Roaming profiles and offline folders...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jeff Andersen
  • Start date Start date
J

Jeff Andersen

Outlook 2002/WindowsXP/Windows2000ServerAD.

Hi there, has anyone seen an elegant way to handle users
with OST files and roaming profiles.

I have dome extensive testing and found that the Outlook
profile creates a new OST file on the new PC logging
into. This can be an issue if the server happens to be
across a WAN etc.

I have worked around using two Outlook profiles - one
with OST, one without. This poses a usability issue and
if the user selects the wrong profile - the same position
is created.

HELP!!!

Thanks

Jeff
 
Conventional wisdom is that offline folders are unnecessary and should not be used with roaming profiles.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
Please explain.

Conventional wisdom is that offline folders are unnecessary and should not
be used with roaming profiles.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
Offline folders are designed to make it easy for someone using one machine to take that machine and use it anywhere -- even 30,000 feet up in a plane -- to work on the data in their Outlook mailbox. In a LAN environment where people are moving from machine to machine (the conventional definition of roaming profiles), they can access all the information that's on the server directly because they're connected all the time. The only thing that offline folders buy you in that situation is the ability to restart Outlook and work offline if the server fails. Otherwise, all you're doing is creating caches all over the place that maybe no one will ever use.

Of course, there are all kinds of network installations and users, so that's something of an oversimplification. Maybe we can talk about your specific reasons for using roaming profiles.
 
I understand all this, but if you read one of MS's Outlook / Exchange
whitepapers they recommend you use Offline Files for remote offices which
don't have a big pipe to the Exchange server. Now assuming we do that and we
want these people to have roaming profiles because they move locations then
we have a problem. I don't believe that OST's and roaming profiles can be
considered mutually exlusive but this is the way MS wants us to think of
them.

MS should incorporate a way for Offline Files settings to be excluded from
the roaming profile (I know the actual OST is, but when a user with a
roaming profile and an OST logs onto another machine they get an error
message about recreating the OST - not feasible when its a 200MB mailbox on
the other end of a 512k link).

This is just another example of sloppy programming on MS's part. Our option
at this stage if not to use roaming profiles but rather have Profgen
automatically generate Outlook user profiles when a user logs onto a new
machine. But that means no Favorites etc etc.

Regards

Brendon



Offline folders are designed to make it easy for someone using one machine
to take that machine and use it anywhere -- even 30,000 feet up in a
plane -- to work on the data in their Outlook mailbox. In a LAN environment
where people are moving from machine to machine (the conventional definition
of roaming profiles), they can access all the information that's on the
server directly because they're connected all the time. The only thing that
offline folders buy you in that situation is the ability to restart Outlook
and work offline if the server fails. Otherwise, all you're doing is
creating caches all over the place that maybe no one will ever use.

Of course, there are all kinds of network installations and users, so that's
something of an oversimplification. Maybe we can talk about your specific
reasons for using roaming profiles.
 
I think MS is right on this one. Roaming profiles with .ost files that can be up to 2gb in size isn't very practical even on a local network.
 
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