Moving roaming profiles to DFS

dfsfolder-redirectionroaming-profilewindows 7windows-server-2008-r2

I'm redirecting appdata, my docs and desktop folders to a server using a GPO based on what facility they're usually at. This brings up a problem for users who bounce between multiple locations. Firefox profiles are stored in appdata so it takes forever to go to another facility to get the Firefox profile so that it can start. And after two to three minutes of waiting for Firefox to load, it runs so slowly that it's almost unusable

I want to remedy this with DFS but I don't want to have a hellish transition period. Right now the GPO for facility1 is set to redirect the folders to //server1/Documents and the GPO for facility2 is set to redirect the folders to //server2/Documents. I know I'll need to change these settings to the DFS namespace that I create.

I'll need to add //server1/Documents and //server2/Documents to the DFS namespace //DFSDocuments/ and change the GPO redirection settings to redirect appdata to //DFSDocuments/UserName. Writing it down here makes it seem really easy though; will that be all I have to do? Will the GPO setting direct to the UserName folders in the DFS namespace correctly without me having to move anything? Will the users see any hiccups at all? Or will it just magically replicate?

I'd appreciate any feedback and tips from anyone who's gone through this (non-dfs folder redirection to dfs folder redirection) transition before.

Best Answer

First of all you need to understand that DFS really comprises two technologies: DFS namespaces (DFS-N) and DFS replication (DFS-R). The former creates a logical namespace that can be used to hide individual file server names while the latter bidirectionally replicates data between two replication partners.

DFS-N is a good thing and should be used everywhere. But it does not help you right now.

DFS-R is good, too, but incompatible with roaming user profiles (redirected parts of a profile are still parts of the profile).

For further information please see my articles:

User Profile and Home Directory Storage: Distributing the Load Across Multiple File Servers

Replicating User Profiles Between Sites (With or Without DFS) – Why it Should be Avoided

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