[Samba] Some Vista Info reguarding Profiles

[Mike Petersen]

Hi All,

I just started really looking into deploying Vista in a Domain
Environment and here is some info I gathered so far:

With Vista, Microsoft Updated their "profiles" to version 2, thus Vista
profiles will not co-exist with previous Windows profiles.  To alleviate
the need to specify a different profile for Vista, Microsoft decided to
automatically add a ".V2" to the roaming profile name to ensure it uses
a different one than previous versions of Windows.

So, if you specify a "logon path = \\server\profiles\%U" the Vista
profile will automatically be \\server\profiles\username.V2 and should
work as expected.

However, in my testing so far, if you delete the user's profile on the
server, the workstation will give the "unable to locate the user
profile" error.  I have yet to figure this out, so for now do not delete
a User's Vista profile on the Server.

Also note that I have only used the %U wildcard on the "logon path ="
directive, I noticed that some actually use that on the profile share
itself ...from another email (Jerry Carter)

[profiles]
        preexec = /etc/samba/scripts/create_profile %U %a
        path = /data/smb/c/profiles/%U/%a
        comment = Roaming user profile storage
        create mask = 0600
        directory mask = 0700
        profile acls = yes

[profiles.V2]
        copy = profiles
        browseable = no

So, I assume that if you use the %U wildcard on the profile share,
ensure that you create the profiles.V2 share (and ensure that you
differentiate the profiles by Architecture with %a otherwise Vista will
not load the profile).  Note:  if anyone uses a "create_profile" script
I would like to take a look at it and see if that would be a better way
to implement roaming profiles.

Anyway, I read the "Managing Roaming User Data Deployment Guide" for
Vista and it looks like the major changes to the profiles are that they
added quite a few folders, and moved the "Application Data" to "AppData"
which now includes a "Local" directory (they got rid of "Local
Settings") and a "Roaming" directory. The "Roaming" directory also
includes quite a few directories that were normally within the root of
the profile, such as "Cookies", "Nethood", "Printhood", "Recent",
"Sendto", "Start Menu" and "Templates".

These changes may cause havoc on Folder Redirection.  Their guide
explains how to do Folder Redirection on certain directories and it is
read like you have to jump through hoops.  Also of note is that what if
you try to redirect the old "Application Data" directory (which now is
"Roaming") since the bulk of the profile size is that directory.  The
roaming directory now includes folders that should not be redirected
(such as Cookies which causes an error on logout).  I may setup a Win2k3
server just so I can witness firsthand how to manage Folder Redirection
with Vista.

One thing to definitely note:  If you want a "Network Default Profile"
for Vista, copy a "Vista Profile" into the netlogon Directory and name
it "Default User.V2" - Vista should use that profile instead of the
local Default User profile.

Once I do further testing I will add everything to the Samba Wiki.

BTW:  Does anyone know how to force Vista to utilize a System Policy
(NTConfig.POL) from the netlogon share ??


Mike Petersen
mgpeter at pcc-services.com