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Will AD move a users files?

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by larryd4

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Ok so I have a question. I am pretty confident I know the answer but I figure I would thow it out their for some input.

Here is what has been said to staff.

We are migrating users folders from an old server to the new server. My boss gave our new "admin" the job of migrating the users. According to the new "admin" the 50 some odd users will have a long log in time. Since when the user logs in, AD will copy the users home folder on the old server to the new server location.

Did anyone ever hear of that actually happening?

Well the bottom line is, it's not happening and I can't figure out why he would think this would happen.

12 replies

by selltekk

Why would you do it that way? It disrupts the user's work time? You could pretty easily script this by writing a script that would move the directories and update the user's home directory path in AD. Move the files after hours so as not to disrupt your users, then it will be seamless.

Also, if you move those directories during the work day, you might have an impact on the performance of the fileserver, and the server that is doing the copying (if they aren't on the same box.

by larryd4

Your stating the obvious, which does not occur here..

More over I'm trying to find if anyone has heard that AD would automatically move the users date from the old home directory to the new one you had already defined in the users AD account.

by larryd4

Yes you might be right, he may be used to roaming profiles.

But would that actually work? If I had a user on a roaming profile and changed the location of the users home directory, it would move the data automatically?

by charliespencer

although I've forgotten how. You can put an entry in DNS so references to the old server name get translated into the new server name. Copy all the user directories to the new server, share them, and set up the DNS entry. Later you can write a script to change the home directory entries in the users' accounts.

I also think the guy is referring to roaming profiles, and that will work if the users were already configured for it. Otherwise it's probably a waste of time; it will be easier to write a script to change the home directory entry as one to change the profiles from local to roaming.

by larryd4

The bottom line is you could probably do it. Though with the appropriate script/setup that will take in to account all of the variables.

But...
By just changing the location in the users AD account, that pertains to where the home directory storage is. Won't kick off an automatic copy of the users data to the new location.

by unhappyuser

Why would anyone do it that way? Am I missing something here? Why not just use DFS and the users wil never know what happened?

EMD

by larryd4

We have a new hire, which my manager decided to hire with out his senior analysts input.

The new hire told staff that AD will automatically move a users home directoy to the new location specified in the account, when the user logs in.

Their is a number of ways to getting this done but this is not one of them. I also found out that he has no idea how to script so suggesting an overnight scripted move is not an option.

by selltekk

Might be a good time for him to learn. Have the company buy him a book or go to a class. Might serve everyone in the long run.

found this with a quick google search.

=============================
Set objUser = GetObject _
("LDAP://cn=myerken,ou=management,dc=fabrikam,dc=com")

objUser.Put "profilePath", "\\sea-dc-01\Profiles\myerken"
objUser.Put "scriptPath", "logon.bat"
objUser.Put "homeDirectory", "\\sea-dc-01\HomeFolders\myerken"
objUser.Put "homeDrive", "H:"
objUser.SetInfo
==============================

I may be wrong, but without investing too much time, this should change the home directory path in AD for the user in question. That way, afterhours, you can move the files to the new location and use a variation of this script to change the paths in AD.

If you don't like that...try this one (uses robocopy)

http://www.omegaprojex.com/index.php/2008/11/10/moving-shares-and-users-home-folders-to-a-new-server/

by larryd4

As the senior analyst I was doing this for our last server move. But it appears our Manager is looking to test what the new guy can do.

So the call volume on the desk has gone up and the rest of the staff is slightly annoyed.

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