How to change the File Server Share for Folder Redirection in a way that the W7 Client can still access the Data on the Users Share and not to have the complete Data synced over the wire?

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Hi

You have successfully applied your Folder Redirection policy's to the Windows 7 SP1 Clients.  It was running for years without any problems and now it happened, the File Server has to be replaced due to age or performance or...

No matter what reason, what is the best way to move the User Shares to a new File Server, Disk on the LUN/SAN, without having the Data transferred over the wire from the Client, keep on reading and maybe you will have some Ideas.

Consider the following scenario:

  • The Folder Redirection feature is enabled for the user to redirect his/her documents to a file server.
  • You enable the Offline Files feature on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7.
  • You change the destination file server location for the user’s redirected documents to a new location.
  • Or if the new file server location represents a different physical storage location, you move the user’s data from the old file server location to the new file server location
  • When the updated Folder Redirection policy applies to the user’s computer, you want the data that is already in the Offline Files cache to be renamed to reflect the new file server name without transferring the data from the old server location to the new server location through the client.

Step 1: Configure the Windows 7 SP1 Client as follows:

ImportantThis section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756

(https://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/ )

How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

In Registry Editor, locate the following registry subkey:

  1. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
  2. Under the Explorer registry subkey, click Edit, click New, click DWORD Value, type FolderRedirectionEnableCacheRename, and then press ENTER.
  3. Set the decimal value of the FolderRedirectionEnableCacheRename registry entry to 1.
  4. Exit Registry Editor.

make sure you have the most actual shell32.dll installed or at least the following Version:

Shell32.dll 6.1.7600.20641 12,868,096 11-Feb-2010 06:54 x86
Shell32.dll 6.1.7600.20641 14,164,992 11-Feb-2010 07:41 x64

Step 2: move the Data on the Server Side using robocopy in order to have also copied the metadata (do this on weekends or after hours)

Step 3: configure the Folder Redirection policy, or when variables are used, the User Object, with the new Path 

Step 4: Start the Windows 7 SP1 Client and Log on to the computer to receive the updated Group Policy settings. This may require that you to log on, log off, and then log on again because the Group Policy settings can be applied asynchronously to the user’s logon.

But pay attention:

this scenario is only to be used when you don't want to move the Data by the Windows 7 SP1 Client over the wire by the initial Logon Sync! So, make sure that you did not have enabled the following option in the Folder Redirection Policy:

move the contents of <Folder Name> to the new location.

These steps also apply when DFS is used!  

Additional Info:

make sure that you have the latest Components on the Client in use for the Folder Redirection and Offline Files feature:

List of currently available hotfixes for the Offline Files Feature in Windows 8 and Windows 7 SP1

https://blogs.technet.com/b/netro/archive/2013/01/10/list-of-currently-available-hotfixes-for-the-offline-files-feature-in-windows-7-sp1.aspx 

I hope this helps when you plan these Actions or when you have to do it fast due to an Server outage

cheers

Jonny

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