I am working on migrating redirected folders in our environment from referencing a specific server to instead using DFS, in order to simplify future server migrations. I'm using a Group policy to redirect folders to different locations based on group membership.
I have the new DFS path all set up, pointing to the existing server, so the location of the users folders is available through either path (\\Servername\Users\Username or \\domain\DFSNamespace\users\username). The problem is making the actual change.
Up until this change, I had the 'Move the contents of {folder} to the new location' selected so that when new users are created, anything in the folders (nothing except some default sample files in general) is moved and extra folders don't remain (With the setting deselected, when a new user logs in for the first time, the folders are properly redirected, however, empty duplicate folders are left behind that are part of their profile). With this setting deselected, changing the policy changes the location successfully upon next logon.
If I leave that value selected and change the location, however, the folder being changed gets deleted upon next logon, and then the following logon, a new, empty folder is created.
The other challenge is that if the original location is not accessible, the redirection will fail, so I can't remove the original share and just point everyone to the new location, and if I make the change to the policy with the 'Move the contents' option deselected and then remove the original share, if someone that hasn't logged in for quite some time logs in, their redirection won't work.
Is there any way to change from the server reference to DFS, while retaining the 'Move the contents' setting and not having it delete the folder on login?