RDS > Office 365 > Outlook 2016 = Profile nightmares

glenimp617

glenimp617

glenimp617

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Hi all,

Just wondering how you guys are handling your outlook profiles on an RDS session. Currently our RDS servers delete all local profiles each night to save disk space. We have thousands of users logging in, and since everything is folder redirected it works well for us.

That said, outlook does not use appdata roaming so every morning users are having to click next, next, finish before getting their emails. Autodiscover is enabled so they don't have to do anything complicated, but it's still a pain.

Now we have moved to Office 365 PRF files is a huge no no due to MS cloud clustering so we are a bit stuck as to what we should do.

Just for info, we are on RDS 2008 R2 :mad: which is as everyone knows a bit rubbish but will be moving to Server 2016 asap for it. Then I guess we can start using the new user virtualization stuff, but for today we have what we have :D

Thanks
 
Simplest solution would be to change the default location used for outlook's OSTs. Change this to a redirected folder (ie, a subfolder of the user documents) and see how that gets on with it.
 
glen8 said:
Just for info, we are on RDS 2008 R2 :mad: which is as everyone knows a bit rubbish but will be moving to Server 2016 asap for it. Then I guess we can start using the new user virtualization stuff, but for today we have what we have
Click to expand...
What is this new user virtualisation stuff you speak of?
 
I haven't had any experience with RDS but can you set user registry keys upon logon?

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Autodiscover
Value name ZeroConfigExchange
Value type REG_DWORD
Value data 0x1 (1)

I use the above in group policy, it skips all the initial configuration questions if autodiscover is working correctly.

You may need to use the office customisation tool as well to setup a profile, I'm not sure. Apologies, no I've RDS experience :)
 
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Can you not create a group policy for the RDS servers that force the mail profile so that cached mode is not enabled?

May not be an option though and it can cause some slow downs every now and then. We use this method on our RDS/Citrix servers without any issues.
 
I've been through the mill with effin O365 and RDS.

Simply put the only mode supported by Microsoft for O365 Exchange online on RD servers is On-line Mode (non-cached). This makes Outlook slow and laggy and a source of constant frustration to users.

I had attempted to implement cached mode by using a dedicated File server to host redirected OSTs for cached mode, it works, is quick, but there are big issues, and of course is not supported by Microsoft.

Apart from the Massive space requirements for the OSTs in cached mode, searching becomes a big big problem. In a normal Exchange environment, and on 0365 online mode, all searching is performed against the Exchange Server, it is quick and it works well.

In cached mode, the terminal/remote desktop server itself must index every OST and use this to run searches against. It takes days to populate with many users, cripples the System, and gets completely messed up if using a RDS farm (or session collection I think they call them now). In the end the completed search index database can take up around 50% of the size of the OSTs.

My happy medium (so far) is using a 1 or 3 month cached mode (absolutely not supported for O365 at all by Microsoft, even on normal desktops) Which allows for a smaller footprint and indexing performance hit, improving the laggyness of Outlook, while still giving access to larger searches on the O365 servers if need be.

In short O365 Exchange online on RD servers is a disaster for end-users and Admins alike. We are seriously considering migrating back to On-site exchange.

Nate
 
This is the screen I want rid off

IIRC, autodiscover happens after this screen and creating an outlook profile using the ORK doesn't support Office365 due to the way MS uses cloud server redundancy

j9836a.jpg
 
Nate--IRL-- said:
Don't delete the profile and use on-line or 1 month cached mode.

Nate
Click to expand...

Can't do that as these RDS servers have hundreds of users logging in which over a few days fills the disks

Here's an idea.......link all RDS servers to our SAN and provision a LUN called "RDSProfiles". Mount c:\profiles to the LUN on all servers and GPO the location of profiles to c:\profiles.
That way the local RDS disks won't fill up, all profiles are the same across the RDS farm, logins will by fast and nobody will ever have to keep creating outlook profiles.
 
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glen8 said:
Can't do that as these RDS servers have hundreds of users logging in which over a few days fills the disks

Here's an idea.......link all RDS servers to our SAN and provision a LUN called "RDSProfiles". Mount c:\profiles to the LUN on all servers and GPO the location of profiles to c:\profiles.
That way the local RDS disks won't fill up, all profiles are the same across the RDS farm, logins will by fast and nobody will ever have to keep creating outlook profiles.
Click to expand...

Yep that will work, I basically did long winded version of that and gave the redirected OSTs their own file server. Note that for Large OSTs, searches will take minutes instead of seconds, unless you've installed windows search on the RDS servers.

I'd still go for non-cached mode however.

Nate
 
Why don't you have roaming profiles for your RDS environment? If most folders are redirected these profiles won't be very big, ~50MB. This isn't really any different to Citrix UPM.
 
RichIbizaSport said:
Office Customisation Tool on the Outlook install?

Again, I don't know if it's possible with RDS but OCT can skip that start screen.
Click to expand...

IIRC, it only skips that screen when you specify a server name. Office365 is unable to do that as you have to use the autodiscovery record. Using that means you need to click next a couple of times.
 
glen8 said:
IIRC, it only skips that screen when you specify a server name. Office365 is unable to do that as you have to use the autodiscovery record. Using that means you need to click next a couple of times.
Click to expand...

Did you read up on the reg key I posted earlier? ZeroConfigExchange

I can't remember exactly, I think it's a combination of the two, I'm running 365 in my office and there's no config of outlook what so ever now.
 
When you do come to setup user profile disks ensure you allow for profile growth. We've seen a lot hit the 10GB limit because of OST files and silly people with iTunes and Dropbox. This limit can be changed but it's a pain if using UPD so it's best to configure them before hand.
 
RichIbizaSport said:
Did you read up on the reg key I posted earlier? ZeroConfigExchange

I can't remember exactly, I think it's a combination of the two, I'm running 365 in my office and there's no config of outlook what so ever now.
Click to expand...

I've no idea why, but totally missed your post :eek:

Will look into it this morning as looks ideal. Thanks :D
 
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