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Currently, all the PCs and users in the office (Win 7 Pro on the pcs) have their user folders being redirected to a file server running Server08r2. Folder redirection was enabled by a past IT employee and wasn't thought through for our company's needs and we would prefer to NOT have redirection.

That being said, I'm looking for input on what would be the most efficient and successful method of migrating to a non-redirect environment. I would need to ensure that all the remote files are housed on the local machines prior to turning the GPO off.

Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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Why do you want to reverse this? Perhaps whatever problem that you're running into is the one worth solving. Folder redirection is good for a lot of reasons. You see people wishing that they had it in their environments rather than people wanting to get rid of it. – MDMarra Jan 25 at 19:20
Our server infrastructure is currently in flux. We are virtualizing things, getting rid of things, migrating things. It's just a mess right now. It's the result of too many cooks in the server kitchen and it's to the point where it needs to be torn apart and restructured correctly. Every time we make a positive change for the infrastructure, the users have issues since they were pointed at X or we're referencing Y. – Joe JMC IT Jan 25 at 19:31
TL;DR: We need to move to a local file environment for a short time while we fix the server infrastructure issues that have been building up over time. – Joe JMC IT Jan 25 at 19:32
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The right answer to that is to use a DFS Namespace in front of your file server. You make it \\domain\shares\users instead of \\server\users. Then, in the DFS console, you can add and remove servers from that namespace at will. Just migrate the files to the new server if there "flux" and add it to the namespace in place of the old one. Since the redirection GPO and scripts and stuff will point to the namespace instead of the server, nothing will break. – MDMarra Jan 25 at 19:35
I mean, you can move the files back if you want, but it's hardly necessary and it would be beneficial to use DFS Namespaces anyway. – MDMarra Jan 25 at 19:36

1 Answer

up vote 3 down vote

Though I think you are asking for pain in your request, the solution is relatively simple.

Simply update the policy to redirect to the local profile, and choose the option that migrates files. You could create a new policy that does the local redirection, set it to have a higher precedence, and apply it to some test users to be safe.

redirect local

migrate

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