Migrate to DFS from UNC file shares? Complications..
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@Dashrender said:
In the meantime, I just add that I too have been using folder redirection for My Documents since Windows 2000 - they work near flawlessly. I added redirecting Favorites about 2 years ago, again flawless.
Folder redirection works great. This main issues are
Sometimes software's hardcode the my documents folder to store data.
And Laptops, Offline Files can break.
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@Jason said:
@Dashrender said:
In the meantime, I just add that I too have been using folder redirection for My Documents since Windows 2000 - they work near flawlessly. I added redirecting Favorites about 2 years ago, again flawless.
Folder redirection works great. This main issues are
Sometimes software's hardcode the my documents folder to store data.
And Laptops, Offline Files can break.
Yep, both those examples are true, though in 16 years I've rarely run into the software issue, and the Offline situation has greatly improved since Windows 7, 6+ years ago.
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@ntoxicator said:
Simply would I be able to attach this NAS network drive to the current PDC and then from there create a group policy for this new set of users which points to this new network file path? Then I can copy their user profile folders to this new network path.... keeping their existing user data and settings?
Curious why you would attach the NAS, I'm assuming over the VPN, to the AD back at the main office? A NAS looks just like a Windows Server to a Windows client computer - so you can use your GPOs to push mapped drives, the mapping being something like net use s: \NAS\sharename. Assuming you buy a NAS that supports AD integration (my cheap Buffalo NAS does) you can assign user permissions to the shares, and the files within the file system.
Any file that is accessed primarily by the remote site should be put on that NAS (don't forget your backups).
As JB said earlier, you don't need AD/DNS/DHCP at the remote site. Those features use very little bandwidth and typically work just fine on WAN/VPN connections, so not buying a server and a license for that server would be a cost savings. That said, you could always stand up a Linux AD box - supposedly the AD implementation on Linux will fit right in with Windows, and nothing will be the wiser. So while this wouldn't save you any hardware costs, it would save you an $800 Windows Server license and allow you to have local AD/DNS/DHCP.
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Thanks for the input
Reason mentioning onsite server was because we have a MAPS account which has server licenses, so cost is $0 right now; as the money has already been spent. (was spent)
So, I would just configure a NAS and present it BACK to the primary domain controller (over VPN UNC share)?
The fact is, CEO and management complaining users are not able to work efficiently enough. As all data right now is going over the VPN tunnel. Looking to mitigate this, so the new users at this remote site will have their folder redirection and roaming profile stored locally at that location.
Then the only data going over VPN would be the AD authentication and GPO's.
so -- the advice is to setup a local NAS, create file shares. Then at the Primary domain controller, attach the UNC share? I thought I couldnt do folder redirection and roaming profiles on network attached storage?
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@ntoxicator said:
So, I would just configure a NAS and present it BACK to the primary domain controller (over VPN UNC share)?
You keep mentioning this. There is no back. This is no connection of any kind between the NAS and the Domain controller in the main location - unless you map it as a network drive.
Then the only data going over VPN would be the AD authentication and GPO's.
Correct
so -- the advice is to setup a local NAS, create file shares.
Yes
Then at the Primary domain controller,
There is no such thing anymore. PDCs died with Windows NT 4.0. You should drop this from usage as some people will attack you for it. While there are special cases, all Domain controllers are equal and Read/Write, unlike the NT 4.0 and previous days. They are simply called Domain Controllers (DC) or Active Directory Domain Controllers (AD DC).
attach the UNC share? I thought I couldnt do folder redirection and roaming profiles on network attached storage?
You can folder redirect to any SMB share, it doesn't matter where it's hosted. For example, you can use Group Policy to map network shares to Linux or Macs, as long as those platforms have SAMBA shares setup. SAMBA is the Linux implementation of Microsoft's SMB sharing protocol.
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@Dashrender said:
Thank you
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@ntoxicator said:
So, I would just configure a NAS and present it BACK to the primary domain controller (over VPN UNC share)?
