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Q245474: Storage Methods for Server-Based User Profiles

Article: Q245474
Product(s): Microsoft Windows NT
Version(s): winnt:3.51,4.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): 
Last Modified: 06-AUG-2002

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.51, 4.0 
- Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition version 4.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

This article describes the various options available to you for storing multiple
user profiles on a computer running Windows NT 4.0 Server.

MORE INFORMATION
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Windows NT 3.51 server-based user profiles can be stored on computers running
Windows NT Server version 4.0, and vice-versa. However, there are two advantages
to storing Windows NT version 4.0 server-based user profiles on computers
running Windows NT Server version 4.0; you can run System Policy Editor
(Poledit.exe) and you can directly modify the Ntuser.dat file using the Registry
Editor tool by loading a registry hive (in this case, Ntuser.dat).

Roaming user profiles should not be stored on the Netlogon share if you have more
than one logon server to avoid version problems. For example, assume that you
are validated by \\<ServerA> when you log on, and your roaming profile is
copied from that server. Any changes to your user profile are saved to
\\<ServerA> when you log off. If you are validated by \\<ServerB>
the next time you log on, your newer user profile is not downloaded.

However, because mandatory user profiles are not copied back to the server when a
user logs off, they are excellent candidates to be stored on the domain
controller Netlogon share. When you set a user's profile path to
<%Logonserver%> (for example, <%Logonserver%>\<Filename.man>),
his or her profile is copied from the logon server used to validate the user's
logon. If more than one logon server is used in your organization, use the
Folder Replication service to automatically copy mandatory user profiles to all
logon servers.

NOTE: When you are using the Folder Replication service, be sure you do not
remove the mandatory user profiles from the Export folder. The Import folder is
always kept in synchronization with the Export folder. Therefore, if you remove
the mandatory user profiles from the Export folder, they are removed from the
Import folder.

To begin, place the mandatory profiles and system policies in the Export folder
and wait for replication to finish. New and updated polices are placed in the
Export folder.

Server-based user profiles should never be stored in the root level of a user's
home folder. Because every file in the user profile folder is copied over the
network for server-based user profiles, storing server-based user profiles in a
user's home folder can result in very long logon times. For this reason, user's
server-based user profiles should be stored in dedicated user profile folders.
However, this dedicated folder can be a subfolder of the home folder, or some
other user folder. Unfortunately, you cannot user the <%username%>
environment variable for the user profile path because <%username%> does
not expand when text follows it (for example,
\\<Servername>\<Sharename>\<%username%>\ profile).

A good practice is to place server-based user profiles on NTFS-formatted
partitions. You can then use Windows NT security to prevent users from deleting
mandatory profiles, or other users' roaming profiles.

Mandatory user profile paths should not point to the folder that stores the local
user profile because user profile changes are always cached locally. If you set
a mandatory user profile path to the local profile folder, user profile changes
made by the user are always saved when the user logs off. For example, if you
store User A's mandatory user profile on User A's local computer
(\\<User1>) in the \\<User1>\Winnt\Profiles\<User1> folder,
the user profile is always overwritten, even if the user profile has the .man
file extension. To avoid this problem, store mandatory user profiles on a server
or in a folder on the local computer other than the Windows NT profiles folder
(typically C:\Winnt\Profiles).

Additional query words:

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Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbWinNTsearch kbWinNT351search kbWinNT400search kbWinNTSsearch kbWinNTSEntSearch kbWinNTSEnt400 kbWinNTS400search kbWinNTS400 kbWinNTS351 kbWinNTS351search
Version           : winnt:3.51,4.0
Issue type        : kbinfo

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