UPM Folder Redirection broken after changing UNC Path

[Julian Mooren1709156280]

Today I was doing a UserHome migration to a new DFS Share for a customer.

I prefer to use Microsoft Folder Redirection but the customer environment was configured via Citrix Policy..

After changing the UNC-Path from "\\fileserver001.domain.local\Userhome to "\\dfsshare.domain.local\Userhome" the Folder Redirection was broken.

 

Environment is running on XenApp 7.12. An update to UPM 7.15 didnt fixx the issue.

 

The Citrix Policy was beeing applied correctly:

(I tried with "\\share\Userhome" & "\\share\Userhome\")

 

The UserShellFolder was still pointing to the old unc-share.

 

 

Someone expected the same behaviour?

Workarround: Set the new UNC-Share registry keys via Microsoft Group Policy.

 

Wish you a good weekend.

 

Julian

 

 

[Måns Hurtigh]

I always recommend to use Microsoft Folder Redirection in GPO. Microsoft Folder Redirections actually do a bunch of tasks when configured. I don't know the exact procedure but I know that Microsoft Folder Redirections execute the following:

 

1. Create the folders for the user

2. Edit the registry keys for the user

3. If selected, move the contents of the folder to the new location

4. If selected, grants the user exclusive rights to the folder

5. If selected, leaves the folder in the new location or redirect the folder back to the local userprofile if policy is removed

 

When applying the UPM Folder Redirection I don't think it actually edits the registry keys (item number two and five in the list). That's probably why you were facing this problem when changing folder redirection path because UPM does not automatically change the path for the user (only new users with new profiles) but instead leaves the folder in the old location even though the policy was edited.

 

I hope this makes sense to you. Would be great if someone can confirm this behavior.

 

TL;DR - always use Microsoft Folder Redirection (or WEM) 

[Julian Mooren1709156280]

Yeah I also recommend to use Microsoft Folder Redirection.

I configured the identicals settings in my lab environment and the Citrix Folder Redirection UNC Paths only get applied during the creation of a new userprofile.

 

My logic was strapped too much  to the Microsoft way of handling FR.

Watch out when migrating from an environment like this.

 

Cheers

Julian

 

 

 

[Måns Hurtigh]

Yeah, so it seems that my theory about Citrix Folder Redirection indeed was correct. Citrix Folder Redirection does not update the path if the user is using an existing profile. Your workaround in the first post is good enough in a migration purpose, but I would still recommend to change to Microsoft Folder Redirection.

[Julian Mooren1709156280]

Already switched over to Microsoft Folder Redirection.

@Citrix: What about to take this "feature" on the roadmap?

[Jim LoBocchiaro1709158605]

On 1/10/2018 at 9:55 AM, Julian Mooren1709156280 said:

Already switched over to Microsoft Folder Redirection.

@Citrix: What about to take this "feature" on the roadmap?

I was also bit by this a few months ago. 

 

My use case for using UPM was because I have a huge mix of people and probably 45% use citrix with the others don't. We really only want to do folder redirection for our Citrix users and using UPM we were able to easily do this.

 

But my company is expanding and I am looking at scaling the user profile store with DFS namespace and multiple servers. I was hoping to use the %HOMESHARE%%HOMEPATH%\ variables in the redirection policy  but they don't appear to work in UPM.

 

The reason for my post - @Julian Nitka - Because the file path changing is going to be yet another problem for this DFS migration using UPM redirection -  how did you go about the migration to MS redirection? were you able to simply disable it in UPM and enable in GPO?

[Julian Mooren1709156280]

I disabled folder redirection in the Citrix Policy and changed the needed registry keys with a login script. Had problems with the M$ GPO.

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

 

 

[Junaid Yaseen1709158180]

Understand this post is old, but i had run into similar issues last year when our storage team asked us to migrate user profile data to alternate share.

It was a pain to manage it with a new UNC.. .. By the way we didn't had DFS, which actually is a life saver in such situation.

 

Tried to have environment variables in place but Folder redirection does not work with that.

 

Since these settings are written in users NTUSER.DAT, GPOs were not able to update everything on the go.

Ultimately, i had to force registry keys via Group Policy Preferences instead - as a workaround. 

 

Conclusion was to set it right it in first place. i.e. use DFS instead.