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We've got two Windows 2003 terminal servers running Citrix Metaframe PS 3.0. We are not using roaming profiles. We have another terminal server farm where we did enable roaming profiles and we've had nothing but problems with them, mainly with corrupted profiles. To try and give the user the same functionality of roaming profiles we've enabled terminal server home directories and folder redirection via a GPO assigned to the container the servers are in (loopback processing is enabled).

So far this setup has been working quite well for us. The user gets the same desktop no matter what server they login to. Their "My Documents", Favorites, etc, follow them from server to server. The problem I'm having is that the terminal server creates a local profile for each user that logs in. That's OK, I understand Windows needs to do that. What I don't like is that since we're not using roaming profiles, some settings, primarily those in Internet Explorer, are resident only in that local profile and do not move with the user from server to server.

What I'm trying to do is to redirect the default location of the %USERPROFILE% directory from a local drive |C:\Documents and Settings| now to a network drive. I found the registry entry HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows NT\Current Version\ProfileList\ProfilesDirectory and tried to point it to a UNC path. When the user first logs in it initially looks like it's going to work but hangs. After 30 seconds or so I get a popup message that the server couldn't create the temporary profile directory and that I was being logged in with a default profile. The rest of the popup box says that the problem could be caused by a permissions error. To eliminate a permissions error I granted "Everyone" full access at both the share level and the NTFS security level.

Does anyone know what the problem might be or if there's a better way to do what I'm trying to without using roaming profiles? Thanks.

maybe this one helps:
http://portal.loginconsultants.nl/fo...y;threadid=415

with this template you can redirect more folders.

BR

Ralf

citrix

Quote:

Originally Posted by ralfgehrmann

maybe this one helps:
http://portal.loginconsultants.nl/fo...y;threadid=415

with this template you can redirect more folders.

BR

Ralf

This looks like something I can play about with. Its nice to get things like "Desktop, Favourites, Temp Folder, Internet Explorer Temp Files" out of your profile if you are using roaming profiles

EkilErif

Ewwww roaming profiles. The same guys Loginconsultants developed a concept called flex profiles. Far better than roaming because they are tiny and based on a mandatory profile which does not allow for profile corruption.

If you currently use roaming profiles you might want to start looking into this!

ralfgehrmann

yes, that's right. they use mandatory profile and for the user settings portion a modified version of the office profile wizard. in the manual for flex profile kit you can find some more information about the true control template.

EkilErif

Unregistered, if you are using Windows 2003 try using the Authenticated users group instead of everyone. The Everyone group has been watered down in Server 2003, thats assuming you still want to move the default user profile directory.

Personally I like to leave this as it is and am a big fan of flex. I've had a great success rate with Flex as have a lot of other TS Admins.

R

citrix

Quote:

Originally Posted by EkilErif

Unregistered, if you are using Windows 2003 try using the Authenticated users group instead of everyone. R

Very good point, In a citrix environment never use the everyone group

EkilErif

Yeah everyone just sucks man!!!

mlesak

If you have to use roaming profiles, you must use UPHClean! This free addon from MS helps with a lot of the corruption issues. Also look into the GPOs for limiting what roams with the profile. I've used roaming profiles in several deployments and like anything else, it has it's pros and cons. FLEX profiles is what I'm currently focusing on now.

Here is the link to UPClean tool:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

Matt

EkilErif

I've read about a new Beta version of UPHClean. Has anyone here tested that?

Back to the point, good post Matt. UPHClean is very important when it comes to roaming profiles. Where possible get your application data, documents, and desktop out of your profile and redirected to a network share where you do this using GPO or TrueControl Templates or whichever other method it will help cut down the size of your profile and therefore cut down the time taken to copy the profile around when logging on.

Flex for the win!!!

Cheers
Richard