Storage Methods for Server-Based User Profiles

• Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.51, 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Server, Enterprise Edition version 4.0

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

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:

Keywords : ntdomain ntsecurity
Version : winnt:3.51,4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbinfo