Determining Storage Requirements for User State

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Determine how much disk space is required for an intermediate storage location for user state. Base your calculations on the volume of e-mail, personal documents, and system settings for each user. The best way to estimate these is to survey a few average desktops to estimate the size of average stores in your environment.

Important

• Allow a minimum buffer of 20 percent additional space in the intermediate storage location. To enhance performance, locate the intermediate store on high-speed drives. Ensure that the intermediate storage of user state is the only task that the store performs and that it has an optimized (high-speed) network connection.

E-mail   If users deal with a large volume of e-mail or keep e-mail on their local computers instead of on a mail server, the e-mail can take up as much disk space as all other user files combined. (This is not a factor if the e-mail is stored on a server only.) Prior to migrating user data, make sure that users who store e-mail locally synchronize with their mail server.

User documents   The types of documents that an organization uses can make a substantial difference in storage requirements. For example, an architectural firm that predominantly uses Computer-Aided Design (CAD) files needs much more space than does a law firm dealing primarily with word processing documents. If your users already store many documents on file servers through such mechanisms as Folder Redirection, and they will have access to these locations after the migration, you do not need to migrate those documents.

User system settings   Typically, 5 MB of storage is adequate to save a user’s registry settings. This requirement can fluctuate based on the number of applications installed over the lifetime of the computer, but it is rare for the user-specific portion of the registry to exceed 5 MB.