Question : Can I replace a dead file server with a new one by adding the dead servers name to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\<wbr />CurrentCon<wbr />trolSet\Se<wbr />rvices\lan<wbr />manserver\<wbr />parameters<wbr />\optionaln&

I had a Windows Server 2003 file server named "nrlnas" die this week.  I had policies in place to redirect each users My Documents and Desktop folders to a share on the dead server.  Each user had Offline Files enabled and their entire My Documents and Desktop files cached locally on their machine.  I did this so that if the file server ever were to die or become unavailable they could have all their files available to them.  Well the server died and now I have a new one in place names "nrlnas2".  Here is what I would like to do:
1. Using CSCCMD v1.1 extract each users files from their local machine to the new server (Each machine is running Windows XP Pro)
2. Keep the policy currently in place that redirects each user to \\nrlnas\data\%username%\My Documents
3. Create a share on the new server (nrlnas2) named: \\nrlnas2\data
4. Add each users My Documents to the new server share so that it looks like \\nrlnas2\data\%username%\My Documents.
5. Add "nrlnas" to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters\OptionalNames on the new server so that you can also access the new share with \\nrlnas\data

My hope is that each individual's machine with think that the dead server nrlnas is back up and running and their offline files cache database will resume synchronization with the new server just as if it were the old server.  Will this work? Or will I have to create a new policy to redirect each user's My Documents to the new server, then reinitialize the offline cache database on each user's machine?

Unfortunately I don't have the time or luxury of setting up a test environment to try this out in, and I don't want to add the OptionalNames key until I have a better understanding of what will happen.  Has anyone ever tried this before?

Thanks for your time in considering my question!

Answer : Can I replace a dead file server with a new one by adding the dead servers name to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\<wbr />CurrentCon<wbr />trolSet\Se<wbr />rvices\lan<wbr />manserver\<wbr />parameters<wbr />\optionaln&

Sorry it took so long to get back to you on this one.  I wanted to make sure I had complete and up to date backups of each user's data before I tried the suggested solution.

I followed the procedure step by step but it did not work.  The offline files in Windows XP showed that the server was available for reconnect, but when I tried to reconnect and perform a synchronization, it failed with the message "The target account name is incorrect".  I did some searching on EE and on google and I believe this is somehow related to the SID of the new server not matching the SID of the dead server.  My understanding is that if these don't match, the offline files cache on the client machine will not sync with the files of the file server even though the name of the server, the name of the share, and the file structure and permissions are identical.

I ended up setting up a new redirection policy for each user to the new server, reinitializing the cache database on each user's computer, and then synchronizing the new cache database with the new server.

Lesson learned: if you have are using offline files, make sure you have an image of your file server that you can restore if you want to have the clients offline files cache to pick up where it left off after a server crash.

Thank you guys for your efforts.