Offline Files with Clustering

[Jon Street]

We have recently migrated user data onto a clustered file
server, and it seemed to be going ok. But, now whenever
we setup a new laptop with the My Documents folder being
made available offline, all the files fail with access
denied messages. Anyone got any ideas? We are using
Windows Advanced Server SP4(fully patched) and
Clustering.

Also some clients(not just laptops) are receiving Lost
Data -Write Delayed messages when saving files to the
cluster. Is this related?

 

[Matt Hickman]

We have recently migrated user data onto a clustered file
server, and it seemed to be going ok. But, now whenever
we setup a new laptop with the My Documents folder being
made available offline, all the files fail with access
denied messages. Anyone got any ideas? We are using
Windows Advanced Server SP4(fully patched) and
Clustering.

Take a look at the permissions settings on the server's
problem directories and individul files. If the individual
files and subdirectories under redirected "My Documents" have
ACEs that prevent the user from having sufficient permissions,
you may need to force inheritance from the parent "My Documents"
directory (make sure that is correct first, as well)

It is also possible that the share permissions are wrong.

You are not using DFS on the cluster are you?

Are you using a SAN? Please give a more detailed description
of your Cluster configuration and the OS versions of your clients.

What do the event logs -- specifically the security event
log on the cluster server(s) say? You may need to turn on
auditing for the files on the cluster. Audit failed access
to the files in the problem directories.

 

[Jon Street]

Permissions seem ok (i.e. user has full control of their
own My Docs redirected folder and sub dirs), and not
using DFS.

Whilst searching web for solution, I found some
interesting information on Windows Server 2003. Windows
2003 cluster service contains support for offline folder
caching, which apparently has not previously available.
If this is true, then this sounds like the probable
reason. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[Guest]

Ok now, so don't worry.

Was to do with permissions after all!!