FSlogix ODFC POC Guide (version 1.3)

This guide helps you setting up the FSlogix Office 365 Container (ODFC). ODFC allows roaming the cache data on VDI/RDS of most Microsoft Office products on top of your existing profile solution. There is minimal impact to the rest of your infrastructure and after implementing caching can be enabled for Outlook, OneDrive, OneNote, Teams, ...
This solution also allows to roam the Outlook Search Index, even on RDS/XenApp!

1. 1 | P a g e Prianto Benelux - Vasteland 78 - 3011BN - Rotterdam
www.prianto.nl - [phone]

FSlogix Office 365 Containers
Quick start guide for a successful trial





We are aware that deploying a new tool in a (test)environment can be a problem and
take too much effort. In the end this results in an installation that is either not performing
as it could be that the test completely fails as getting familiar with the product is too
hard. FSlogix is relative easy to deploy, and only a few configuration settings are needed.
We know FSlogix is a very technically oriented solution. Therefore, we advise to deploy in
a test environment to familiarize with the configuration needed in your infrastructure.
We want to explain our experiences at various other clients. This resulted in having some
best practices ensuring a low risk, well-documented and simple to reproduce results.
Prerequisites
We advise to first set-up the solution in a test environment, preferably configured
comparable to the target/production environment. This does not need to be on similar
high-performant (cost) hardware. But if your production is on a Windows Server RDS, do
not test on a Windows single user OS. Also (try to) use a comparable user profile solution
and application landscape, in particular Microsoft Office.
Additionally, FSlogix requires a network storage to hold the VHD(x) files. It is preferred
having a dedicated share on a separate disk. This allows simple resizing of the storage
afterwards (if initial sizing was misjudged).
Note on Microsoft User Profile Disks (UPD):
We are aware of some additional configuration items due to conflict by competing
functionalities. Please read the corresponding appendix!
Deployment of FSlogix
The deployment of FSlogix is pretty straight forward.
In conjunction with this document you received an email with a download link to the 30-
day trial version. This version can be installed and will offer the complete support of all
FSlogix features. For testing an administrator can install FSlogix manually, which should
be a simple ‘next-next-finish’ install.
For production a silent install feature is possible, allowing to deploy on large
infrastructures with the mechanism of your choice.
A reboot should not be required when installing 1
st
time on a system (but advised). Upon
an upgrade however a reboot is/will be needed to be able to replace the filter driver.
There are no server components that have to be installed. So please do NOT install
FSlogix on the fileserver!

What IS FSlogix ?
FSlogix offers the capability to solve very
specific IT issues with workspace deployment or
performance issues with 4 unique point-
solution tools. All tools are deployed using a
single, small installer.
The 4 solution areas are:
Application Masking
Hide applications, plugins, printers, … for
specific users or systems, allowing a single
image to be used, even in a diverse
environment.
This gives optimal integration with great
performance, as only required applications are
available for the user, natively installed.
Java management
Built upon masking this issue-specific solution
allows managing which Java versions are
available. This also allows assigning specific
versions to websites (even mix & match in a
single browser!) or local Java-applications.
User Profile (using VHD)
Comparable best to Microsoft UPD, but with
huge advantages in manageability and features.
Read twice: Roam a local user profile to various
systems (VDI/RDS/FLEX-Fat clients). Login near
instant, even with huge profiles.
Office 365 Containers (using VHD)
Point-solution based on the profile solution.
Are you happy with your current profile
solution, but want to migrate to Office365, and
can’t roam the Outlook Cache or Search
Index… even on RDS? Or want to roam
OneDrive?
One answer: Office365 Containers!
Author: Michael Baars
Document version: 1.3 (21-6-2018)
Verified with FSlogix version : 2.8.6686.44077

2. 2 | P a g e Prianto Benelux - Vasteland 78 - 3011BN - Rotterdam
www.prianto.nl - [phone]