UNC is like URL. You don't say that you are presenting a website over URL. You present it over HTTP. UNC is the same. There is no such thing as a UNC share. UNC is the name of the address of an SMB Share. If you feel the need to specify that this is an SMB Share instead of an NFS Share, always use SMB (or SMB 3.1 or whatever if you need to be super specific) or just a share to denote that it is a network file system.
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@ntoxicator said:
I thought I couldnt do folder redirection and roaming profiles on network attached storage?
NAS are file servers. They appear on the network no different to the devices. Anything you can do with one, you can do with the other.
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I guess when I type I also must be lazy and too vague and not descriptive enough with my definition and usage of UNC
UNC file path location {"\network\location\share"}
Not letting me do 'whack whack'
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@ntoxicator said:
I guess when I type I also must be lazy and too vague and not descriptive enough with my definition and usage of UNC
UNC file path location {"\network\location\share"}
Not letting me do 'whack whack'
You have to escape the back slashes as they are the escape character. This is pretty standard on different systems. Try triple whacking to get a double whack.
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lol @ sarcasm.
Was not letting me include the whack whack when replying on this thread. That is what I was saying.
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@ntoxicator said:
lol @ sarcasm.
Was not letting me include the whack whack when replying on this thread. That is what I was saying.
you can use whack whack though. \\
you just have to type three of them instead of two
\\\= \\ on output -
Understood. I just want to crawl into a hole today, lol. No excuse, but dealing with sinus infection since friday.
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So, just a thought... and I'll take the beating after the fact.
Have I been doing this all wrong the entire time? meaning, the current setup we've had for 3+ years on our network?
Have a windows 2008 R2 VM (AD, GPO, win time)
On this windows server. I attached local storage (Presented through xenserver).
On this local storage (its local to operating system, but presented through xenserver as a SR -- iSCSI NAS storage).
So on this local storage; I have all the folder/file structures and also shared network locations. Within GPO, I specified the network location path for the User Profile and folder redirection settings...
in best practice scenerio's... or for larger envinronments
Is it best to just have separate network storage and SMB shares for these? rather than it all be saved back to the VM localized storage?
As you've mentioned, and opened my eyes to the NAS idea for this satellite office
Satellite office has ~20 users
Primary office has 100 users at the moment & growing...
So just looking for input on best practice scenario. As our office is using the folder redirection & Roaming profiles....
I dont really see any time that we will get away from this.. I'm trying to see if I would be able to 'draw a line' and get away from it. But our users are not very computer savvy at times (ironic, being that they have to sit at computer entire day to perform billing on behalf of clients).
We would have to re-train the users to save all the files to a specified network drive. But the Roaming profiles (AppData folder) comes in handy as users complain if they lose their Bookmarks in google chrome... and their windows sticky notes...also their outlook .OST (exchange cached). Users rely on outlook. I do not see many users using office365 for 100% of their use. as many users have access to multiple employee inboxes or a corporate inbox. Office365 (to my knowledge) you cannot view more than 1 mailbox. Unless you goto cogwheel and specify view another users box.
**edited and added further details
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@ntoxicator said:
So, just a thought... and I'll take the beating after the fact.
Have I been doing this all wrong the entire time? meaning, the current setup we've had for 3+ years on our network?
Have a windows 2008 R2 VM (AD, GPO, win time)
On this windows server. I attached local storage (Presented through xenserver).
On this local storage (its local to operating system, but presented through xenserver as a SR -- iSCSI NAS storage).
I don't understand what you have here. Could you show a screen shot?
In my XS I have a VM called UR-Bond I have created to virtual disks assigned to the VM, as seen below
to Windows, they appear as local hard drives, as if everything was physical
If you are matching this, and creating shares on these drives, I'd say you're doing fine, cause that's how I do it.
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Thats how I do it.
Topology / setup:
Xenserver node --
Within XenServer you specify a SR (storage repository). Here, I setup iSCSI storage. This was 3 years ago at time of initial setup. I now wish I used NFS (more viewability into actually files on stor)
on XS - I added a Virtual Disk to the Virtual Machine. Guest Operating System (Windows Server 2008 R2) Sees this disk as local to it..
