Profile Management 2103

Migrate user profiles

This article contains instructions on turning Citrix user profiles into Windows roaming profiles. It also describes how to remove Citrix user profiles from Personal vDisks (a Citrix Virtual Desktops feature) so Profile Management can process them.

For more information on migration strategies, see Upgrade and migrate.

To migrate to roaming profiles

You can migrate Citrix user profiles to Windows roaming profiles at any time. Move profile data to a network location where the roaming profiles are stored. After migration, Profile Management takes no part in processing user logons or application settings.

  1. Ensure that all users are logged off.
  2. Remove the Profile Management Service from all computers that are managed by the software.
  3. In the user store, move the contents of \UPM_Profile to your roaming profile location. You do not have to move the contents of the cross-platform settings store.
  4. In addition, for Version 1 profiles only, remove the _upm_var suffix from all subfolders of \UPM_Profile. Note: You might find that scripting simplifies this step.

To migrate from personal vDisks

If you use the Personal vDisk feature in Citrix Virtual Desktops, by default user profiles are stored on the Personal vDisk’s P: drive not the virtual desktop’s C: drive. If instead you want Citrix Profile Management (not the Personal vDisk) to process the profiles, you adjust this default when installing the Virtual Delivery Agent by modifying the Registry on the master image used for a new catalog. In this scenario, because the catalog is new, no users have logged on, so no profiles are stored on the P: drive.

Important: An alternative scenario occurs if you enable Profile Management on machines in existing catalogs with Personal vDisks. Because the catalog is already in use, logons have taken place and profiles are present on the P: drive. The profiles remain there after you modify the Registry. Therefore adjust the default differently.

Issues that indicate the presence of profiles on P: drives while Profile Management is enabled include users having to reset their wallpaper, having to reconfigure their applications, or receiving temporary profiles.

Follow these instructions to adjust the default in this alternative scenario.

  1. Schedule a maintenance downtime for the virtual machines whose profiles you want to migrate.

  2. Create a startup script (or edit your existing script). Include a command to run Delprof.exe, a profile deletion tool for Windows XP from Microsoft, or Delprof2.exe. a similar tool for later operating systems from Sepago. Follow the run command by a shutdown command:

    pre codeblock \\<share name>\delprof.exe /q /i shutdown /s /t 0 <!--NeedCopy-->

    You can download Delprof.exe from the Microsoft website. For information on this tool, see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5405.

  3. On the master image, change the following Registry setting from 1 to 0:

    Caution: Editing the registry incorrectly can cause serious problems that might require you to reinstall your operating system. Citrix cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk. Be sure to back up the registry before you edit it.

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\personal vDisk\Config\EnableUserProfileRedirection

  4. Update the master image’s inventory.

  5. During the scheduled downtime, distribute the master image to the virtual machines. Ensure that they restart. At that point, the script runs, deletes the profiles from the P: drives, and shuts down the machines.

  6. When all the machines are shut down, delete the startup script (or the line you added to your existing script).

  7. Start all the machines or let users log on. From this point, profiles are stored on the virtual desktops’ C: drives.

Note: To migrate profiles in the reverse direction so they are managed by the Personal vDisk (not Profile Management), follow these instructions. But change the Registry setting of EnableUserProfileRedirection from 0 to 1. This change loads the profiles on to the Personal vDisk’s P: drive.

Migrate user profiles