FSlogix Office365 Container Configuration
The FSlogix Office365 Container (from now on: ODFC) requires some configuration items:
- Policy settings (registry)
The features of ODFC are configured using registry settings in the machine hive. These settings can be configured using
GPO and an ADMX is available to do so. This however is not required and, for speed, during testing not advised. By editing
the registry settings manually the often slow sync of the GPO’s can be skipped, speeding up the configuration phase.
- Assignment of users to in-/exclude groups
Using local groups (created during install of FSlogix) it is simple to assign what users will be able to use ODFC. By default all
users will be included (which is not the desired production value!)
Group assignments
First we will make sure our Admin-users will not be hindered by potential configuration flaws. To do this please open the local
users & group management (in Computer management). You will find 2 groups:
- FSlogix ODFC Include
Please remove the ‘everyone’ assignment and replace this with either ‘Domain users’, a custom (domain) testgroup or a
specific account used for testing.
- FSlogix ODFC Exclude
By default this group is empty. Please add ‘Domain admins’ here, to prevent our admin account depends on FSlogix
(admins in general do not require Outlook anyway)
FSlogix ODFC activation
Now we add the configuration to enable ODFC. Please add the following values to the registry:
KEY: HKLM\Software\Policies\FSlogix\ODFC
- Enabled: 1 (DWORD)
This essentially enables ODFC. For the less secure admins: add this setting last ☺
- VHDLocations: “\\server\share$\path” (RegSZ)
Obvious this path needs to be adjusted to match your pre-created share on the fileserver. DFS is supported.
Permissions on the share should be: (Test with everyone/full control)
o Scope: This folder, Accounts: everyone or domain users
Permissions: Modify (needed to check folder existence & check permissions)
o Scope: Subfolders and files, Accounts: OWNER-CREATOR
Permissions: Modify (to create / use the VHD(x)).
- VolumeType: “VHDX” for Win8/Win10/WinServer 2012+, “VHD” for Win7/WinServer 2008 (RegSZ)
For maintenance features afterwards using VHDX is advised if supported…
- RoamSearch: 1 (VDI/Single User) or 2 (RDS/XenApp) (DWORD)
Enables roaming of the search cache, and configures it to store the cache in the ODFC-VHD(x).
For single-user systems (VDI, fat clients) please use value “1”
For multi-user systems (RDS, Citrix XenApp, …) please use value “2”
Note: Roaming the search index is not supported on Server2008(r2) for RDS/XenApp!
KEY: HKLM\Software\FSlogix\Apps
- RoamSearch: 1 (VDI/Single User) or 2 (RDS/XenApp) (DWORD)
Should match the value in HKLM\Software\Policies\FSlogix\ODFC
Reference for more settings: https://docs.fslogix.com/display/20170529/Office+365+Configuration+Settings
Check the latest version of FSlogix is referenced. Please start with only the above settings!

3. 3 | P a g e Prianto Benelux - Vasteland 78 - 3011BN - Rotterdam
www.prianto.nl - [phone]

Testing
It is advised to restart the machine after applying (new) configuration settings. This way it is ensured the correct settings are
active. Now logon with a test-user, preferably a non-admin user. This user should be member of the ‘Include’-group!
Do NOT yet start Outlook!
What you should see:
- VHD(x) created
In the share a folder with the user-SID and name should be created. In this folder a VHD(x) called “ODFC-<username>”
should be created. This VHD(x) should be about 200MB in size. FSlogix pre-initialises the VHD with 200MB to prevent
having to resize the disk on 1
st
real use (resulting in potential extreme fragmentation).
The user should be the owner of the folder (and VHD(x))
- The VHD(x) should be loaded
In Disk Management (Computer Management component) you should see the VHD for the user is loaded, but no drive
letter is assigned. This is correct!
- In the log there should be ‘success’ messages
Check the logs in the following folder: “%PROGRAMDATA%\FSlogix\Logs\ODFC”. There should be a log file with the
current date, containing as last section the logging for the test-user. This log should be easy interpretable containing
‘success’ messages.
If any of the above is not the case:
- Re-check if you did not missed a configuration item
- Do you have Microsoft UPD active, check the corresponding appendix too!
- Any obvious error message in the logs?
If you can fix it, patch the configuration to match it with your environment.
- Call in the help-lines (see corresponding appendix)
You got this far without issues? Give yourselves some shoulder-pads ☺ Well done!
Now you can start Outlook, which most likely will ask you to create a profile.
This should be known territory and you should have Outlook started. Make
sure caching is enabled (pick a 1 or 3 month cache period). You can check the
cache settings by selecting the account properties, double-click the account
and tick ‘Use cache’ (or use a GPO). See image >>
Outlook should report it is filling the cache, which might take some time.
There should be a ‘OST’ in the following location:
“%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\Outlook”
All working fine so far: next test. Select the search box and check if search
works. If so, check the Search Status. It should report it has some mails to index
and after some time report ‘All mails indexed, 0 remaining’.
Got to this point? Cool! Almost there!
Now log-off and log-on again. After logging on the OST should be present again. After starting Outlook it should report ‘all
synced’, search status reports ‘0 remaining’ (ok, maybe a few new mails that just came in) and all is working as normal.
Even made it to this point? You are great!
It is time to call your colleagues and show-off ☺

