Folder Redirection and Offline File Synchronization

[Gamingphreek]

I recently rebuilt the File Server at work and am having some problems.

We use Folder Redirection for both User Profiles as well as User Documents. The computers should be working completely from the network shares that these are directed to, NOT local copies.

At the same time, there should be some caching done to ensure that all clients do not freeze if the File Server should go down for some reason. Additionally, users should be able to save locally if the server is down and, upon regaining connection, synchronize.

At present, after the rebuild, Microsoft Groove Synchronization has taken over. It seems as if all files are synced at Logon/Logoff even though no GPO's have been changed in anyway.

It almost seems like all my clients are stuck in Offline Mode. Can anyone give some advice here?

-GP

 

[Gamingphreek]

Bump

 

[Veliko]

Unless I am missing something files really should be synced at logon and logoff. What is the actual problem the user's are experiencing?

 

[seepy83]

If your computers are offline from the file server, they will see the Offline Files icon/notification in their system tray. Now that you have Offline Files enabled the computers, your users need to get used to looking for this icon/notification, and responding to it to synchronize.

If you don't want files to synchronize at log on/log off, you can change this behavior on the Offline Files tab of Folder Options, but I wouldn't recommend that.

I'm not familiar with Goove, so I can't comment on that...

 

[Veliko]

I think Groove is included with Office 2007 and can be used to edit Sharepoint stuff. It can be uninstalled if no-one uses it.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Actually "Groove" isn't the program. It is the Synchronization Manager.

The files should be synchronizing in the background. In other words, they should be working from the Network Drive unless it is down (Thus no need to synchronize).

-Kevin

 

[Veliko]

What OS are they using? WinXP has always synced on logoff/logout or when manually asked to sync. It isn't something that happens in the background.

 

[Gamingphreek]

What OS are they using? WinXP has always synced on logoff/logout or when manually asked to sync. It isn't something that happens in the background.

The Domain is a mix of Windows 7 x64, Windows Vista (x32/x64), and Windows XP systems.

So what I want to do really isn't possible?

Basically what prompted this is that a user had >50GB in their redirected "Documents" folder. That 50GB was hundreds of thousands of small files, thus whenever she logged in, it would slow her machine to a crawl as it attempted to synchronize each and every one of those files. What would be the best solution to mitigate this scenario?

-Kevin

 

[Veliko]

The Domain is a mix of Windows 7 x64, Windows Vista (x32/x64), and Windows XP systems.

So what I want to do really isn't possible?

Basically what prompted this is that a user had >50GB in their redirected "Documents" folder. That 50GB was hundreds of thousands of small files, thus whenever she logged in, it would slow her machine to a crawl as it attempted to synchronize each and every one of those files. What would be the best solution to mitigate this scenario?

At my place each user has a Home folder and then their My Documents folder is redirected into this My Documents folder. Only the My Documents folder is set to be synced for offline use so anything not in My Docs doesn't get synced.

 

[RSargeant]

The Domain is a mix of Windows 7 x64, Windows Vista (x32/x64), and Windows XP systems.

So what I want to do really isn't possible?

Basically what prompted this is that a user had >50GB in their redirected "Documents" folder. That 50GB was hundreds of thousands of small files, thus whenever she logged in, it would slow her machine to a crawl as it attempted to synchronize each and every one of those files. What would be the best solution to mitigate this scenario?

-Kevin

Hi,

I'm presuming the user above who has >50GB ... has XP? If so, your best option to mitigate is (seriously) upgrade her to W7. MS have dramatically overhauled the redirected folders/synchronisation code in W7. For example it now syncs continuously and far more intelligently, so users simply do not see the "Synchronzing" messages and the long waits of XP. The "synchronising" message only appears in W7 when a file is very first marked as "available offline". After that, it's invisible.

Hth,

Richard Sargeant