Writable Volume Exclusions

[LukaszDziwisz]

Hello Everyone,

So with Snapvol.cfg we can exclude files/folders/registry etc. but I would like to understand how this works if I update the template and already have a lot of existing writable. The reason for that is that we wanted to exclude a specific folder   exclude_uwv_file=\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Temp

Now what I have noticed it that whatever information was in it prior to updating template through AV Manager stays like it's frozen. Also, if I delete any subfolder or file with older date next time I log on it is back. Now, if I create a file/folder in there and log off and log back in the file/folder is not there which is to be expected.

My expectation would be that after detaching writable snapvol.cfg gets updated with the exclusion, then user logs back in and gets all of the contents in  Temp directory back but once they log off again nothing gets persisted anymore in that directory.

Can anyone comment on what is happening out here?

[Ray_handels]

Nope, that's not how it works.

If you update your template disk onlty newly created writables will have this configuration. If you want to update current writables you will need to create a zip file that has the snapvol.cfg included in it and use the option to update the writable within the manager. You can only use a zip file.

With this proces do keep in mind that if you create a new snapvol.cfg you will need to add all other exclusions you made along the way because it does a simple overwrite of the information in the zip into the writable.

That being said. The snapvol.cfg only contains information the Appvolumes filter driver (svservice) does not touch. So if you have a folder called temp which has 100 files in it and you exclude it in the snapvol.cfg the files will still be there as there are not being removed. It will however not do anything with these files as the filter driver ignores the folder entirely.

[LukaszDziwisz]

@Ray,

That's exactly how I'm updating all writables by uploading a zip through manager. As far as exlusions, in other words, the exclusion is just excluding it from svservice doing anything to that directory and not preventing it from being retained, right?  So there is no way with writable to exclude what gets retained and what does not right?

[Ray_handels]

Thing is that it does not remove the info afterwards if it is injected into the writable.

So let's say a user logs on and c:\temp is not excluded yet. Than all info that is stored in that folder during attachment will be retained. If you change the snapvol.cfg afterwards and exclude c:\temp it will not filter on thet folder anymore but it will however still hold the information in the writable. It will not automatically clean up that folder or the contents in it.

Looking at the temp folder you are referring to (we also excluded that afterwards), there is no need to remove the data for a better performance, Appvolumes will not do anything with that.

If you do want to remove that data (and it is stored in the profile) you could use the profile cleanup option from UEM.

[LukaszDziwisz]

@Ray,

So taking your example. If I have directory in C:\Username\Appdata\Appdata Local\Temp that has files X, Y and Z in it and I change the writable config to exclude that directory, files XYZ will stay there but anything I add after the config change like files A,B,C will not get saved right?

Also, after adding the exclusion if I delete files X,Y and Z they should not come back on its own after user logs off and logs back in, correct?

The reason I'm asking about it is that one of our sysadmins is blaming writable in case of Citrix Sharefile Outlook addon. Users are getting an error when they launch Outlook and so far the fix was to delete someone's writable and let it recreate. I have the exclusion for Temp directory in place added some time ago. If they try to manually delete Temp folder contents a user logs off and logs back in all of those old files are there. Isn't that weird?

I never played with UEM profile cleanup, but I'll take a look at it as well. Thank you

[Ray_handels]

So taking your example. If I have directory in C:\Username\Appdata\Appdata Local\Temp that has files X, Y and Z in it and I change the writable config to exclude that directory, files XYZ will stay there but anything I add after the config change like files A,B,C will not get saved right?

Yes that's right. It will simply not look at that directory anymore so files inthere are not taken into consideration,.

Also, after adding the exclusion if I delete files X,Y and Z they should not come back on its own after user logs off and logs back in, correct?

Depends on when and where you remove them. If they are in the writable and you exclude that temp directory, the files in the writable in that folder will not be visible so you cannot delete them from the explorer. If you mount the writable manually and delete the files than they won't come back. At least that's what weve noticed.

The reason I'm asking about it is that one of our sysadmins is blaming writable in case of Citrix Sharefile Outlook addon. Users are getting an error when they launch Outlook and so far the fix was to delete someone's writable and let it recreate. I have the exclusion for Temp directory in place added some time ago. If they try to manually delete Temp folder contents a user logs off and logs back in all of those old files are there. Isn't that weird?

Any other location those files could be?? Maybe something with the way you added those exclusions? And what version of Appvolumes are you using? I believe they added the functionality to exclude profile folder in version 2.17, in older version excluding folders in the profile (so the c:\Users directory) simply didn't work even though it was posted in documentation that it did. There is another post I made somwhere on the forum that states the correct syntax.

[LukaszDziwisz]

We are on version 2.16.

Citrix FIles for Outlook is using the following directory C:\Users\Username\appdata\local\temp. There are two folders AddinExpress and Citrix Files for Outlook. Support is blaming it because when they delete those folders, have the user log off and log back in, and open Outlook those folders should get recreated fresh and they are not because the old ones come back. SO far only deleting writable seemed to work but like I said we added the exception for the Temp folder not too long ago.

[Ray_handels]

I saw you were also on this post so my guess is that files the snapvol.cfg is correct (Performance issue with writable )

What happens if you attach a writable and remove the files manually from within the folder? Add the writable to a machine that does not have an Appvolumes agent, remove the files and check to see if that works. Using the profile cleanup might help you there.

[LukaszDziwisz]

Yes that is correct. I will test that tomorrow and let you know what I find.

[LukaszDziwisz]

Ray,

If I attach the writable to non-appvolumes machine Windows can see the disk, I have to give it a letter but then when I browse that drive all I see is contents of C:|snapvolumestemp\writable no appdata as I would have expect? Any suggestions?

[Ray_handels]

Yes, make sure that hidden files are also shown.

The folder you need to look for is svroot. You can also just type it in but I would suggest to show hidden files, makes life a lot more easy when browsing through the writable volume

[LukaszDziwisz]

@Ray,

To summarize here are the findings:

Fresh writable with exclusions

- not persisting anything in Temp directory - new files don't stay from session to session

Removed Exclusion

- I can create new folders and they stay at each logon

Added exclusion back

- created new file  - doesn't get saved again - expected

- delete previous files created after exclusion was removed = they come back on each logon

Attaching writable to non-appvol machine:

- I was able to delete the file in Temp directory and the change stays

- Detached from non-appvol machine and logged in with the normal user and writable attached and file /folder is gone

So I guess, the cleanest way would be to delete writable and have user start fresh. For one-off users with problems attaching to non-appvol machine seems to do the trick.