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Citrix Presentation Server FAQ

FAQ DATASHEET

Profile Management

Frequently Asked Questions

Table of Contents

GENERAL QUESTIONS ..................................................................................2

USER’S PROFILE AND SETTINGS .................................................................. 4

SERVICE INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION .......................................... 6

ASSIGNING PROFILES ................................................................................. 9

MIGRATING PROFILES ................................................................................ 10

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FAQ DATASHEET

GENERAL QUESTIONS

How does Profile management work?

During logon, the Profile management service manages the user settings in a Citrix user profile. Upon logoff, it merges back only changed user settings to the centrally stored user settings (user‘s store). Profile management is able to ensure the deltas are tracked correctly and that designated settings are saved based on the latest change only. A more in depth overview of Citrix Profile management is located here: http://community.citrix.com/x/AoEAAg

Are any changes required with profiles or on the file share?

The users must have write access to their centrally stored profile location. It is best to

use the existing user‘s home directory since permissions are already set correctly. But

any UNC path may be defined as long as it uniquely and correctly resolves for every

user.

Since the Profile management service runs before the user logs on, only system

environment variables and AD attributes may be used. There are two user environment

variables that are allowed by exception. These are %USERNAME% and

%USERDOMAIN%. Basically, any variable that is set before a user logs onto a system

may be leveraged in the configuration.

When do the profile keys get written back to the user’s central store?

Deltas to the user‘s profile are written back to the user‘s central store during logoff.

The HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry settings are scanned and only the deltas are

merged back to the NTUSER.DAT within the user‘s central store. Any changes in the

file or folders that have been configured to be captured are copied back to the user‘s

central store.

Does last writer win?

Last writer wins is prevented when it comes to the entire registry hive. Only the last

write to defined files, folders, or registry keys win. Profile management is able to detect

deltas and thus ensure that only the defined settings are overwritten. Compare this with

roaming profiles wherein the entire profile is overwritten and thus the last write wins.

Please see this blog for more in depth details:

http://community.citrix.com/x/OIENAg

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How does Profile management improve logon/logoff performance?

Profile management is capable of reducing user logon time by enabling administrators

to exclude (and include) certain files and folders in order to prevent extraneous settings

from needlessly being copied with the profile. For example, some applications may

create folders and files that account for tens or hundreds of megabytes—data that is

really not required. By excluding these items, the profile is thus smaller, and smaller

profiles load faster. Alternatively, you could elect to only include specific files and

folders, thus keeping to a minimum the amount of profile data being managed within

the user‘s profile.

There are a couple blogs on this topic:

Profile Bloat: http://community.citrix.com/x/A4AaAg

Improve logon speed: http://community.citrix.com/x/HYXuAg

How does Profile management address profile bloat?

As described in the previous question, Profile management enables administrators to exclude (and include) certain files and folders in order to prevent extraneous settings from needlessly being copied with the profile. For example, some applications may create folders and files in the ‗Application Data‘ profile folder that account for tens or hundreds of megabytes, which are excess baggage. By excluding these files and folders, it minimizes the extra data being stored in a profile. Please refer to this blog for more in depth discussion on Profile Bloat: http://community.citrix.com/x/A4AaAg

Why do folders I’ve excluded still show up in the user’s store?

A more accurate description of the exclusion capability would have been ‗contents

exclusion‘ list. Essentially any folders on the exclusion list will have the contents

excluded but the folder structure will still be created in the user store.

Is profile corruption reduced or managed better?

Often profile corruption occurs from an application improperly creating or writing

settings, which is often referred to as profile inconsistency. Less likely to occur is

corruption as the result of a network connectivity error – which in most cases the OS

manages and recovers properly. Corruption exposure of this nature is reduced by

minimizing the amount of data that is copied and also limiting the extent of damage to

specific data if corruption occurs.

Please refer to this blog for more in depth discussion on profile corruption vs.

inconsistency: http://blogs.sepago.de/helge/2008/07/02/corrupt-user-profiles-do-

they-even-exist/

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User’s Profile and Settings

Where are the user’s profile settings and files stored?

The user‘s profile settings can be stored either on an administratively defined UNC path

or a path relative to the user‘s home directory. By default, the folder created in the

%HOMESHARE% directory is named Windows but can be any name as defined in the

configuration.

In both cases, it may include as part of the path variables such as %USERNAME% and

%USERDOMAIN%. The user needs write access to this folder. Within this path or

folder, there is at least one subfolder named UPM_Profile which contains the user‘s

profile data.