4. 4 | P a g e Prianto Benelux - Vasteland 78 - 3011BN - Rotterdam
www.prianto.nl - [phone]

Move to production
Now that everything is working in your test environment it is time to think about deploying it in your production environment.
Before we move to production some additional actions have to be prepared:
- License
Even as your trial might still be valid for some days, the last thing you would want to happen is that you deploy in
production and next the ‘real’ license is received late. Blame it on slow signing of the order, low speed internet making the
delivery of the digital email take ages or a mailman delivering the mail to the wrong address.
If end-users are used to the new features and suddenly all fails due to an expired license results in having a busy support-
line…
- Make the configuration ‘production-ready’
Put all the configuration items, optionally upgraded with some other features found in the options-list, in a GPO. Advised is
to also add the group membership assignment in the same GPO.
If you have other settings (like those for FSlogix User Profiles, for which there is no ADMX), just add the registry settings
directly. You can add the ODFC settings as registry as well (using the ADMX is not required).
- VHD(x) share checkup
Check-out the share. Make a best-effort sizing and check the permissions - again…
Re-test!
Even with the best preparations there always is a small risk of production disturbance. In particular, if this is a RDS/XenApp
environment this could quickly impact multiple users and could require a system reboot. Either do this off-hour or exclude a
system from the production pool. Apply the test here, just in a ‘managed’ way (using deployment tools, GPO, …) and TEST!
If all seems to work fine, ask someone to be your guinea pig. Sorry, but someone needs to do real-life production work to verify
all works as before (or better ☺).
Success? Go Large and accept all the ‘well-done’ compliments.
This was a showcase deployment…

5. 5 | P a g e Prianto Benelux - Vasteland 78 - 3011BN - Rotterdam
www.prianto.nl - [phone]

If you have another profile solution in combination with FSlogix ODFC
NOTE: This section is slightly outdated as the latest releases of FSlogix Office 365 Containers work well in combination with
Microsoft UPD/Citrix UPM/VMware/…. As all products are in continuous development and the solution is generally applicable,
also if you have another blocking reason/the ‘normal’ deployment would fail, this section is kept as informational.
Some background
Microsoft UPD, FSlogix and others use a similar technique to be able to handle the manipulation of the location of data. This
means that when you want to redirect a location (the Outlook Cache folder) to another location and both tools are assigned,
there might be clash. This could result in the location not being redirected at all, stored on both locations or at least become
not usable.
The experiences might depend on your selected configuration… It should/would be possible to exclude the location from
either solution, but this is difficult and might break in future version if functionalities change.
How to solve this...?
Simple answer: we move the location to store the Outlook cache (OST files, ...), OneDrive, out of the user profile. What I usually
advise to do is creating the following location:
- c:\programdata\UserData\Outlook-%USERNAME%
Note: Multi-level folder creation fails/not (yet) possible!
The folder ‘UserData’ needs to exist with permissions for domain users to create folders and files (full control is simplest,
but good folder security could be applied). If you have a better location, feel free to use that root.
The folder will not hold a lot of data. It will only be folders that will act as placeholders/mountpoints. The files actually are
stored in the user’s FSlogix ODFC VHD(x).
Next steps:
- Instruct Outlook to use this location in the future to store the OST cache.
This is a User-GPO (or registry setting), so feel free to introduce this using Microsoft GPO's, a workspace management tool
or whatever you have in place. Want to do it manually:
Registry “ForceOSTPath” in “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Outlook”
(Requires an Outlook-profile rebuild… (patch script available))
- Instruct FSlogix to use the new folder as the FSlogix Outlook location.
This can be done using the "OutlookFolderPath"-setting in the ODFC registry.
- Check all the other essential FSlogix settings (Enabled, VHDlocations, VolumeType)
TEST …and check if all works
Remember you need to create a new Outlook Profile, as the location of the OST is stored in the profile and is almost impossible
to change by hand. If you need to, there is a patch-script (not supported, you might still end up re-create Outlook profiles).
Search roaming
When roaming search data similar issues might surface. This exposes itself in (not always) having the search options in Outlook.
Please check the logs for possible hints. In that case it could be tested to enable roaming the search database to the UPD.
To use your existing profile management for storage delete the following:
KEY: HKLM\Software\Policies\FSlogix\ODFC: “RoamSearch” entry
Leave the entry in HKLM\Software\FSlogix\Apps, and configure it as described! (VDI/single user system: 1, RDS/XenApp: 2)
FSlogix ODFC is still required to make it possible to roam the search index, but we are using the existing profile storage.

