As part of our ongoing deep-dive series on MDOP 2013 R2, we are delighted to provide some more information on updates we have made to the synchronization methods in Microsoft User Experience Virtualization (UE-V) 2.0. These updates were driven in part by feature enhancement requests by our customers.
As a recap, UE-V allows you to synchronize your application and Windows settings across all your domain-joined devices. UE-V synchronizes users’ application and Windows settings using a simple shared folder. UE-V refers to this location as the settings storage location. For more details on UE-V 2.0 see the UE-V 2.0 Admin Guide.
One concept in UE-V is the sync method configuration, which defines how the UE-V Agent uploads those settings to the settings storage location. UE-V 2.0 introduces a new SyncMethod called the SyncProvider. The following table explains the changes from UE-V v1.0 to v2.0 as well as the available settings for the sync method:
SyncMethod Configuration | V1.0 | V2.0 | Description |
SyncProvider | NA | Default | Settings changes for a specific application or for global Windows desktop settings are saved locally to a cache folder. These changes are then synchronized to the settings storage location when a synchronization trigger event takes place. This default setting is recommended for computers that aren’t always connected to the enterprise network, laptops for example. This option attempts to synchronize the setting and times out after a short delay to ensure that the application or operating system startup isn’t delayed for a long period of time. This functionality is also tied to the Scheduled task – Sync Controller Application. The administrator controls the frequency of the Scheduled task. By default, computers synchronize their settings daily at 3am. |
OfflineFiles | Yes | Yes | Behaves the same as None in V2.0. Offline files feature must be enabled on the device to use this functionality. Then, instead of pointing to an SMB share, point the settings storage location to this local folder. NOTE: In v1.0 if you wanted to use UE-V in a CorpNet-disconnected manner (aka traveling with a laptop), then the guidance was to use Offline Files to ensure that your settings roamed. We received feedback that turning on Offline files is a non-trivial enterprise blocker. So in v2.0, we created a tightly coupled synchronization engine to cache your data locally and synchronize the settings to the central server. This feature area does not replace Offline Files or Folder Redirection. Furthermore, customers who want to continue using Offline files can continue to do so with the v2.0 release. |
None | Default | Yes | Any settings changes are saved directly to the server. If the network connection to the settings storage path is not available, then the settings changes are cached on the device and are synchronized the next time that the Sync Provider runs. If the settings storage path is not found and the user profile is removed from a pooled VDI environment on logoff, then these settings changes are lost, and the user must reapply the change when the computer can again reach the settings storage path. Application and Windows settings will wait indefinitely for the storage location to be available. This can cause application startup or Windows logon time to increase significantly if the location is not found. |
The sync method can be configured in the following ways:
- During installation of the UE-V Agent
- Using System Center Configuration Manger 2012
- Using Group Policy
- Using Windows PowerShell
Looking for more information on preparing your environment for UE-V and deploying UE-V? Visit the UE-V Zone on TechNet.
This blog post is part of a series of guest posts we’re publishing in the coming weeks on MDOP 2013 R2 – Ben
Ronald Dockery
Senior Product Marketing Manager
Windows Commercial