How is "correct" migrate redirected folders from 2003 to 2008 R2?

Question

Microsoft

Greetings. Googled a lot of good advice from a bunch of users who migrated six to ten folders from one server to another. But none of them had real experience. And so, the problem:

There is a server with a domain controller. Spinning on Windows 2003 (Server1). Will soon go to waste.
On the same server there is a Users$ folder to which user profiles are redirected. A folder with a name has been created for each user and it contains the Desktop and My Documents folders. Also, a good-natured whistle-blower called Spark poops its multi-megabyte logs into the /Spark folder.

Two new servers for 2008 R2 have appeared. One of them became the domain controller (Server2) and the second was given the fate of the file server (Server3).

And so, I have about 1500 user profiles. The advantage is that each of them contains not so many documents, mostly a few Excel Words. The total size of the folder with users does not exceed 45 gigs. But, if I do something with redirecting users or with rights and ACLs, then I will then rake all this tinsel for a long and painful time.

I need to move GPO redirected folders from Server1 to Server3.

According to Google, the problem was solved like this -
1) disable redirection
2) xcopy all files with ACLs
3) enable redirection to a new server

Everything would be fine, but the Desktop and My Documents folders do not belong to the domain administrator. I can't get into them! This means that no matter how I tweak the robocopy settings, I can't move these folders. And I have not yet figured out how to climb into the settings.

+ I tried it myself of course - the domain administrator cannot get into these folders. The owner of the folder is the user himself.

Interestingly, the /Spark folder is configured in a different way and simply distributes its files to everyone it meets.

The question is how to correctly rewrite ACLs on these folders without ruining the entire system and how to move them from server 1 to server 3 correctly?

Answer 1

I would try:
1. create a test user with the same settings, throw documents there a la work ...
2. Make a backup 2003 ntbackup of this directory for all users. and unpack to a new location.
3. Create a new redirect policy to the orgunit in which the test user will live separately.
4. Update the gpupdate /force policies on the CD, servers, machine from which the test user will log in.
5. log in as a test user, check if everything is ok.
6. move a couple of working users to a new OU.
7. update the policies on their machines and go under them.
If everything works, put out all users' machines one weekend to close the balls, update the policy for all users and clean up the jambs on Monday morning, if any.

Answer 2

Migrate the folders using the File Server Migration Toolkit:
www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=10268

Answer 3

And I would make DFS and set up synchronization between Server1 and Server3
Further choice: disable synchronization and change the path to a new server or disable Server1 and leave DFS, make the redirect path look like \\contoso.com\userfiles\Desktop