Roaming profiles not being saved to the server

[torin3]

We have about 100 users on our network, and most of them don't have any problems, but occasionally a user's profile stops updating. Is there any relaible way to get them to start updating again? Sometimes switching the profile to local and then back to roaming works, some time resetting the permissions for the profile directory on the profile server works, and sometimes renaming or moving the profile directory so the when the user logs out the profile directory is recreated works. But none of these work all the time.

Any suggestions?

 

[gangaskan]

never had these issues, however, we're not dealing with > 50 users on roaming either, yet.

what i normally do is make sure the user as well as admins can see and have full permissions to the folder they're updating too.

 

[CGR]

I hate roaming profiles, I make all my users log into their own machines...

 

[torin3]

never had these issues, however, we're not dealing with > 50 users on roaming either, yet.

what i normally do is make sure the user as well as admins can see and have full permissions to the folder they're updating too.

Adding full control didn't fix it, and most users have read/write/modify access and it still works for them.

I hate roaming profiles, I make all my users log into their own machines...

Not my call, I've got to deal with what I have here.

 

[gangaskan]

I hate roaming profiles, I make all my users log into their own machines...

sometimes, its a big hassle


epsically when user x is logged into 2 machines, uses 1 and logs off the older machine last wondering where their crap is? oops ... yeah, you just saved over it

 

[torin3]

sometimes, its a big hassle


epsically when user x is logged into 2 machines, uses 1 and logs off the older machine last wondering where their crap is? oops ... yeah, you just saved over it

Fortunately most people here have one machine and that it is. (Which makes you wonder why we have roaming profiles in the first place. Because it make them easy to back up, you only have one location to backup the profiles.)

I'm probably the only person here who is regularly logged into multiple machines at the same time. But I have a stripped-down profile for that. It is meant to load easily and give me domain-admin rights on the machines here. I have another profile I use at my main workstation.

 

[gangaskan]

Adding full control didn't fix it, and most users have read/write/modify access and it still works for them.



Not my call, I've got to deal with what I have here.

how do you have the shares setup? is it a server share??

i have it set as a share, and give everyone at the share level full control(use domain users) then break the folders down to person x or person Y on the folder level.


i've not really had a problem doing this, however, are you on a server 2k3 network or are you nt / 2000?

 

[torin3]

how do you have the shares setup? is it a server share??

Yep, server XXX_TERM has a share "Profile" with a folder for each users "user1" "user2" etc.

i have it set as a share, and give everyone at the share level full control(use domain users) then break the folders down to person x or person Y on the folder level.

Well, it is "Authenticated Users", and it is everything short of full control (Read/write/modify/list contents/read&execute)

i've not really had a problem doing this, however, are you on a server 2k3 network or are you nt / 2000?

It was on a Windows 2000 server, and was upgraded to a Win2k3 server.

 

[nikhsub1]

For roaming profiles to work properly the share should be to everyone and all 3 entries checked... so share permissions to 'Profiles' should be full control to everyone. Then u just enter the profile path in their account profile like: \\Server-Name\Profiles\%username%

There is a setting in group policy that will allow the ADMINISTRATOR access to all these directories, otherwise it is a PITA to get into profiles to move files if you have to.

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > User Profiles > Add the administrators security group to roaming user profiles

Also, I highly recommend separately redirecting the 'My Documents' folders to a separate folder... if you leave it with the default roaming profiles bad things can and will happen.

Oh and to your original question, a lot of times the .ntuser.dat files get corrupt... this can cause weird stuff to happen, things not to save etc. Delete the local and server copy of this file and have the network make a new one.

 

[shadowdr]

Are there log files refering to cannot load roaming profile?
Have large files been transfered or backup run recently on those machines?
Does running chkdsk find multiple security descriptor errors like fixing $sd of file 9, several times? Does chkdsk stop this behavior?

 

[gangaskan]

It was on a Windows 2000 server, and was upgraded to a Win2k3 server.

hrm, working fine when they we're on the 2000 server?


i'm wondering if upgrading had somehow borked something as to where this would happen. maybe a Group policy or something along the lines.

 

[torin3]

Are there log files refering to cannot load roaming profile?

I haven't checked the log files, but I know they get that error message when they log in on their computers

Have large files been transfered or backup run recently on those machines?
Does running chkdsk find multiple security descriptor errors like fixing $sd of file 9, several times? Does chkdsk stop this behavior?

No large files, and I haven't run chckdsk. I'm assuming you mean running chkdsk from the command line?

hrm, working fine when they we're on the 2000 server?


i'm wondering if upgrading had somehow borked something as to where this would happen. maybe a Group policy or something along the lines.

Nope, there are some that have not backed up from a few months before the upgrade. I'm trying out the ntuser.dat option suggest by nikhsub1 right now.

 

[gangaskan]

is there somewhere in the event logs that denote if a profile did not load? just curious