Hello there,
I'm setting up a new Citrix 4.5 environment in a pure 2003 server network. I would like to start some testing with Flex Profile 5 but as a pre-cursor to that i need to implement either Home Directories or use Group Policies for Folder Redirection. (or anything else you might suggest)
We are in a Banking environment and mostly tellers will be utilizing Citrix from our internal network from 14 different branches. I'm at the point where i can set this up without undoing anyone elses mistakes and would like some input as to the best setup to go with, which is where your expertise comes in. So... If you had a brand new implementation, what method would you use?
I have completely removed all of the previous Roaming Profiles that were set up years ago and were corrupt, insanely large and cumbersome. Login times is a huge concern, as well as the tellers being mobile to work from any machine either in a branch or in multiple branches.
Any help or suggestions would greatly be appreciated. I already have some servers installed and published a few MS and 3rd party apps, but i'm the only one testing right now.
In my opinion Flex is the best and cheapest way to go. I've been using it for quite a few years now and I can't be happier. Roaming is sooo yesterday.
What kind of specific questions do you have?
Senior Administrator (Citrix)USI HoldingsNo matter where I am i'm never where I want to be.
Did you ever consider giving Flex Profiles 6.0 a try. It's provided through Login Consultants' tools spin-off Immdio. The URL is http://www.immidio.com/flexprofiles/. The good news is that Flex Profiles is still free, and it's compatible with Flex Profile Kit 5.x.
Benny
Well, i saw the Immidio version, but can i still use the handy admin guide from version 5 as a reference point? What version are people in this forum using, just the latest and greatest or ? Did Immidio buy the rights to Flex Profiles or is a spin-off?
I guess i'm pretty green in the verbage, but is there a difference between using Home Directories vs. Folder Redirection via GP? And do you use the TS Home Folder portion of AD or ? I'm just confused as to what method to use on the AD side. Do you have any tech documents or links that might outline how you have this set up, or even some keywords that i can use to search out the methodology that you and others are using. Hope this helps.
Home Directories are just that. It's a directory where a user can store user specific documents. The reason for TS-specific home directories is that in an enterprise AD environment where someone's home drive might be in London whereas the Citrix servers are in NYC, you wouldn't want TS-specific Windows items (like INI files, Flex Profile data, etc) from going across the WAN to London. So you might implement TS-specific home drives to a NYC-based file server so that data stays within the same geography.
Folder Redirection is often used with My Docs, but can also be used with AppData (though I generally suggest you don't do AppData for performance reasons). What folder redirection does is cause all requests for that folder to be redirected across the network. This is more automatic than simply setting a TS home folder. With a TS home folder, the user would manually navigate to their home drive to access it. With folder redirection, any requests to MyDocs would automatically go to their redirected folder.
Make sense?
Shawn
http://www.shawnbass.com
Attend my "Unofficial" 5-day Citrix Master Class. http://www.shawnbass.com/training.aspx
On your Immidio question, it's a spin off from Login Consultants that's focused on Tools development. They took the concept of Flex Profiles and re-wrote it themselves so they're not dependant on a MS utility for it.
Yes, thank you for the explanation! So we have around 14 remote branch sites, and each of those branches has it's own domain controller. Previously the roaming profiles that were in place pointed to which ever branch a person worked at (which is where problems came in when they would work at a different branch).
So... If i really am understanding, would it be correct for me to use the TS Home directories and point them to their own branches DC, which would contain their Home Directory? Or is that backwards? Should i keep everthing on One File server, which is where the Citrix servers will be located? I am thinking you mean my 2nd theory but please confirm.
As for folder redirection, i would be using the My Docs, but do i really want to do that? Am i correct in feeling that using the TS Home Directories is the way to go? Are there strong reasons that i may want to use that instead of just using the home directories in TS?
All the help and advice is REALLY helpful and MUCH appreciated!
Thanks!
We set up the redirection via Shell folders. There’s a couple ways you can accomplish this. You can edit it in the mandatory profile if you have one or you can set it in a GPO with the aid of a custom ADM. You can also use the regular GPO setting to accomplish this. But if you have different UNC paths for each office it can get a little cumbersome. There's a couple pages in the "Immidio Flex Profiles.pdf" related to folder redirection. YOu should download it and take a look. http://www.immidio.com/flexprofiles/ The entire doc is 19 pages.
I used the True Control template from http://www.loginconsultants.com/ It's a custom ADM file they offer for free. It captures the Shell folders keys from the registry and offers the setting up in a GPO. Theres a lot of other useful items in this ADM as well.
I set "My Documents" to H:\My Docs This makes it much easier to have a single setting for everyone no matter what UNC path each office users for home.
For the home folders we set that on the "Profile" tab in ADSet H to \\servername\Share\%username% The %username% variable will generate a folder if one is not present and apply the proper permisstions. It a folder is there already the vairable will give the user you are working with the correct rights to the folder.
Q: Should i keep everthing on One File server, which is where the Citrix servers will be located?
YES
This is great! I have everything downloaded and printed off. I'll be reading over the PDF guide and the TCT document this afternoon. I'm sure i will have more questions, so i thank you all for all the great info thus far!
Home Directory is an old term carried over from pre Windows 95 and the whole "My Documents" concept. This was in the days when folks would save files to their root directory - so we gave them their own personal "H" drive (or at least those who's data we were responsible for protecting)! I wouldn't bother with it. Most users nowadays save files to their desktop, or their user profile "My Documents" folder (default location for Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc) - which can be re-directed to the network by GPO as mentioned. That way, you maintain OS and application behavior and cause less confusion.
The problem, er- challenge I see here, is the geography of your network. Let's face it. Citrix and TS are centralized computing models. You are geographically dispersed. Some applications are fine in this situation, in fact was quite prevalent in the Mainframe/Midrange days of dumb terminal emulation (3270/VT100). But start to talk pushing Windows and bandwidth will come-up short pretty quick! You make the wrong decisions here and your users are going to feel it. Take your time analyzing before you start building your solution.
Talk to the business side of the house and try to determine how many folks you can keep on mandatory profiles, or Flex Profiles with virtually no bells and whistles. If, for instance they live in a Legacy application all day, and don't need Windows. I'd advise that you don't give it to them (or IE for that matter). Local PC Windows notwithstanding.
Samuel A. RodriguezSr. Systems Administrator
Thanks again for all the posts. After some further digging, i came accross an app. called AppSence. Do any of you have any knowledge or info about using this product? I know it is not free, but appears to be another viable solution to consider.
Hi,
I answered a similar question of yours in your thread http://www.brianmadden.com/forums/t/33116.aspx
Here you ask, ‘if you had a brand new implementation, what method would you use?’ … I definitly suggest checking AppSense Environment Manager, we have being using it for years, it does what I need and more, essential things free utilities cannot do. Flex is cool but lacks the management and the usability aspect.
Thanks
Sunil ModhvadiaTechnical Architect Barclays Bank PLC