Roaming Profiles ... SLOOOOOW to save settings and login

[Omar Senussi]

Hi you guys and gals.. a new one for you!

I'm fiddling around with roaming profiles and am finding the saving of settings and subsequent login inordinately slow compared to normal login/logoff.. even allowing for saving across the network)

Am I missing something in the setup?

[Igor Karasik]

Omar,
do you use folder redirection with roaming profiles?
If yes:
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=969780

[Omar Senussi]

Hi Igor
I don't think so.. at least not knowingly! I'd better have a look at what it's all about!!

Thanks

[Gary Cooper_1]

Omar,

Have you checked the size of the individual profiles. If you're not careful, they can become 100's of MB and these will take a long time to read/write over the network.

Regards,

Gary

[Omar Senussi]

Hi Gary..

The profile in question is the only one in use (testing) .. BUT.. it is 3.5GB! is that the problem?.. In fact of late, some users are finding they are being kicked out of their apps whn this user logs out!!

Is this likely to be the root cause of the problem? and is therea cure!? (short of giving up on roaming profiles)

[Gary Cooper_1]

Hi Omar,

A 3.5Gb profile!!!??? This means that every time you log on or off, it has to copy 3.5Gb across the network!!! Yes this is undoubtedly your problem.

The best thing to do is have a look to see what is in the profile. Has my documents been stored in the profile? That's one of the usual culprits. If so, then relocate my documents outside the profile.

Regards,

Gary

[Omar Senussi]

Thanks Gary..

Should I just move the entire MyDocuments bit out of the profile folder on the server and put it in the user files area? Or is there a more "approved way"?

[Gary Cooper_1 · Accepted solution]

Hi Omar,

Have a look at this - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologies/activedirectory/stepbystep/usrdata.mspx#EEKAC

Regards,

Gary

[Omar Senussi]

Thanks a million Gary,
That was very helpful. I've created the folder for documents.. Now the user who is modelling the roaming bit has all this crap in his profile folder at the moment.. will that automatically migrate? or do I have to do something?

[Gary Cooper_1]

Hi Omar,

All the stuff in the folder should be automatically migrated.

Regards,

Gary

[Omar Senussi]

Thanks again, Gary

I'll keep my eye on things and keep you guys posted... This fix Igor refers to, does it apply to SBS 2K3 SP2? or was it included in SP2??


Does anyone know?

[WillNiccolls]

I don't have the reference book handy but I'm almost certain that, the entire profile is NOT copied each time at log off. Only changes in the profile should be copied. Of course, the first time the profile is copied, the whole thing goes to the server.

My profile is roaming, about 200mb, and signoff is so quick that I can't believe the whole thing is copied each time.

Here's a setting you can use to debug roaming profiles.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/b41402c2-c982-4bfb-891e-91b47f211e181033.mspx?mfr=true