Windows Server Rant

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LoStMaTt

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Feb 26, 2003
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Why can't Microsoft be nice and make it so that every server OS includes the SBS Client Connect thing?

I am absolutely SICK and TIRED of manually migrating user profiles to domain profiles.

StoneCat, what do you normally do when you are migrating people from a workgroup environment to a non-sbs environment?
 
i actually always manually migrate user profiles (general stuff, my docs, favorites, desktop)

i dont like how it doesn't create new folder in docs and settings, so say on workgroup setup username was UserA and on domain username is now joeshmo. in docs and settings it keeps UserA as the profile instead of joeshmo.

so i manually do it, just create new user, and copy stuff back.
 
Yea thats "no big deal" but then you gotta reconfigure Outlook and hope that they remember their e-mail password 9/10 times they don't.

Then there are always these little configuration/appdata quirks that didn't migrate over and then the user is all confused.
 
Change local administrator password on the workstation
Join domain
Set domain user account to local group
Log in as that user to create local profile
Drill into old local profile and copy over My Docs, desktop, favorites, and their e-mail files to import into Outlook/Exchange (be it OE DBX or Outlook PST).

I actually do not use the Client Connect tool...I hate copying over the entire profile...because it brings over "dirt" that their old profile may have had, junk temp files, registry crap. I like to only grab the bare necessities that they need..Documents, Favorites, desktop stuff, and e-mail. Lets them start with the cleanest, most problem free profile possible.

After a few thousand times, I can do it in my sleep in mere minutes.

Yes some things don't get brought over, on those rare circumstances you can usually go back into their old profile and snag whatever you need.

If it was important, it should have been documented so it can be recreated in a minute.

LoStMaTt said:
Why can't Microsoft be nice and make it so that every server OS includes the SBS Client Connect thing?

I am absolutely SICK and TIRED of manually migrating user profiles to domain profiles.

StoneCat, what do you normally do when you are migrating people from a workgroup environment to a non-sbs environment?
Click to expand...
 
Know what my rant is..that I wish they made for other servers that SBS has? RWW.

Remote Web Workplace. I wish they made that a free standalone download that you could install on vanilla servers, such as WSUS or Sharepoint.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Know what my rant is..that I wish they made for other servers that SBS has? RWW.

Remote Web Workplace. I wish they made that a free standalone download that you could install on vanilla servers, such as WSUS or Sharepoint.
Click to expand...

Excuse my french but: Infuckindeed dude.

I love that feature to death. Shoot, I would pay good money to put it on non SBS servers.
 
I haven't messed with it much, but isn't USMT designed for this sort of thing? I've used it to migrate domain profiles a couple times, and it looks like the options are there to migrate a local profile to a domain profile. Dunno, might be worth looking into.

But yeah, the SBS tool is pretty damn nifty.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Know what my rant is..that I wish they made for other servers that SBS has? RWW.

Remote Web Workplace. I wish they made that a free standalone download that you could install on vanilla servers, such as WSUS or Sharepoint.
Click to expand...

iis on sbs to the net?
no thanks
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Not port 80, just 4125 and 443. It's quite secure.

If you sleep with a tin hat on....hide it all behind a VPN, the benefits of RWW are still fantastic.
Click to expand...

I love my tin foil hat.
My clients love my tin foil hat.
It makes them sleep better at night.

443 is still iis with all the security holes .
 
Placebos can help people sleep better at night too. Great functionality they'll never get to love.

http://www.sbsfaq.com/Lists/FAQs/DispForm.aspx?ID=11

http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2005/03/04/37641.aspx

I take it you never like OWA either?

RWW is quite secure though. And it's still beneficial for those places that have nothing exposed on the outside...where end users have to VPN in first. Example, one healthcare client I have, RWW is not exposed to the public...but I have a shortcut on their Juniper SSL VPN dashboard once they log in. Easy access to their e-mail, sharepoint, terminal server, or connect to my workstation right there in the Juniper login page.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Change local administrator password on the workstation
Join domain
Set domain user account to local group
Log in as that user to create local profile
Click to expand...

At this point I do it a little differently.

Log back out as user
Log in as adminsitrator
go to HKEY_LM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\ProfileList
Identify the new domain users key, update the profile directory to point back at the directory for the old non-domain local user.
Reboot to make sure all registry file locks are broken
Domain user logs back into their old non-domain local user profile.
 
wouldn't the ADMT tool do this, also?
or does that only work from AD Domain to AD Domain?

You could also use the User Profile Wizard by ForensiT (www.forensit.com)
I've had great success with this tool, re-associated a profile folder with an AD user account (I've also set up a profile folder to be shared between 2 different AD accts that are on different AD Domains)
 
j-sta said:
wouldn't the ADMT tool do this, also?
or does that only work from AD Domain to AD Domain?

You could also use the User Profile Wizard by ForensiT (www.forensit.com)
I've had great success with this tool, re-associated a profile folder with an AD user account (I've also set up a profile folder to be shared between 2 different AD accts that are on different AD Domains)
Click to expand...

I second this, I have used this tool alot, and I have never had an issue with it. It is extremely fast and very easy to use. I highly recommend checking it out. Also if you have to join the domain as well, you can use this tool to do so which saves you a reboot.
 
nessus said:
At this point I do it a little differently.

Log back out as user
Log in as adminsitrator
go to HKEY_LM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\ProfileList
Identify the new domain users key, update the profile directory to point back at the directory for the old non-domain local user.
Reboot to make sure all registry file locks are broken
Domain user logs back into their old non-domain local user profile.
Click to expand...

Yeah...if you want all the stuff from their old profile. I don't want all the garbage, I prefer to only carry over the clean data...Docs, Faves, Desktop, and e-mail if needed. All the other "stuff"...is prone to have issues, garbage, junk, that I don't want to carry over. I prefer as much of a clean slate as possible. Less call back issues for me to deal with.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Know what my rant is..that I wish they made for other servers that SBS has? RWW.

Remote Web Workplace. I wish they made that a free standalone download that you could install on vanilla servers, such as WSUS or Sharepoint.
Click to expand...

Yea RWW is nice. They did add it into EBS which is nice but I still wish it was in the normal windows std and enterprise.

I'm with YeOlde on profiles. I try to copy just the bare stuff when possible. If not I just manually copy the profile over. One thing I then do though is I rename the old profile just to make sure nothing is still pulling from it. Ie if the user was YeOlde I'd rename it to YeOlde.old or something.
 
iu do .old as well

only copy what yeolde does, no reason for rest, desktop, my doc, favorites, folder redirect gets setup so in the future just gotta do favorites.

ive had a few times copy whole profile just made tons of problems.
 
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