Reason I ask if this is best practice.... Is, now if we are to migrate to a new XenServer setup. All this data on the VM and its attached virtual disk will have to be moved. Will take long time over GigE.
So its safe and okay to keep growing storage this way? But I'm sure @scottalanmiller will chime in as well. Even adding another server for SMB network storage location would further complicate. Hence, why to keep all storage localized to physical machines/disks and the DRBD options
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@ntoxicator said:
I dont really see any time that we will get away from this.. I'm trying to see if I would be able to 'draw a line' and get away from it. But our users are not very computer savvy at times (ironic, being that they have to sit at computer entire day to perform billing on behalf of clients).
This is where management buy-in becomes a must. Any time you are making changes, you have to start from the top.. if they don't support it, then your users won't either.
We would have to re-train the users to save all the files to a specified network drive.
Where are they saving to now? Into My Documents (Documents?)
But the Roaming profiles (AppData folder) comes in handy as users complain if they lose their Bookmarks in google chrome... and their windows sticky notes...
This I can definitely understand. I suppose one question would be - why is there such a large need to constantly move people around to different desks? What if anything can be done to stop that?
also their outlook .OST (exchange cached). Users rely on outlook. I do not see many users using office365 for 100% of their use. as many users have access to multiple employee inboxes or a corporate inbox. Office365 (to my knowledge) you cannot view more than 1 mailbox. Unless you goto cogwheel and specify view another users box.
This is a possible huge drain on resources. OSTs can become huge. Copying them to the network, and down again with each move can hammer a network into oblivion. It's probably not hurting you to bad except during end of day sign out, or if you have to move a larger number of people to new desks on the same day, as those would be the two most likely times of having to copy the OST to/from the network.
As for the actual issue with OWA vs local Outlook, Yeah I have no idea if MS is looking to add support for multiple mailboxes in OWA (assuming it's not there already).
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@ntoxicator said:
Thats how I do it.
Topology / setup:
Xenserver node --
Within XenServer you specify a SR (storage repository). Here, I setup iSCSI storage. This was 3 years ago at time of initial setup. I now wish I used NFS (more viewability into actually files on stor)
What are you connecting iSCSI to? do you have external storage? I'm sure you probably said you do, I just don't recall right now.
I have all internal storage.
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Yeah this goes back to the discussion in other thread on XenServer and DRBD vs SAN
The primary office we have with over 100 users, I built this configuration 3 years ago
1 single XenServer & a Synology rack mount NAS
using iSCSI to present the disks to XenServer SR
Back at the time of this setup.. same as always with this company I work for. Management is a mess and decisions are not thought out. Everything is 'do it quickly'. I hammered them 3 years ago asking any future growth or plans... now, 3 years later. they want to grow the company to 500 or more employee's by year 2020.
Where are they saving to now? Into My Documents (Documents?)
But the Roaming profiles (AppData folder) comes in handy as users complain if they lose their Bookmarks in google chrome... and their windows sticky notes...
Yes -- users save to My Documents (Documents), Pictures folder, Desktop. etc. The folder redirection works very nicely. As 90% of users connect and launch remote applications through a Terminal Server wrapper (use to use RDWeb). But i've deployed 2X Gateway (Parallels 2X). That way our clients billing software does not need to be installed and maintained on over 100 workstations. I can install it on a terminal server and push it out over network to all users.
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@ntoxicator said:
Yeah this goes back to the discussion in other thread on XenServer and DRBD vs SAN
The primary office we have with over 100 users, I built this configuration 3 years ago
1 single XenServer & a Synology rack mount NAS
using iSCSI to present the disks to XenServer SR
Aww, right - so you have a SAN. SAN = block level storage, which is what iSCSI is.
As mentioned in other threads, you're situation is about as risky as it possibly can be. This isn't to say that you're one moment away from a failure or anything, only that the solution picked is significantly more risky than other options, but lease risky being using local storage. But we'll leave anything more to that other thread.
