How It Works

The following steps describe how MetaProfiles-IT simulates the behavior of roaming profiles during user logon and logoff.

• User accounts are reconfigured to use a (small-size) mandatory profile. This mandatory profile is typically stored locally on each Terminal Server.
• One or more file servers are designated as “Storage Servers” for the purpose of storing user data sets (subset of HKCU and non-redirected shell folders.
• These file servers run a very low-overhead service dubbed the MetaProfiles-IT Storage Service.
• All Terminal Servers must run the MetaProfiles-IT Agent Service. A Terminal Server running the Agent Service is typically referred to as an Agent Server.
• Using the Provision Management Console (PMC), the administrator specifies all the relevant HKCU sub-keys and (non-redirected) special folders that must persist from one logon to the next. Additional properties are also set to specify whether a sub-key or folder is “global” (applies to any Terminal Server) or “group-specific” (specific to a server farm or server silo in the farm)
• When a user logs off, the MetaProfiles-IT Agent Service exports all the relevant sub-keys and folders specified by the administrator. The Agent
• Service then compresses the exported data and sends 1 or 2 compressed files (global, group-specific, or both) to the Storage Server.
• When a user logs on again, the Agent Service requests his/her previously exported data from the Storage Server. It then decompresses the data and merges the sub-keys and folders into the mandatory profile.
• Compressed files are stored on the Storage Server and named according to the user’s account SID.
• The entire process (import or export) typically completes within 1 or 2 seconds.

Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the logoff and logon processes.

Figure 1 – The logoff process: when a user logs off, the MetaProfiles-IT Agent Service exports all the relevant sub-keys and folders specified by the administrator. The Agent Service then compresses the exported data and sends 1 or 2 compressed files (global, group-specific, or both) to the Storage Server.

Figure 2 – Logon process: when a user logs on, the Agent Service requests his/her previously exported data from the Storage Server. It then decompresses the data and merges the sub-keys and folders into the mandatory profile

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Agent Server Groups

A Server Agent Group is a logical grouping of Terminal Servers having a common role or purpose (figure 3). A logical group of servers is commonly referred to as “silo”. Exportable registry sub-keys and shell folders can be marked by MetaProfiles-IT as global or group-specific. For example, if Microsoft Office is only installed on a handful of Terminal Servers in the farm (i.e., ts1, ts2, and ts3), then it makes sense to only import and export the registry sub-key HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office when users access those servers. In this case, these servers should be logically grouped together into a single Server Agent Group (i.e., ASG1), and the “Microsoft Office” registry sub-key should be marked “group-specific”, that is, specific to ASG1.

On the other hand, if Adobe Acrobat Reader is installed on all the Terminal Servers, then it makes sense to always import and export the registry sub-key HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader. In this case, the “Adobe Acrobat Reader” registry key is marked “global”.

Figure 4 illustrates how group-specific and global data are managed using the Provision Management Console (PMC). Figure 5 demonstrates the details of group-specific and global data subsets.

Figure 3 – An Agent Server Group can be configured in a few easy steps.

Figure 4 – Logon process: when a user logs on, the Agent Service requests his/her previously exported data from the Storage Server. It then decompresses the data and merges the sub-keys and folders into the mandatory profile

   
Figure 5 – Data subsets can be configured in a few easy steps.

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Storage Servers

A MetaProfiles-IT Storage Server is a Windows file server running the MetaProfiles-IT Storage Service. This service receives and stores the user’s compressed data subset from the Agent Service when the user logs off. Likewise, it retrieves the user’s compressed data subset and sends it to the Agent Service when the user logs on. Compared to the overhead of a file server managing multi-megabyte user profiles, the overhead of the Storage Service is very low since MetaProfiles data subsets are typically in the range of 50 to 200 KB per user.

Figure 6 illustrates the process of configuring a Storage Server. The steps to add a Storage Server using the Provision Management Framework (PMC) are:

• Specify the name of the target Storage Server
• Specify the name of the “base” folder
• Specify the name of the “global” folder relative to the base folder
• Specify the TCP port on which the Storage Service will listen for Agent Service requests

Figure 6 – A Storage Server is configured in a few easy steps.

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