Roaming Profiles..

[nekrum]

Hi

I'm having a roaming profiles issue which I would like to run by you..

Network has 6 offices linked by dedicated lease lines. Each site has Windows 2003 server. Head office is primary Active Directory with the remaining 5 branches acting as backups. All local authentication and resources are run from each of the sites directly. Each site has a group policy for local resources.

The problem we're having is that some users are moving to different braches and we need to somehow get the group policy to apply based on the location their logging in rather than the location they're based. I hope that makes sense?!

Does anyone have any experience with this? Thanks in advance..

[BliarOut]

Do they use static machines or laptops?

I have a cunningly simple technique (bodge) if the machines are static.

[matt173407]

There are a few ways to do this, dont use roaming profiles they are not needed.

Create OU for each branch within there create ou's for computers and users and groups.

Create group policy for all machines within each branch (eg if its using software make it point to local server of that OU.

Again with the user ou group policy add all the relevant policies.

Create a login batch file to map all network drives.

for MS Office search for the Office Tool Kit this will allow you automatically configure outlook profiles to attach to the correct exchange server with no user intervention.

Printers should be done through AD simple to install

Also you can look at DFS to replicate any info that needs to be access by all the offices eg a general info drive etc, this will replicate on all sites and avoid using high bandwidth when someone tries to open a file from another office

hope this helps

[nekrum]

BliarOut said:

Do they use static machines or laptops?

I have a cunningly simple technique (bodge) if the machines are static.

Yes they are static machines..thanks

[BliarOut]

My Computer >Properties >Advanced.

Add a system variable called LocationID (or whatever you want to call it) and then you can use it as a variable to map drives/resources in your logon scripts. We used to use it for printer mapping in schools so wherever the pupil logged on the machine knew which room it was in.

ie;

@echo off

If "LocationID"=="siteA"
Net use this
Net use that
Goto end

If "LocationID"=="siteB"
Net use this
Net use that
Goto end

end:

etc...

I've typed that from memory so you may have to fiddle with it a bit. Sure, it's old skool, but it works

WSH could probably do a far neater job but it needs a lot more tinkering and I never found the need.

[agent006]

This isn't a roaming profiles issue is it? It's a group policy and AD sites issue isn't it?

Blairout's script idea will do what you want if you're using login scripts. Otherwise make sure each site's machines are in their own OU with their own policies applied, rather than applying the policies to the users. Unless i'm missing something, then there's not much more than that.

Edited by agent006 on Friday 2nd February 17:51

[theboss]

nekrum said:

The problem we're having is that some users are moving to different braches and we need to somehow get the group policy to apply based on the location their logging in rather than the location they're based. I hope that makes sense?!

Does anyone have any experience with this? Thanks in advance..

You can link Group Policy Objects to Sites as well as OU's - these site GPOs will be applied depending on where the login takes place, irrespective of the OU the computer/user accounts are contained within.

In order for this to work properly you need to make sure your sites are setup properly in AD Sites & Services, as well as the correct subnet objects created and correctly associated with each site.

If you haven't already done so, download and use the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) as this makes it much easier to see how/where GPO's are linked to Sites and OUs.