SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 Migrations – Folder Redirection Caveat

Once the Folder Redirection policy has been enabled in the SBS 2008 Console, a GPO linked to the SBSUsers OU will be configured with the appropriate settings to redirect the selected folders.

In the case of a migration, to eliminate a lot of post migration problems with user profiles that only occasionally connect, it is a good idea to remove the following settings in the new GPO after enabling folder redirection on the new SBS 2008 server:

• Grant the user exclusive rights to Documents.
• Move the contents of Documents to the new location.

David Moisan (blog link) made the suggestion in the comment section of our SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 Migration Guide (previous blog post).

He also suggested, and we will also be doing, that once the settings are in place after a GPUpdate /force, that we manually move the contents of the SBS 2003 Users folder to the new FolderRedirections folder for the user profiles to find there.

Now, note that in the SBS 2008 Console, even though the check marks were originally there for Desktop and Documents, they disappear when the top two check marks are removed in the actual Small Business Server Folder Redirection Policy GPO.

Also, make sure to disable those two settings on the legacy SBS 2003 folder redirection GPO so that there is no confusion until it is deleted near the end of the migration process.

Thanks David for your excellent suggestions! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer