Logon + Roaming Profile - Nearest Server

[Chris]

Hi,

I have 1 x SBS2003 server + 2 x Server2003 servers
SBS2003 - 192.168.0.2
Server02 - 192.168.1.2
Server03 - 192.168.2.2

These are linked together via VPN across the country. All servers are DCs so
Active Directory is all there and up to date. Now, we'd like to setup roaming
profiles so that when a user logs on at any site they get their roaming
profile without it transferring from SBS2003 server (and hence taking ages to
copy the profile).

How do I setup roaming profiles so that each user can log on anywhere and
their profile is copied from the 'nearest' server in geographic proximity?

Thanks

Chris

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Chris <Chris@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have 1 x SBS2003 server + 2 x Server2003 servers
> SBS2003 - 192.168.0.2
> Server02 - 192.168.1.2
> Server03 - 192.168.2.2
>
> These are linked together via VPN across the country. All servers are
> DCs so Active Directory is all there and up to date. Now, we'd like
> to setup roaming profiles so that when a user logs on at any site
> they get their roaming profile without it transferring from SBS2003
> server (and hence taking ages to copy the profile).
>
> How do I setup roaming profiles so that each user can log on anywhere
> and their profile is copied from the 'nearest' server in geographic
> proximity?
>
> Thanks
>
> Chris

Even with something like DFS, I don't know of any painless way to do that -
roaming profiles have their limitations.

I suggest that you not use roaming profiles, but instead use folder
redirection for My Documents, Desktop, Application Data. I'd redirect them
all to the same location via group policy (don't use the built-in SBS wizard
checkbox thingy)...to subfolders of the users' shared folders, which you
already have. Hence, Joe will have

\\server\users\joe\my documents
\\server\users\joe\desktop
\\server\users\joe\application data


You can also edit the registry for some of the more important windows shell
folders,such as Favorites (which I'd point at something like
\\server\users\%username%\favorites.

You can create & use a .prf in the login script so their Outlook profile is
preconfigured for them when they log in.

Etc.

You can then look into DFS, although I'm not sure how much data you have to
replicate & how much disk space you've got free in each location.