When using the extended synchronization capability (please refer to Admin Guide for

details), each drive letter will have an additional folder which follows the naming

schemata UPM_Drive_<DriveLetter> (e.g. UPM_Drive_E for E:\).

Please make note that since the Profile management service must know its configuration before the user logs on, only system environment variables and AD attributes may be used. There are two user environment variables that are allowed by exception. These are %USERNAME% and %USERDOMAIN%. Basically any variable that is set before a user logs onto a system may be leveraged in the configuration.

How does folder redirection work with Profile management?

Folder Redirection is automatically recognized and Profile management will not sync

those folders and files. Folder redirection is recommended to ensure that user data

stored in those folders is segregated.

How does the files and folder synchronization functionality work?

During a session, Profile management monitors files/folders via the NTFS change

journal. Any changes are recorded internally. During logoff, a sophisticated algorithm

recognizes these deltas and performs only the required actions over the network.

Examples: If a file/folder was renamed during a session, it will not be copied again

during logoff. Instead, the file or folder on the network will simply be renamed.

If the attributes of a file/folder were changed, only the changed attributes are set during

logoff.

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If the content of a file was changed, the file will be copied during logoff.

How are the changes to files and folders tracked during the user’s session?

Profile management monitors the NTFS change journal. In order to be able to resolve

relative file names to the absolute paths, the file system has to be scanned once, which

takes typically 10-20 seconds. In order to avoid scanning during every subsequent

startup, a cache file is used. It is called UserProfileManager_<DriveLetter>.cache and is

located in the installation directory.

It's possible that there are environments where the system is not allowed to write to this

directory or the admin does not want software to write to this location and therefore

you can change the location by group policy.

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FAQ DATASHEET

Service Installation and Configuration

Where should the Profile management service be installed?

The MSI package contains the service and supporting DLLs. This package should be

installed on any machine that will process the user‘s logon, such as the XenDesktop

virtual machines and XenApp servers.

Which OS and profile versions are supported?

Currently Windows XP, Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 (including

R2) and Windows 7 are supported. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are known

as v1 profiles while Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 are referred to as v2

profiles (profile folder names are usually ended in .v2). The operating system does not

allow these profile versions to be shared across platforms.

Please refer to this FAQ for more details around cross platform support.

How does the service retrieve its settings?

The service checks the GPO settings first, then secondarily the INI within the same

folder (where the service was installed) and then resorts to internal defaults. The INI

file exists in the same directory as the service executable (default location is \Program

Files\Citrix\User Profile Manager\).

Any setting that is not configured via group policy object will be looked up in the INI

file e.g. if it is ‗Not Configured‘ in GPO and there is an entry in the INI, it will use the

INI. If neither the GPO nor INI exists, the service will use its internal defaults. Please

note that in most customer scenarios, the INI file is not used to configure settings.

What are the internal default settings?

By default, if no policy settings are configured, the configuration is read from the INI

file that corresponds to the local system‘s language and version.

Example: UPMPolicyDefaults_V1Profile_en.ini for an English XP/Server 2003 system.

The INI file contains default settings that should work in most environments with

minimal modifications (e.g. enable the service). Profile management will save / restore

the user‘s registry settings and files/folders inside the profile. Some

files/folders/registry keys that typically do not contain relevant data are excluded by

default.

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If policy settings are not configured and an INI file is not present, Profile management

will synchronize the whole HKCU hive from the registry and everything in the user

profile.

Are local policies supported?

Yes. Although they present a similar challenge to INIs in having to centrally manage

their deployment. Also be aware that local policies carry the least precedence when

multiple policies apply. Please refer to this Microsoft article on precedence.

When will the service use the INI setting versus the GPO?

Using the Profile management group policy template, you can specify the exact

behavior of Profile management and adapt it to your environment. This is how most

customers configure Profile management.

The INI files settings will be used for any list setting not explicitly set (e.g. Enabled or

Disabled) in the GPO. When using group policy to configure Profile management, it is

recommended to rename the INI files (e.g. UPMPolicyDefaults_V1Profile_en.OLD) to

ensure the INI file settings are not unintentionally applied.

All settings will be read from the INI file if not configured via policy.

Is the installed service able to be cloned as part of a base image?

Yes. For example, Citrix Provisioning Services has successfully been tested.

Although I have activated the debug mode, not all of the information seems to be written into the log file.

Activating the debug mode does not automatically enable full logging. Verify the

checkboxes for all events you want to be logged in the configuration. Please note to

scroll down to enable the couple checkboxes that are below the horizontal scroll area.

I have changed an option in the GPO for Profile management but this setting does not seem to be operative on the computer.