6. 6 | P a g e Prianto Benelux - Vasteland 78 - 3011BN - Rotterdam
www.prianto.nl - [phone]

GPO remarks
If you want to configure the location using a GPO and want it to include an environment variable (like %USERNAME%). This
variable should not be evaluated when applying the policy (computer startup), but when using the value set (in our case: user
logon). If you just assign the following value to a GPO:
- %PROGRAMDATA%\UserData\Outlook-%USERNAME%

The following will be added to the registry when applying the GPO (=computer startup, GPO update):
- C:\ProgramData\UserData\Outlook-LocalSystem << Orange are the variable-evaluations
So both variables are resolved when applying GPO, which is fine for ProgramData, but not for username.
LocalSystem is the account used when the system starts. The username should be resolved when logging on!

Use the following value in the GPO instead:
- %PROGRAMDATA%\UserData\Outlook-%<USERNAME>%
The following will be added to the registry when applying the GPO (=computer startup, GPO update):
- C:\ProgramData\UserData\Outlook-%USERNAME% << Orange are the variable-evaluations
This will leave the username-variable intact till the logon-moment (the ‘<>’s are removed when applying the GPO)

7. 7 | P a g e Prianto Benelux - Vasteland 78 - 3011BN - Rotterdam
www.prianto.nl - [phone]

Trouble shooting guide
If it did not all work out…
First thing: Don’t Panic! The answer is most likely 42, or is a missed configuration setting.
‘It does not work’ checklist
- I can’t install FSlogix…
There are some prerequisites (required hotfixes for Windows for example). The setup will notify if these are missing, but
check them manually: https://docs.fslogix.com/display/20170529/FSLogix+Apps+Agent+Installation
- Do you have Microsoft UPD, Citrix UPM, …?
Please check the section in which inter-operability with other profile management solutions are noted.
- Redirections, in particular APPDATA
This should be no issue. Especially redirecting the document folders (pictures, …) to a network location should be best
practice. If you redirect AppData to a network share however, be aware that this is not supported by Microsoft and can
result in various problems. These are most of the time hard to diagnose.
To prevent this is an issue, please temporary disable the redirects (if possible)…
- Alternative location for OST
If you have redirected the OST to an alternative (network) location, be aware that FSlogix ODFC only captures the cache if
it is on the known location (default: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Outlook)
There is a setting in FSlogix to change the OST, but this can NOT be a network location. Please check the UDP appendix, as
it explains this situation as well…
- My OST/VHD(x) is HUGE!
When Outlook caches your mails and you have a large mailbox these mails have to be stored locally. The amount of mails
cached can be adjusted using the ‘caching period slider’ in the Outlook configuration. Just keep in mind that the same
period will be applied to shared mailboxes, if caching those is enabled (in Outlook)…
Keep in mind that shared mailboxes are cached in the main OST, and there are known issues with large OST files:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2759052/you-may-experience-application-pauses-if-you-have-a-large-outlook-data
- Server 2008R2 RDS / XenApp
Be aware that multi-user search is only available on Server 2012R2 and newer. Server 2008R2 is not supported for search.
OST caching as well as other features are fully supported.
- Outlook 2010
Be aware Outlook 2010 is not optimal for mailbox caching. It only can cache the complete mailbox, which might be huge.
Office 2013 and newer do support specifying a period (like only locally cache last 3 months)
- Mixed targets
If you have an environment with various targets, try to prevent mixing various versions for the same users. If you switch a
lot with OS (for example from a RDS on Server 2017 to Win7 VDI) expect that the search index might be ‘incompatible’ and
gets corrupted. Same is for users switching from Outlook 2013 to 2016 to 2010. Expect Outlook to ‘rebuild’ the cache
every time you start Outlook (which is wat we want to prevent)
Either split the platforms and give incompatible environments separate VHD(x)’s
- After changing configuration, now things have errors
We noticed, in particular during first tests that fixing a configuration issue might still raise an error if the data in the VHD(x)
is corrupted. The simplest way to fix this and have a clean situation is to log-off and delete the VHD(x). FSlogix will re-
create it upon logon and Outlook will re-start caching to a new OST file.
Especially the search indexing does have the tendency to stay broken if it had a bad configuration.

