Roaming profiles constant problems

[mpjtaylor]

Servers Overview
1) Windows 2003 SBS SP1 running :-
Active Directory
IIS
DNS / DHCP / WINS
Exchange 2003
SQL
SharePoint
Antivirus
Backup Software

2) Windows 2003:-
terminal Server Applications

Client machines Overview:-
10 Workstations using Windows XP SP2 + Outlook 2003
5 Laptops using Windows XP SP2 + Outlook 2003

Laptop machines use docking stations and are used on site and offsite using VPN connections

The problems :-

Sometimes any client machine can logon and not receive there profile,

Sometimes any client machine can logon and not be able to access network drives, email , internal websites.

On some machines when logging off there is an error about being unable to save the roaming profile.

More often than not if you switch to a different machine and login to a different machine you cannot access network drives, email or passwords, sometimes rebooting and retrying many times resolves this.

Every time a user has to change there password they cannot access email, websites or network drives for up to several hours until the server realizes the password has been changed.

On changing a password within AD people can not login to OWA for quite some period of time its like OWA doesn't realize the password has been changed.

Yesterday a user had to take a laptop out to a client site they normally use a workstation, They logged into the laptop and they couldn't access anything after about 30 mins of retrying and rebooting it worked. They returned today and went back to there workstation and more problems occured. There desktop picture reverted to a much older veriosn. They couldn't access internal websites without constant password entries.

What I have noticed :-

On the server the folders that each of the profiles use some of them I can open and some of them I cant. And others say access denied ( this is me logged onto the server as Administrator)

Also some machines have Documents and Settings\username & Documents and Settings\username+dns suffix


The Help

Can anyone suggest what on earth is going wrong here? We have what appear to be performance problems with this server which I may add is brand new.

Many Thanks

Marcus

[AdamV]

The thing with profiles where you have username and username.domain is usually because either:
they have a local account and domain account with same name (you should not need local accounts at all, just use cached credentials)
you changed the domain and rejoined the machines to new domain, but there was already a profile in their username so it created a new one.

It sounds like the machine is giving them a logon while the network is still starting. Try turning off XP's fast boot:
Computer/Admin Templates/System/Logon
configure 'Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon'

Also try setting the network card to a fixed speed instead of auto - this saves time on auto-negotiation with the switch and gets connected faster.

[mpjtaylor]

Thanks very much for the reply,

I shall try this and see how it goes

[mpjtaylor]

I think this has improved our situation but a spin off effect now means that anyone who uses Terminal services applications can now no longer see the shared Network drives.

And the Roaming profile cannot be loaded using Terminal services.

Any ideas?

[Eric]

How are you mapping the network drives? Do you have your terminal server(s) in their own OU? Are you using any loopback replace or blocking inheritance on the terminal server(s)?

As for the roaming profile, have you thought about using a terminal services specific roaming profile as well?

Eric

[mpjtaylor]

Im not sure how it was originally setup I do know that it cant be correct,

I dont think that the Terminal Server is using its own OU also dont know anything about loopback replace or blocking inheritance.

I know we have issues with Roaming profiles but we do only have one Terminal Server so Im unsure about using TS Roaming profiles,?

I do however need to make available a network to terminal servers users whats the best way about doing this, It used to work till I changed the GPO for logging on users to wait for a profile.

Many Thanks

How are you mapping the network drives? Do you have your terminal server(s) in their own OU? Are you using any loopback replace or blocking inheritance on the terminal server(s)?

As for the roaming profile, have you thought about using a terminal services specific roaming profile as well?

Eric

[Eric]

Look at this link for some information on Managing Terminal Services users with Group Policy:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/ae1fbb95-eb16-4ea6-ba8c-6ca7d60b5f181033.mspx?mfr=true


Also, how are you trying to map the network drive for them? Group Policy login script?

[mpjtaylor]

Ive tried setting the TS Roaming profile directory and also setting the Home Dir Folder,

however my main issue when logging on is it cant find the server profile dir, When logged in using TS I cant seem to browse the Network at all.

"Unable to browse the network, the network is not started or present"

Also have looked at the main server AD GPO Terminal Server is listed as being linked with the following settings :-

Administrative Templateshide
System/Group Policyhide
Policy Setting
User Group Policy loopback processing mode Enabled
Mode: Merge

Windows Components/Windows Explorerhide
Policy Setting
Hide these specified drives in My Computer Enabled
Pick one of the following combinations Restrict A, B, C and D drives only

Policy Setting
Hides the Manage item on the Windows Explorer context menu Enabled
Prevent access to drives from My Computer Enabled
Pick one of the following combinations Restrict A, B, C and D drives only

Policy Setting
Remove "Map Network Drive" and "Disconnect Network Drive" Enabled
Remove Hardware tab Enabled
Remove Search button from Windows Explorer Enabled
Remove Windows Explorer's default context menu Enabled

[mpjtaylor]

Ok,

seems like it was an issue withthe nic not working I rebooted and now can browse and see the drives again