User profiles

[olocin]

Hello!

I’m having problems in choosing what kind of setup (User Profiles) I will use for 1 of the department here at work; this department does the following scenario:

They have 6 terminals running under win2k and about 20 users

1. They come and go, and always on the rush

2. They don’t have their own terminal and files are located everywhere (in 6 terminals).

3. They have software based and plug and play devices (cameras and USB) to view shoots and projects

4. Very dependable on their old files

5. Doesn’t have any filing system.

6. Only the regular employees have the logon, w/c they gratefully share to others making it more complicated for their files and their profiles.

7. For the freelancers they use on common logon

8. A heavy user of printer.

I read about roaming profile but it has a lot of cons that would make me think twice. I’m making every terminal as automated as possible coz I manage 4 companies w/ 500 + users, saving little time really helps J

Suggestions and recommendations are greatly appreciated. Thank You

Ps. Sorry if I miss posted, I don’t know to where this fits

[tain]

The users would probably prefer roaming profiles. What are the cons that make you think twice?

[RogueSpear]

I've had all kinds of difficulties with roaming profiles getting corrupted or completely disappearing. I'm sure that part of the issue was Dfs replication, which actually brings up another issue - availability. You need to make sure that the roaming profiles are highly available in order to prevent logon errors or extremely long logon times. Which reminds me.. watch out for the idiots who store like 2GB of photos on their desktop which is a part of the profile. This has really reminded me of why I stopped using them

[tain]

Quotas can be applied to roaming profiles.

[RogueSpear]

Yea I had quotas set, even set the group policy setting to not consider the desktop as part of the profile. I guess if you were set up in a 2003 R2 environment, you could try your hand at the improvements made to Dfs and see if it works any better for you.

[olocin]

hi guys thanks for all your replies, roque is right i read some articles regarding roaming profile an they all have the same issues, do i have any other option? or i really have to go with roaming profile. they are really heavy user they download movies and pictures on their PC. 80 GB last only for 3 months or so

[tain]

You still haven't told us what your problem is. It is tough to suggest an alternative when we don't know the specific problem you have with roaming profiles.

Another point altogether is that it sounds like these people are abusing your systems/network for their personal gain. DLing movies and such doesn't sound job-related to me. If it is their job, then yeah you need to find a way to support them.

But if they are just screwing around then you should consider applying some restrictions to their accounts, warning them about abusing corporate resources, and moving on to something more important. And then report them to management if they give you more trouble.

[RogueSpear]

It sounds as though he works in a place that does photography/video as it's business. A tough environment to be an admin for sure since you would expect the gigabytes to be flying. Where I work we have a forensic laboratory. There's only two guys who work back there, but they're responsible for 80% of the network storage requirements and at least 90% of the network throughput (if you leave out such things as DHCP, DNS, etc). It's all about $$$ in an environment like that.

[olocin]

sorry guys, havent implemented the roaming profiles yet since, i have to know its prons and cons before doing such action, i work in a production house so that is what they really do. Its really hard to maintain the network/system in this environment.