an annoyance, it isn't
that big of a deal
 >> as all other permissions are working as they should.
However, when a new
 >> user logs on from a WinXP box, the redirect policy
isn't even being
 >> applied, the folder is not created and everything
stays local. Even if I
 >> manually create the user's folder, the redirect is
not being applied. If
 >> the user initially logs in from a Win2K box and I set
the permissions on
 >> their folder, the redirect seems to work OK if they
later log on from a
 >> WinXP box.
 >>
 >> Thanks for any help, suggestions, ideas, or Valium.
;-)
 >>
 >> Mark
 >>

Hi,

Basically I don’t let folder redirection create the folders. I do that
in Active Directory when I add a new user. I create the folder by
putting the Home Folder in the mapping in the Properties of the user.
This creates the folder with permissions for the Admin to see the
folder but the users have full control.

However the redirection may be a DNS issue. Make sure DNS is setup
correctly in your domain http://www.sd61.bc.ca/windows2000/dns.htm

I have 500 xp and 2k clients and folder redirection works. I found if
it doesn’t then restarting the XP machine does the trick.

Also in AD go into the Group Policy on Computers (you will need to
create OU if you don’t already) and under CompConfi-Admin-System-Logon
enable "always wait for network at computer startup and logon".
This is the problem with XP in that it logs on without waiting for the
Group Policy settings. You have to force it here.

Also under UserConfig-Admin-Network-Offline Files - Enable "Do not
automatically make redirected folders available offline". This will
SPEED up logon and logoff because it won’t copy the entire contents of
the redirected folder to the local drive in XP. However, modified
files etc. will still be cached like they are in 2K.

Cheers,

Lara