User logon hangs when home folder server not available

We recently performed some planned weekend maintenance which required us to
shut down our DFS file servers (among others) that we use to host users home
folders (we have configured in AD). As we only started using the home folder
feature this year we had yet to experience this but when the file servers
were shutdown we noticed that domain logons would hang indefinitely.

It took a good 5 minutes for me to realize what was happening but when I
disabled the home folder setting on my normal user account and was then able
to log on that made it pretty clear.

What I'm trying to figure out now is if there is any group policy or
registry setting that will allow the log on process to skip the home folder
step (timeout) if the DFS share is not available for whatever reason. As it
stands now, the DFS servers are a single point of failure for user logons
which is not a good thing. Appreciate any feedback. Thanks.

On Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:16:47 +0900, "Barkley Bees" <> wrote:

>We recently performed some planned weekend maintenance which required us to
>shut down our DFS file servers (among others) that we use to host users home
>folders (we have configured in AD). As we only started using the home folder
>feature this year we had yet to experience this but when the file servers
>were shutdown we noticed that domain logons would hang indefinitely.
>
>It took a good 5 minutes for me to realize what was happening but when I
>disabled the home folder setting on my normal user account and was then able
>to log on that made it pretty clear.
>
>What I'm trying to figure out now is if there is any group policy or
>registry setting that will allow the log on process to skip the home folder
>step (timeout) if the DFS share is not available for whatever reason. As it
>stands now, the DFS servers are a single point of failure for user logons
>which is not a good thing. Appreciate any feedback. Thanks.

I use DFS homed home folders and have never seen the logon hang indefinitely.
The mapped drive is simply not mapped. You may have some other issue at work
here.


--
Dave Mills
There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.

"Barkley Bees" <> wrote in message
news:...
> We recently performed some planned weekend maintenance which required us
> to shut down our DFS file servers (among others) that we use to host users
> home folders (we have configured in AD). As we only started using the home
> folder feature this year we had yet to experience this but when the file
> servers were shutdown we noticed that domain logons would hang
> indefinitely.
>
> It took a good 5 minutes for me to realize what was happening but when I
> disabled the home folder setting on my normal user account and was then
> able to log on that made it pretty clear.
>
> What I'm trying to figure out now is if there is any group policy or
> registry setting that will allow the log on process to skip the home
> folder step (timeout) if the DFS share is not available for whatever
> reason. As it stands now, the DFS servers are a single point of failure
> for user logons which is not a good thing. Appreciate any feedback.
> Thanks.
>
>


I would suggest to use Folder Redirection and Offline Files. This way the
data is always available locally cached until the DFS services or share is
available.

--
Ace

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Ace Fekay, MCT, MCITP EA, MCTS Windows 2008 & Exchange 2007, MCSE & MCSA
2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
Microsoft Certified Trainer

For urgent issues, please contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please check
http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.

DaveMills wrote:
> On Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:16:47 +0900, "Barkley Bees" <> wrote:
>
>> We recently performed some planned weekend maintenance which required us to
>> shut down our DFS file servers (among others) that we use to host users home
>> folders (we have configured in AD). As we only started using the home folder
>> feature this year we had yet to experience this but when the file servers
>> were shutdown we noticed that domain logons would hang indefinitely.
>>
>> It took a good 5 minutes for me to realize what was happening but when I
>> disabled the home folder setting on my normal user account and was then able
>> to log on that made it pretty clear.
>>
>> What I'm trying to figure out now is if there is any group policy or
>> registry setting that will allow the log on process to skip the home folder
>> step (timeout) if the DFS share is not available for whatever reason. As it
>> stands now, the DFS servers are a single point of failure for user logons
>> which is not a good thing. Appreciate any feedback. Thanks.
>
> I use DFS homed home folders and have never seen the logon hang indefinitely.
> The mapped drive is simply not mapped. You may have some other issue at work
> here.
>
>

I agree. If a mapped resource is not available, I've seen it
significantly delay logons but never completely hang the system...

--

Regards,
Hank Arnold
Microsoft MVP
Windows Server - Directory Services
http://mypcassistant.blogspot.com/