When it comes to backing up redirected Shares folder, if “Administrator” is one of the users that has his folders redirected, like for Desktop/Documents/Photos, then those files will complete the backup, however none of the other users’ redirected folders will be able to backup to the same Cloud device. The backup will show completed with Warnings in this case, but only the Administrator’s redirected files will transfer. If only the redirected Users folders (other than Administrator user’s folder if that is part of the redirected folder set, in my case it is but in the customer’s case probably is not) are selected for backup, like E:\Shares\Redirected\, the backup job will complete successfully with all files backed up.
Microsoft article on how to setup and deploy Folder Redirection is here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/folder-redirection/deploy-folder-redirection
Example GPO for folder redirection, which shows the issue with backup to xSP Storage Server device for Redirected Folders, here:
It seems to be because both Local System and Domain Admin cannot get access to the folder structure via Win Explorer, as the Domain Admin even gets permission denied accessing any of the sub-folder under those users by default, even just to read the contents. The Domain Admin can enter the various redirected user’s folders they just can’t access any sub-folders. Possible due to inheritance.
The errors will show in the backup log as:
“Warning: The following file could not be backed up at this time: \\Ex-Machina\Redirected\Johnny.Rocket\Desktop\test.txt
“Warning: The following file could not be backed up at this time: \\Ex-Machina\Redirected\Johnny.Rocket\Photos\Images\Image1.PNG
“Warning: The following file could not be backed up at this time: \\Ex-Machina\Redirected\Jon.F2\Desktop\test.txt
“Warning: The following file could not be backed up at this time: \\Ex-Machina\Redirected\Joh.F2\Photos\Images\Image1.PNG
Performing the same backup to local drive E:\Test\ will complete all folders successfully while the job is running as either Domain Admin or Logged in User. Since the client is running on a DC, I can’t test Local Admin.
However, if I run the backup job to Cloud device with Run As as “Johnny.Rocket” user, the job can backup Johnny Rocket’s redirected folder files to Cloud device, but skips all of the other users’s folders:
Thank you.