8. 8 | P a g e Prianto Benelux - Vasteland 78 - 3011BN - Rotterdam
www.prianto.nl - [phone]

- Search not working
o Wrong configuration of the search mode (RoamSearch)
Do you have the proper configuration applied? 1 (RDP: 2), also in the FSlogix APPS key?
o RDP on Server 2008R2
See earlier mention…
o Delete the VHD(x) to purge possible test errors in configuration
During testing, after changing some settings might break the data beyond repair. Deleting the VHD(x) and have it
rebuilt is most of the time the fastest fix.
o If you enable Windows Search after Microsoft Office is installed, repair Office!
Microsoft Office integrates in Search. If search is enabled afterwards, a repair is needed to re-apply this
integration…
- Microsoft OneDrive roaming
Microsoft is pushing OneDrive at the moment, for example to replace users’ home drive. This also is one of the ‘more
frequently updated’ applications. Be aware that updates might break cache functionality of FSlogix.
o Support for OneDrive for Business, not the ‘personal’ version
Please deploy the production version of OneDrive – this is the only version of OneDrive supported by FSlogix:
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/New-OneDrive-sync-client-release-notes-845dcf18-f921-435e-bf28-4e24b95e5fc0#windows
o If you are deploying to Windows 10 – 1709 image
In this Windows 10 release Microsoft officially introduced placeholders (download files on demand). At the
moment this feature is not supported, and OneDrive will fall back to full download of all synced data.
This item is in investigation. Other solutions to roam user settings (UPD, …) do not support placeholders
either…
o Additional caching solutions (profile management)
Make sure that your current profile solution is not trying to save/roam anything about OneDrive. FSLogix Office
365 Containers handles all of that.

9. 9 | P a g e Prianto Benelux - Vasteland 78 - 3011BN - Rotterdam
www.prianto.nl - [phone]

If this checklist did not help
Sorry about that.
Please contact your support line… If there is local support available (should be communicated with your trial), feel free to
contact them. If you have an implementation partner (consultancy), they should be able to support you as well.
In case you get stuck or can’t reach either, file a support case at the FSlogix website. You will need to have/create a login
account to be able to access the support area. When creating an issue, you will see some suggestions. Please check these first.
With your support request, you will need to supply a log dump. There is a tool that collects all configuration and logging
information. In case you ‘forget’ this, be aware that the first response will be to run the tool and deliver the information. So,
save you the delay and include it on forehand…
Also: If you are in trial and get stuck, please don’t raise an ‘urgent/critical’ support case.
Thanks, in advance…

Version history
V1.3 Fixed permissions on shares
V1.2 Added remark for Microsoft UPD, as this should be fixed now (supported in combi with ODFC).
Added Outlook caching settings - note and screenshot.
v1.1 Fixed some possible mis-interpreted items (vhd(x) advise, …)
Enhanced the UPD section with more explanation
Enhanced some trouble shooting items
v1.0 First release