Types of containers

FSLogix has two (2) primary container types, which can be implemented as part of your profile management solution. As outlined in our terminology page, FSLogix containers are the virtual hard disk (VHD(x)) files, which hold all of the data for the given container type.

Note

Cloud Cache isn't a type of container, but it is an optional configuration for profile and ODFC container types. For more information, see Cloud Cache overview.

Profile container

A profile container is the most common container used in an FSLogix solution. A profile container is all the data related to a user's profile, which is directly stored in the VHD(x). A Windows user profile is typically stored in C:\Users\%username%. Nearly all the files and folders found under this location would be included in an FSLogix profile container. Some data in a users profile shouldn't or can't be roamed which can be found in the exclusion list.

For users familiar with managing profiles, the function of the profile container may be compared to Microsoft User Profile Disk (UPD), Microsoft roaming profiles, or Citrix User Profile Management (UPM). Although the function is similar, the underlying method and technology is different, resulting in key FSLogix capabilities.

Note

Unless otherwise configured, the profile container will hold all profile and ODFC content in the same VHD(x) file. This is the recommended configuration.

Profile excluded content

There's profile content that can't be roamed between virtual machines. To prevent issues with applications or processes that need access to this data, FSLogix creates a redirect from the native profile path to a new folder in the C:\Users path. This folder is prefixed with local_ and combined with the user's SAM account name (for example, C:\Users\local_%username%). During sign out, the C:\Users\local_%username% folder is deleted.

Default exclusions

FSLogix automatically excludes the following paths:

• %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Protect
• %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Credentials
• %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Credentials
• %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\16.0\OfficeFileCache

ODFC container

An ODFC container is a container type, which is focused on storing profile content that is unique to Microsoft Office applications¹. The ODFC container is most commonly implemented in conjunction other roaming profile solutions².

^{1 Office data includes, but is not limited to Office apps, OneDrive, Teams, SharePoint, and OneNote.
2 Traditional roaming profiles, Citrix User Profile Management, VMware Dynamic Environment Manager, or similar.}

Important

When using ODFC containers with other profile roaming solutions, be sure the other solutions are configured to exclude the ODFC data.

A default ODFC container configuration includes the following data:

• Office Activation
• Outlook
• Outlook personalization
• SharePoint
• OneDrive
• Skype for Business (legacy support)

Most data contained in the ODFC container is sourced from other remote systems and is easily replaced should the ODFC container become corrupted or deleted. For example, Outlook data files are generated from remote e-mail servers (for example, Microsoft 365). The list of applications that can be included are found in the ODFC reference article.

Note

ODFC containers are an optional configuration.

When to use Profile and ODFC containers

Profile and ODFC containers should be used together when:

• Discretion is wanted in the storage location for Office data vs. other profile data.
• Provides isolation from data loss or corruption in one of the containers³.
• Used as a mechanism to specify which Office components have their data included in the container⁴.
• Allows organizations to have different container sizes to accommodate specific workloads or data synced from OneDrive⁵.

^{3 ODFC container is not backed up or replicated to alternate locations since the data is recoverable from the source.
4 Not available when using a single container configuration.
5 Configure 10 GB profile container with a 50 GB ODFC container.}