Profiles stored on server

You will need to setup roaming profiles:

Here is a good article

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6268-1031655-1.html

I am getting

"You do not have permission to view/change your profile at  \\<server>\share\username"

"... cannot find your local profile"

Coud you guide me through the process

How can I setup the outlook.pst to be stored on the server? Some are as big as 2gb. The lowest spec machines are windows 95 Pentiums on 10mbit ports. If the outlook is opened would the whole .pst be streamed down or would the computer just load up the require bits from it for the emails being opened at that time? It is vital I know this as we only have a 100mbit switch with 60 or so users. This sort of traffic would kill the network connection.

Also as a profile gets downloaded locally onto a computer, does it get deleted afterwards or is it safe left on the computer?

Look forward to some help.

Ah thanks Chris, I will try this out. Noticed we posted around the same time.
Maybe you know the answer to my outlook query?


And in the roaming profile you would have my docs, etc and all that. Could I say limit that to 40mb or so to discourage users from using this?

I am stuck at step 3.Computer Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ System \ User Profiles

Where is this?

I've also been reading that if there is a problem and the connection to the server is lost as the user logs on then a default windows profile is loaded locally. Then went the server is back online this empty profile gets overwritten and replaces the one on the 2003 server. This is a serious flaw. Is it in 2003 or just NT? I am referring to this article when I read it:
http://www.windowsitlibrary.com/Content/638/08/3.html
Now I notice "Published:          February 1998" - Perhaps this has been overcome in the latest editions of windows?

Also do you know of any significant risks/downfalls of having roaming profiles? Something that could make the staff very angry when something goes wrong?

ok i have found step 3 now. :-)

I will uipdate once i am futher on

ok, I've set it up now. Do'h I wish I could delete some of those uneeded posts above now. Just makes it confusing.

My question on outlook is still open though. I'm unsure how to set that up correctly. And I'm still unsure of how much bandwidth this is all going to take. At the moment we only have a 100mbit switch but the server has a gigabit ethernet port. Its going to be hard to convince people we need the upgrade. Althopugh would the extra 900mbit help out alot? I guess it would. ;)

And I didn't see a mention of "Exclude Directories in Roaming Profiles: Enabled" anywhere.  I will run over the rest of the options as I think i need to enable a few more. Are there any I should definatly have enabled or disabled for performance/security?

Thanks for your help :-)

Regarding PSTs. You mention some are 2Gb. You are aware that there's a hard 2Gb limit on PST files? Once you get past it the file corrupts itself and is rather difficult to recover.

But storing (and directly accessing) files of that size on the network will create a lot of slow down, I'd say no more than 150Mb per PST file if it's going to be accessed over the network. Even so that's big for a Roaming profile, and not really recommended.

But don't you use Exchange Server? Wouldn't it be better to move some of those users back onto the Exchange Server itself rather than using PST files?

Anyway, back to profiles...

Whenever the user logs on it will attempt to Download the profile from the Server to the local computer. If it can't get hold of the Profile it'll use a default profile. I believe the problem with a "basic" profile overwriting the one stored on the server is fixed in Windows 2000 \ XP.

I'm not sure whether or not you'll get that kind of bug with Windows 9x \ NT though.

The two options above are really the only ones I use for the profiles here, they help keep the profiles in a managable state.

We don't run Exchange Server. Something called "mdaeom" I think.

I was also unaware of the outlook limit. Thats good to know.

I guess you really need Exchange Server running then to store outlook files on the server

Ahh no worries, I remember MDaemon.

Stick with PSTs then, but if you are storing and accessing them directly off the network you really need the size of them down...

Although really including the PST files as part of the profile isn't such a good idea, maybe consider saving them onto (yet another) share on the server?

So can I put them back into a roaming profile?

Also how how can I calculate the time it takes for these to download over say a 1mibt, 10mbit, 100mbit, 1000mbit? What is the formula for this?

Can it not be "streamed" over the network only as each email is needed? Or use some sort of ROBOCOPY type feature, where it only updates the changes to the file from the one cached? If I could do that then I would just have the server "cache" the email when the user logged off. Can this be done? Actually now I think of it I could create a robocopy script to run at log off and robocopy could actually do this. But it would make life easy if there was some sort of built in method.

If I cannot store the outlook on the server or if it isn't bandwidth sensible I dont think I really need to use roaming profiles. Are there any benefits for using them? Most users dont move around anyway.


I will be back in 40-60mins or so, I'm off to get a sandwich. :-)

Copying 2Gb over the network is going to take time however you do it. The PST files don't stream, it's not part of their functionality or Outlooks.

The calculation is:

2Gb converted into number of Mega Bits (1024 MBytes in a GByte, 8 bits in a byte): 2 * 1024 * 8 = 16384
With 100 Mega Bits per second... Number of seconds to transfer: 16384 / 100 = 163.84 seconds (2.7 minutes).

Very very rough since the copy won't be the only thing using the network, so you're probably looking at 3 - 5 minutes.

If you have everyone logging on at the same time in the morning then this problem becomes much more apparent, even with a switch able to host multiple conversations at once a network card is still only allowed one at a time. Equally logging off shows the same problem if the file is stored as part of a roaming profile as it will have to upload to the server again.

There isn't really a built in feature for managing PSTs over the network, and I think the Robocopy at logoff option is probably the best for you. It'll allow you to run the PST locally (fastest) and only perform a copy once.

Make sure the users know about it though or they might decide that any PC taking a long time to log off deserves switching off...

Good help yet again Chris! ;-)

I will pursue the ROBOCOPY option. Perhaps I even end up posting a new topic on it knowing me, hehehe.

Thanks! =)