Hi, everyone. I’m Jane Yan, a PM on the Work Folders team. I presented a session on Work Folders with Adam Skewgar, and demoed how it works both on the client and server (A Deep Dive into the New Windows Server Data Sync Solution). This blog post will show you step by step on how to build the demo environment shown in the sessions. Please note the guide is using the Preview release build, and the experience will differ slightly in the final RTM release.

Overview

Work Folders is a new feature introduced in Windows Server 2012 R2 that enables user access their work related files on the devices which has configured Work Folders, no matter whether the devices are joined to a domain or not, and whether the devices are connected directly to the corpnet or over the internet. Work Folders is available in Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview, and Windows 8.1 Preview. This step by step guide will use the Preview release for both server and the client.

Topology

The simplest setup for lab test of Work Folders requires the following computers or VMs:

1. Active Directory Domain Services domain controller (DC)
2. File server running Windows Server 2012 R2
3. 2 client PCs running Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1 (to observe documents sync between 2 devices)

In the lab testing, VMs are more convenient, I’ll provide the end to end setup using VMs . This test environment does not require you to publish any URLs for Work Folders.

Express lane

This section provides you a checklist on how to setup the lab environment, detailed procedures are covered in the later sections.

• Setting up VMs with a domain controller, a server and 2 clients: VM setup
• Create domain users and a security group: User and Security group creation
• Setup the sync server and create sync share: Sync Server configuration
• Setup Work Folders on client: Client setup
• See how it works: Sync in action

VM setup

This section assumes you have knowledge on setting up VMs, domain controller, and a virtual network. By end of this section, you will have a domain setup with the server and one client machine joining to the domain.

Configure Network

In the Hyper-V Manager console, create a Virtual Switch marked as Private.

Configure the VMs to use the Private network.

DC setup

1. Create a VM using Windows Server 2012 R2
2. Rename the VM to DC.
3. Configure the IP of the server as 10.10.1.10
4. After the VM setup, open Server Manager, and then add the following roles:

• Active Directory Domain Services
• DHCP Server (Note: this role is optional. You can also configure static IP for each VM without enabling DHCP)
• DNS Server

• Use the wizard to create a new forest as “Contoso.com”, and configure the DC appropriately.
• Add a new scope in DHCP, such that other machines on the network can get IP address automatically. Make sure all the machines are on the same subnet, and pointing to 10.10.1.10 as the DNS server. Note: this is optional, you can also manually configure other machines with static IP.

Server setup

1. Create a VM using Windows Server 2012 R2.
2. Rename the VM to SyncSvr.
3. Join the SyncSvr machine to the domain Contoso.com
4. Optionally, if you use static Ip, configure the Ip on this server as 10.10.1.12

Client setup

1. Create 2 VMs using Windows 8.1
2. Rename VM1 to OfficePC
3. Optionally, if you use static Ip, configure the Ip on this client as 10.10.1.15
4. Rename VM2 to HomePC
5. Optionally, if you use static Ip, configure the Ip on this client as 10.10.1.16
6. Join OfficePC to the contoso.com domain.

User and Security group creation

Work Folders can be configured to domain users, you need to create a few test users in the AD. For testing purposes, let’s create 10 domain users (U1 to U10).

We recommend controlling access to Work Folders through security groups. Let’s create[n1] one group named “Sales”, with scope “Global” and type “Security”, and add the 10 domain users (U1 to U10) in the Sales security group.

Sync Server configuration

Now the fun starts. For all the operations performed on the server, I’ll show the UI through Server Manager, and followed by the equivalent Windows PowerShell cmdlet.

Enabling the Work Folders role

Using Server Manager UI

1. Launch the Server Manager on SyncSvr.
2. On the dashboard, click “Add roles and features”.
3. Follow the wizard, on the Server Role selection page, choose Work Folders under File and Storage Services:

1. Complete the wizard.

Using PowerShell cmdlet

PS C:\> Add-WindowsFeature FS-SyncShareService

Create Sync Share

Using Server Manager UI

A sync share is the unit of management on the sync servers. A sync share maps to a local path where all the user folders will be hosted under, and a group of users who can access the sync share.

Using PowerShell cmdlet

PS C:\>New-SyncShare SalesShare –path C:\SalesShare –User Contoso\Sales -RequireEncryption $true –RequirePasswordAutoLock $true

Enable SMB access

If you want to enable the sync share for SMB access, you can open the Windows Explorer, and navigate to the “This PC” location. Right click on the “SalesShare” folder, and select “Share with” -> “Specific people”. Add Contoso\Sales and change the permission level to “Read/Write”, as shown below:

Complete the UI by clicking on “Share” button.

Now user can also access the dataset through UNC path.

Once the server is enabled for SMB access, server will check for data changes every 5 minutes by default. You can change the enumeration time by running the following cmdlet on the server:

PS C:\> Set-SyncServerSetting -MinimumChangeDetectionMins <NumberInMinutes>

It increases the server load each time the server enumerates files to detect changes, on the other hand, the changes done locally on the server or through SMB can only be detected at each enumeration time. It is a balance act to tolerate change detection delay and the load server can handle. Enumeration gets more expensive as the number of files increases under the user folder. If you want to decrease the setting, make sure you test it on the server in your environment first. We are currently evaluating the enumeration performance, and will post guidance in the area later. If you don’t want users to change files directly on the server or through SMB or NFS, you should consider disable running ChangeDetection on the server.

Client setup

Since we prepared 2 VMs as the client machines, you will need to repeat the following setup on both client machines.

Lab testing specific settings

Caution: The following regkey settings are only for lab testing, and should not be configured in production environment.

1. Allow unsecure connection

By default, client always connect to the server using SSL, which requires the server to have SSL certificate installed and configured. In lab testing, you can configure the client to use http by running the following command on the client:

Reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WorkFolders /v AllowUnsecureConnection /t REG_DWORD /d 1

Running unsecure connection is not recommended, and a follow up post will illustrate the procedures to configure certificate on the server.

1. Converting from Email address to Server Url

When user enters the email address, such as Jane@contoso.com, the client will construct the Url as https://WorkFolders.contoso.com, and use that Url to communicate with the server. In production environment, you will need to publish the Url for the client to communicate to the server through reverse proxy. In testing, we’ll bypass the Url publication by configure the following regkey:

Reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WorkFolders /v ServerUrl /t REG_SZ /d http://syncSvr.contoso.com

With this key set, the client will bypass the email address user entered, and use the Url in the regkey to establish the sync partnership.

Also note that, this key will not be present in the RTM release.

WorkFolders setup

Once you have configured both client machines, user can access the documents under the Work Folders location from any devices, and the documents will be kept in sync by Work Folders.

Sync in action

To test Work Folders, create a document (using Notepad or any other app) on one of the client machines and save the document under the Work Folders location, also, create a document on the other client machine, save it under the Work Folders. In a few moments, you should see the document get synced on both client machines.

In Preview build, the client will sync with the server if there is any changes locally under the Work Folder, and when the client connects to the server, the server will also notify the client for any changes on the server. If client doesn’t have anything changed locally on the client, it will connect to the server every 10 minutes asking for any changes on the server. You can trigger a sync action by creating or modifying a file on the device under the Work Folders.

Since the sync location was also enabled with SMB access, user can also view the data on computers without Work Folders by typing the UNC path in the explorer:

Conclusion

I hope this blog post helps you get started with Work Folders in your test labs. If you have questions not covered here, please raise it in the comments so that I can address it with upcoming postings. Also, there are some resources on this topic you will find helpful:

Powershell cmdlets references: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn296644(v=wps.630).aspx

- Jane