Re: Offline Files Problem by Andy
Andy
Mon Feb 02 13:22:56 CST 2004
That response is like saying, "I don't cheat on my wife; I'm just sleeping
with another woman." If you have RP and use OF on My Documents folders
(redirected or not), you've violated the rule already. The My Documents
folder is PART of the RP. So, when you logon, it gets cached on the
workstation (along with the rest of the profile), and the "non-working" copy
stays in the share where you store RPs. That's normal with RP, but how that
process interacts with the rest of what you're doing is unpredictable and
will yield unexpected results. The local My Documents folder gets
redirected to the user's "home" directory (I don't know how the timing of
this and the roaming profile's loading interacts or is timed [or not time]).
Offline files syncs that directory (from the user's "home" directory) at
some scheduled time, logon, logoff, any/all of the above (or some different
OF configuration) with the OF local cache -- before, after or during caching
of the RP? Who knows?
Now you have a nicely circular reference for the location of the My
Documents folder: Is it the local copy of the folder contained in the RP,
or is it the folder that already existed (before logon) in the user's home
directory? If you delete a subfolder of the My Documents folder located in
the user's home directory and logoff, I can imagine a scenario where the
deleted folder would be resynced back out to the network. How can the
workstation know what to do with a folder which has no clear path of origin?
Even if all these processes were processed synchronously, you'd have a
strange outcome at logon: Cache RP from network share to local file system,
redirect local copy of My Documents folder to a different network share, now
cache the contents of the My Documents folder (on that second share) back to
the offline files cache. Whew!
If you're going to use RP, don't use FR on the My Documents folder (or any
other components of the RP); it already exists on the network.
If you're going to use FR and/or OF on folders in the profile, don't use RP.
Some people use FR with OF to get partial emulation of RP without the
administrative hassles (and regsitry-release problems prior to Win XP). It
also provides a benefit to laptop users; when away from the office, they can
continue to use their My Documents folder as normal (b/c it's contents will
be resynched with the network when they reconnect to it). (If you use pure
RP, your roaming profile is unavailable when diconnected, and changes to the
cached copy aren't resynched to the network when you logoff or reconnect;
so, changes to My Documents are lost.) Instead of RP, you use local user
profiles and redirect some folders to the network so they're available from
any workstation you log into.
Both strategies entail tradeoffs and they work well (though RP won't work as
advertised until workstations are all WinXP), but shouldn't be used
together. You're using them together.
Andy
"Jimbo" <jphelan@frontiernet.net> wrote in message
news:4kVSb.12279$us.11902@news02.roc.ny...
> I did find some articles that support the "no,no" of Offline Files,
Roaming
> Profiles and redirected folders.This is "no, no" does not apply in our
> scenerio since we are only using OF and FR on the My Documents folder,
which
> by the way our RP are located.
> Thanks for your help.
>
> "Jimbo" <jphelan@frontiernet.net> wrote in message
> news:R%ASb.12434$IV3.12228@news01.roc.ny...
> > Thanks for your help. I can't find any articles that mention Roaming
> > Profiles and Offline files. Do you know of a KB Article?
> >
> > If we only Roaming Profiles can't we still have there My Documents on
the
> > network with no offline ability? We want Roaming Profiles and the users
> data
> > on the network share whether they have Offline access is not a major
> > concern.
> > Thanks
> >
> >
> > "Andy Vaya" <herbwarrior@mmecpa.com> wrote in message
> > news:ugXp%23%2325DHA.2748@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> > > Yes, it does matter. TechNet has some articles on Roaming Profiles
and
> > > redirected profile shares and offline files. Basically, it's a no,
no.
> > >
> > > Follow their advice. My shootin' from the hip would be decide whether
> > > you're going to use offline files with redirected user folders vs.
> roaming
> > > profiles; creat a backup of the user's whole profile for fallback
> > purposes.
> > > If it's offline files and redirection, then set the use props that way
> in
> > > Active Directory. Have the user log on and it should be better. If
> it's
> > > roaming profiles, then have the user log on, defeat the My Documents
> > > redirection (via the UI or GPO -- however it was applied), delete the
My
> > > Douments replica in the user's share and logoff. If the My Documents
> > folder
> > > is synced back to the user's share, it should be the last time.
Delete
> it
> > > while the user is logged off. Then defeat the user's ability to
> redirect
> > > folders in their profile in an applicable GPO (to prevent this
hapenning
> > > again).
> > >
> > > A
> > > "Jimbo" <jphelan@frontiernet.net> wrote in message
> > > news:4CORb.10773$%h7.10675@news02.roc.ny...
> > > > What is the proper procedure to delete a folder\file that is
available
> > > > offline? We have a My Documents redirection to a network sare (Users
> > Home
> > > > Directory) and while ONLINE we delete the folder and when we logoff
> it's
> > > > copied back up to the network share. It's making us crazy.
> > > >
> > > > This user also has a Roaming Profile should htis matter?
> > > > Thanks!
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>