Server 2019 - Active Directory

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Server 2019 - Active Directory

Okay, boys and girls, it's getting scary out there in server land. lol


I was at the school last night trying to figure it out. I logged on another PC under this users name and I could access all the files thru the run command. I logged back on the PC in the user's office and I couldn't access all the files. Specifically, I couldn't access documents and desktop in the FolderRedirect File. But only on that one PC.

It got even more confusing for me when I went back to the run command and accessessed the server via IP address. When I did that, I could access all the files.

In other words, when I tried to access the files like this: \\DC-01\FolderRedirect\documents - couldn't access.

When I tried to access the files like this: \\192.168.0.155, I could acess everything.

This was all very confusing to me. It was only a problem on this one PC but I could acess the files via IP address to the server.

When I ran a nslookup for DC-01, the results were correct.

When I ran gpupdate /force, it showed the expected results.

Out of curiousity, I unlinked the GPO and that caused a major problem on his PC as the desktop was now empty and I was blocked from putting anything on the desktop.

I then noticed that NetBios over TCP/IP was on. I turned it off and ran gpupdate from the server and PC and everything worked again. The error message was now gone and everything worked as it should. Whew!!!

I was kinda freaking out because it was so confusing. I hope that's all it was. I quit while I was ahead.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Server 2019 - Active Directory

PS - I forgot to mention that the PC belonged to the top guy at the school. He's a retired judge and is over the entire school. He's also on various city boards and committees.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Server 2019 - Active Directory

I see that Net Bios can be configured on the server via DHCP. So, I can turn it off on all PC's. Should I do this?


Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP by using DHCP - Windows Server | Microsoft Docs

[rthonpm]

Re: Server 2019 - Active Directory

I see that Net Bios can be configured on the server via DHCP. So, I can turn it off on all PC's. Should I do this?


Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP by using DHCP - Windows Server | Microsoft Docs

Only if the server is acting as your DHCP server as well. If the ISP equipment is issuing DHCP there's not much you can do other than manually disabling it on the clients.



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[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Server 2019 - Active Directory

Well, it turns out that my Folder Redirection problem isn't fixed. I've done a little (a lot) of research on this problem and I think I may better understand the problem.

Lets start from the beginning.

The problem is isoloted to one PC. And the problem is that I can't access the redirected folders from that one PC. When I log on to another PC under the same user name, I can access the redirected folders - documents & desktop.

What this means (I think) is that there's no problem with "shares" for said folders. If there was a problem with the "share", I wouldn't be able to access them from any PC.


Agreed?

Understanding this problem has been beyond my grasp until I ran across some online information.

Turns out that when "Folder Redirect" is implemented on Windows Server that it automatically turns on something called "Offline Files" on the client PC's. This is simply a local cache of the redirected files and folders used to save time and aslo allows access to files when the server is down.

I suspect that "offline files" has been corrupted and this is the reason for the problem.

Today, I'm gonna turn off "offline" files as a test. When I turn it off, I think I'll be able to access the shares. That, however, is not the fix but a troubleshooting method.

We'll talk about the fix after I run this test.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Server 2019 - Active Directory

I turned off offline files and it didn't help at all. Back to the drawing board.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Server 2019 - Active Directory

Just got off the phone with my friend that's in IT and he said to leave the domain on that PC and rejoin. I'll try that after hours today.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Server 2019 - Active Directory

I unjoined and rejoined the domain. It made no difference. Folder Redirect was still unaccessable.

Its clear to me that something got screwed up on this one computer so here's what I ended up doing

There was nothing that really lived locally on the PC as I had everything redirected to the server. Just in case, I backed everything up and then I re-imaged the PC with a fresh install of windows.

This fixed the problem. No use in being a damn fool about it. I had wasted enough time and I was really at a dead end. Glad it's fixed.

[rthonpm]

Re: Server 2019 - Active Directory

It sounds like the local user profile was corrupted. The easiest thing to have done in this case would have been to create a new profile for the user on the machine.

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[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Server 2019 - Active Directory

It sounds like the local user profile was corrupted. The easiest thing to have done in this case would have been to create a new profile for the user on the machine.

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I ruled out the user profile because I could log on to any other PC using the same user and folder redirect worked fine. Am I missing something or not understanding correctly?

[rthonpm]

Re: Server 2019 - Active Directory

I ruled out the user profile because I could log on to any other PC using the same user and folder redirect worked fine. Am I missing something or not understanding correctly?

The user profile is unique to every machine that someone logs into. The account and profile are two different things: the user account is the AD object, the user profile is the user's logon for that specific machine, namely their entry in C:\Users|%username%. I've seen plenty of instances where a local profile just decides to break for no logical reason. Delete the profile, have the user log into create a new one on the machine, and usually everything works again.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Server 2019 - Active Directory

The user profile is unique to every machine that someone logs into. The account and profile are two different things: the user account is the AD object, the user profile is the user's logon for that specific machine, namely their entry in C:\Users|%username%. I've seen plenty of instances where a local profile just decides to break for no logical reason. Delete the profile, have the user log into create a new one on the machine, and usually everything works again.

That's interesting. I'm a little confused how the local user profile would affect Folder Redirect. And why is it only affecting Folder Redirect for this one user (owner) of the PC?


Sorry for being a pain in the ass.

[techsxge]

Re: Server 2019 - Active Directory

A user profile is a collection of settings that make the computer look and work the way you want it to. It contains your settings for desktop backgrounds, screen savers, pointer preferences, sound settings, and other features. User profiles ensure that your personal preferences are used whenever you log on to Windows.




A user account is a collection of information that tells Windows what files and folders you can access, what changes you can make to the computer, and your personal preferences, such as your desktop background or color theme. Each person accesses their user account with a user name and password.


For example, If your user profile is corrupted, then you will encounter error when logging on to windows or meet other error messages, you will need to create a new profile, but before you create a new profile, you must first create a new user account. When the account is created, a profile is also created.

[rthonpm]

Re: Server 2019 - Active Directory

That's interesting. I'm a little confused how the local user profile would affect Folder Redirect. And why is it only affecting Folder Redirect for this one user (owner) of the PC?


Sorry for being a pain in the ass.

Because it's a series of settings that allow the computer to connect to resources as the logged in user. If a setting file gets corrupted, or something odd happens, all bets are off as to whether or not the user can connect to the proper resources, or even be able to log in cleanly.

In your case, the CSC cache likely broke so the computer couldn't sync files for offline use. Saw this happen plenty of times. It was one of the reasons I was glad to dump folder redirection for OneDrive's Known Folder Sync...

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[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Server 2019 - Active Directory

Because it's a series of settings that allow the computer to connect to resources as the logged in user. If a setting file gets corrupted, or something odd happens, all bets are off as to whether or not the user can connect to the proper resources, or even be able to log in cleanly.

In your case, the CSC cache likely broke so the computer couldn't sync files for offline use. Saw this happen plenty of times. It was one of the reasons I was glad to dump folder redirection for OneDrive's Known Folder Sync...

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Okay, that makes sense. I have suspected for a while that offline files was the problem. I even mentioned in this thread. I read where some guys were able to repair the problem by making entries in the registry. It was a little confusing so I decided not to try.

I'll file this in the memory bank. It was a learning experience if nothing else.