Roaming profiles: Client does not update server

[Håkan Hildingsson]

Roaming Profiles are not copied back to the server when the user loges off.

I have a Windows 2000 server and Window XP clients.

When I create a new user and enter the UNC path (\\server\profiles$\%username%) to where I want to store the profiles a new directory is created.
When this new user loges on to a Windows XP client a new profile is created for this user on the local machine. The profile on the local machine is marked as Roaming (Type= Roaming, Status=Roaming)
When the new user log of form the Windows XP client the user is not copied back to the server, and no error message is displayed, no event log entries appear indicating any problem.

The permission for the folder where the profile is supposed to be stored on the server is:
Administrator - Full Control
"The new User" - Full control, and marked as Owner of the folder

There is no eventlog messages on either the server or the client indicating any problems what so ever.

The new user is member of the Domain Administrator group on the server (domain) and Domain Admins is member of the local administrator group on the client.

If I manually copy the profile form the client to the server and then delete the local copy, the profile is downloaded when the user loges on again, but any changes made are not copied back when the user loges of.

As far as I know I have not made any changes to any group policies, and to be sure I have disabled the policy object for the domain.

I have turned on Auditing for the profile directory and I don't get any "access denied" entries in the log.

How do you go about debugging this further? I have not found any documentation that describe in detail how exactly the process of the client deciding when to write back changes to the server.

This same problem applies to existing users as well as new users.

/Håkan

[Oli Restorick [MVP]]

Hi

Here's a TechNet Support WebCast that describes how to use UserEnv logging

TechNet Support WebCast: Troubleshooting Group Policy and profile issues in
a domain environment by using Userenv logging
[url]http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;835302[/url]

And here's a related KB article

How to enable user environment debug logging in retail builds of Windows
[url]http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;221833[/url]

Also, check out the User Profile Hive Cleanup utility (UPHClean) on one or
two test machines to see if this resolved the issue. See the following
article for details:

Troubleshooting profile unload issues
[url]http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;837115[/url]

I have deployed UPHClean in my environment without issue and it resolved my
profile unload issues. It deploys easily through Group Policy.

Some people have been reporting that this issue is made worse by some of the
security patches (the ones for the vulnerabilities exploited by Blaster and
Sasser seem to be the ones), but I haven't found anything conclusive. Of
course, this isn't a reason to avoid installing these essential patches.

Hope this helps

Oli



"Håkan Hildingsson" <hildingsson@REMOVE_THIShome.se> wrote in message
news:O786VMTXEHA.3664@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
Roaming Profiles are not copied back to the server when the user loges off.

I have a Windows 2000 server and Window XP clients.

When I create a new user and enter the UNC path
(\\server\profiles$\%username%) to where I want to store the profiles a new
directory is created.
When this new user loges on to a Windows XP client a new profile is created
for this user on the local machine. The profile on the local machine is
marked as Roaming (Type= Roaming, Status=Roaming)
When the new user log of form the Windows XP client the user is not copied
back to the server, and no error message is displayed, no event log entries
appear indicating any problem.

The permission for the folder where the profile is supposed to be stored on
the server is:
Administrator - Full Control
"The new User" - Full control, and marked as Owner of the folder

There is no eventlog messages on either the server or the client indicating
any problems what so ever.

The new user is member of the Domain Administrator group on the server
(domain) and Domain Admins is member of the local administrator group on the
client.

If I manually copy the profile form the client to the server and then delete
the local copy, the profile is downloaded when the user loges on again, but
any changes made are not copied back when the user loges of.

As far as I know I have not made any changes to any group policies, and to
be sure I have disabled the policy object for the domain.

I have turned on Auditing for the profile directory and I don't get any
"access denied" entries in the log.

How do you go about debugging this further? I have not found any
documentation that describe in detail how exactly the process of the client
deciding when to write back changes to the server.

This same problem applies to existing users as well as new users.

/Håkan