Offline Files with Windows 7

In the above posted technote it is decribed as follows:

" It is recommended that a complete backup of the registry and workstation be made prior to making any registry changes".

We had this done on an XP Workstation and it works.

My question is regarding Windows 7.

 

The warning is a standard message Symantec insert on all technotes that require the registry edited as part of a solution. The registry key you mention is for the Placeholder Service which is on the file server where the EV FSA Agent has been installed check the server registry and you shall see. The Windows 7 machine does not have a Placeholder Service so applying the registry keys RecallLimitMaxRecalls DWord = 20 and RecallLimitTimeInterval DWord = 10 Will have no effect it will only work on the file server where the Placeholder Service is installed The Placeholder Service on the file server monitors the amount of files recalled in a specific time period and when the thresholds of the RecallLimitMaxRecalls and RecallLimitTimeInterval is reached the Placeholder Service stops further recalls to prevent the Enterprise Vault servers performance from being hampered. If you want to test carry out a Dtrace on the file server Dtracing the Placeholder Service with the default values allow the Windows 7 machine to error then do a Dtrace with adjusted values As per technote http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH58325 You will need to restart the Placeholder Service when you change the registry values For them to take effect

I understand the confusion here but E-V is correct.  The registry changes should be made on the Windows File Server that is running the FSA Agent.  The issue is caused by the fact that a sync could exceed the max recalls allowed.  This limit is set on the file server not the client machine. 

I would also strongly advise you take note of the warning in the technote. Worse case scenario if the settings are too high and too many recalls take place is that the file server stop responding.

Please note that altering these settings will affect performance e.g. increasing the amount of recalls allowed will potentially increase the load on the Enterprise Vault Server, as an increased amount of data will be able to be recalled.

 

We had a client with exactily this issue.  They asked us to write a tool which copys the original files to there local disk using download.asp and not recall.

If this is something you would consider, let me know I can share more information with you.

 

Because it works, creating a registry key on XP like stated in the technote, this works. No change on the EV server. I do not know if this will be the same for Vista. As the technote says that is supported. You cannot locate the key on the workstation you need to create it; but apparently it works. When changing the recall limit values on the Ev server is the solution, I can accept this, but I ask myself which advantage should this have when only a few users use this feature and you enable it for everyone.

But nevertheless I thank you all for your ideas.

The sync problem was related to MS offline Files being recalled to the file server. The registry key will allow the recall without limitation to Placeholders. But the real solution is the activation of the pass-through recall for a Windows file server.  http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO49546

This will not recall the files to the server when a Offline Filles sync as per default and therefore no offline-sync problems to Users.

Is there anything else needed on this topic?  

 

For what it's worth I took the tool that Wayne mentioned for a quick spin, and it's great.  I used it for making a copy of a share containing a mixture of archived and non-archived files to my local machine for work I wanted to do 'offline'.  It woked a treat.