Agent Server Groups

A Server Agent Group is a logical grouping of Terminal Servers having a common role or purpose (figure 3). A logical group of servers is commonly referred to as “silo”. Exportable registry sub-keys and shell folders can be marked by MetaProfiles-IT as global or group-specific. For example, if Microsoft Office is only installed on a handful of Terminal Servers in the farm (i.e., ts1, ts2, and ts3), then it makes sense to only import and export the registry sub-key HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office when users access those servers. In this case, these servers should be logically grouped together into a single Server Agent Group (i.e., ASG1), and the “Microsoft Office” registry sub-key should be marked “group-specific”, that is, specific to ASG1.

On the other hand, if Adobe Acrobat Reader is installed on all the Terminal Servers, then it makes sense to always import and export the registry sub-key HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader. In this case, the “Adobe Acrobat Reader” registry key is marked “global”.

Figure 4 illustrates how group-specific and global data are managed using the Provision Management Console (PMC). Figure 5 demonstrates the details of group-specific and global data subsets.

Figure 3 – An Agent Server Group can be configured in a few easy steps.

Figure 4 – Logon process: when a user logs on, the Agent Service requests his/her previously exported data from the Storage Server. It then decompresses the data and merges the sub-keys and folders into the mandatory profile

Figure 5 – Data subsets can be configured in a few easy steps.

Next: Storage Servers