Group policies are not refreshed immediately but instead based on specific events or

intervals. If you want them to be refreshed immediately, run gpupdate on the computer.

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I'm using "Folder Redirection" with my roaming profiles already. What do I have to consider when using Profile management?

You can easily combine Folder Redirection from the operating system with Profile

management‘s folder synchronization. If folders are redirected, Profile management

will ignore them. . In fact, Citrix recommends using folder redirection to ensure that

type of user data is segregated from the profile.

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FAQ DATASHEET

Assigning Profiles

What are the methods to assign a profile to a user?

Leaving Profile management aside for a moment, Microsoft enables users to be assigned

profiles numerous ways. Either via their User Account Properties in Active Directory,

through Group Policy and even Terminal Service specific profiles (again through the

User Account Properties or Group Policy). Some methods are only available for a

specific type of operating system.

TS PROFILE: The GPO setting for assigning a Terminal Server profile is located in

‗Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Terminal

Services (Set path for TS Roaming Profiles)‘.

You may use the ‗Use mandatory profiles on the terminal server‘ to force mandatory

profile usage

The Terminal Server profile setting can also be set on individual accounts within the

User Account Properties pages within Active Directory e.g. configured on an individual

user basis. Typically it is much better to make this assignment via group policy.

Windows XP and Vista: The user‘s roaming profile setting can be set on individual

accounts within the User Account Properties pages. Additionally Windows Server 2008

Active Directory and Vista devices,, a GPO settings based on computers may be used.

This GPO setting is located at ‗Computer/Admin Templates/System/User Profile (Set

roaming profile path for all users logging onto this computer)‘.

What is the priority order for settings profiles for domain users if more than one method is used?

When Profile management is used to manage a user‘s profile, it will take precedence

over any other profile assignment. For users not assigned to Profile management, the

user may be assigned a profile using multiple methods. The actually profile that will be

used is based on the following precedence order:

Profile management profile

Terminal Services profile – GPO

Terminal Services profile – User Property

Roaming profile – GPO (only Windows 2008 AD and Vista)

Roaming profile – User Property

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FAQ DATASHEET

Migrating Profiles

Will Profile management migrate my user’s profile to a Citrix user profile?

Profile management may be configured to automatically migrate existing roaming and

local profiles when the user logs on. You can also use a template profile or even the

default windows profile to create new Citrix user profiles. This behavior is part of the

configuration either using the INI file or GPO. Migrating mandatory profiles or even

the default windows profile by means of the template profile will be discussed below.

The document UserProfileManagerLogonLogoffChart.pdf can assist you in planning

and setting up your Profile management migration scenario(s).

Which profiles may be migrated to Profile management?

Profile management is capable of migrating Local and Roaming profiles. Mandatory

Profiles (.man profiles) are ignored by Profile management. To ensure Profile

management works correctly, deactivate the assignment of mandatory profiles to all

users.

BUT you could still leverage your mandatory profile for creating new profiles via the

Template Profile capability in Profile management. The next question covers this

scenario. This is in a way, a route to migrate the existing mandatory profile as a basis in

creating all users‘ new profiles.

How do I use the template profile in Profile management?

Profile management allows you to specify a template profile to be used as a basis for the

creation of new Citrix user profiles. Typically, a user having a profile created for the first

time will have it based on the Default User profile of the Windows device they are

logging onto. While this may be ok, it also means any variations between the various

devices‘ Default User profiles will result in differences in the base profile created for

those users. Thus you can view the Template Profile capability as essentially a Global

Default User profile.

To use a template profile the following settings must be configured:

Enable the ―Template profile‖ Group Policy setting

Set ―Path to the template profile‖ to the roaming, local, or mandatory profile you want to use as a template (you will need to rename the NTUSER.MAN to NTUSER.DAT before using a mandatory for template)

Optionally, select the check boxes to override existing user profiles

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Ensure the template profile does not contain any user-specific data.

How do I use my existing Mandatory profile for creating new user profiles?

Profile management allows you to specify a template profile to be used as a basis for the

creation of new Citrix user profiles. To use your mandatory profiles as the template

profile the following settings must be configured:

Enable the ―Template profile‖ Group Policy setting

Set ―Path to the template profile‖ to the mandatory profile you want to use as a template (you will need to rename the NTUSER.MAN to NTUSER.DAT before using a mandatory for template)

Optionally, select the check boxes to override existing user profiles

Please make note that since you have to rename the NTUSER.MAN to

NTUSER.DAT, you cannot use the same location for both a mandatory and template

profile.

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