You can still use the replication to handle the files.
However, even if you're OU structure was arranged by site, the challenge
becomes what happens when people are frequently in multiple offices? We have
folks who regularly spending time in 2 or more locations, and while using DFS
would make that a much more pleasant experience for them (if it worked) than
having to pull files from a server half way across the country, switching them
into the appropriate OU every time they flip-flopped would be insanity. After
reviewing the docs linked earlier in the thread, I understand why it doesn't
work (ok, isn't supported) but I would think this is something that happens
frequently enough that it would be worth investigating by our friends in
Redmond to see if it CAN be made to work correctly. (Hey, maybe they could do
that instead of moving stuff around in the GUI?) Sorry, I'm better now. :)
Hmm, I wonder if that stuff could be done via the SITE tree in group policy so
that it gets applied based on where the user is connected instead of where they
are organized in AD.
--
There are 10 kinds of people in the world...
those who understand binary and those who don't.
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Michael Leone
Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2015 10:23 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] Using DFS for user home folders
On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 9:57 AM, Kennedy, Jim <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Group your users in OU's via site. Move the user and they pick up the new
> target priority because each OU has it's own GPP with the different
> priorities.
OUs are not organized by site. Also, all the current files would still need to
be moved by hand from one server to another, that's one of the main things I
want to avoid. Using a DFS target is not supported (if you want more than 1
target in the DFS name, as we do).
As I said, it's not the direction, it's the targeting ...
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Leone
> Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2015 9:51 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] Using DFS for user home folders
>
> We don't redirect the entire profile (so no roaming profiles), but we do set
> the home folder to be a share on a server.
>
> The problem is not the redirection, it's when the target for that particular
> user changes (i.e., when it moves to a different server in a different
> physical site)..
>
> On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 8:43 AM, Kennedy, Jim <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>> We don't use Home folders with our DFS. I just redirect everything via
>> GPP's. Should be a pretty easy migration for you to go that way.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: [email protected]
>> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael Leone
>> Sent: Thursday, September 3, 2015 12:53 PM
>> To: [email protected]
>> Subject: [NTSysADM] Using DFS for user home folders
>>
>> Here's my current situation - my users all get assigned 1 of 4 file
>> servers, as their home profile (depends on what department they work
>> for, and which server is closest). Then Group Policy initiates a
>> folder redirection of "My Documents" and "Desktop". Additionally, the
>> GPO turns on Offline files (pointing at the same server)..
>>
>> Here's the problem - I have a lot of users who end up being
>> transferred around, and hence at some point, we have to move thir
>> files from server A to server B; change their group membership so now
>> a GPO which redirects to server B; and we have to clear the offline
>> folders cache on the old workstation, else it continues to point at
>> server A, and files never sync properly.
>>
>> This is aggravating, to say the least.
>>
>> We thought of using DFS (set up a new namespace, adding these 4 file
>> servers to it; change all the users to use the DFS namespace to store
>> their home profile (and moving all the files there). That way, I
>> never have to move files, I need less GPOs, I don't have the offline
>> files headache, etc.
>>
>> Problem is, using DFS for home folders is officially not supported by MS ...
>>
>> So what are others doing in this situation? There must be others with
>> such issues of having to move user folders, etc.
>>
>> I could make 1 central file server for all home profiles, but if
>> there are ever any network hiccups, then you can't reach your files.
>> (so I'd still need offline files).
>>
>> We looked at AppSense, and while it can alleviate some of the issues,
>> it can't fix all of them.
>>
>>
>
>
