I recently migrated a file server using Robocopy, and while the process went smoothly, I'm now hearing complaints from users about Excel being slow. I suspect the issue might stem from some users having shortcuts or favorites that are still pointing to the old server, causing delays when accessing files. I've already tested some of the files on my machine and even moved them to a new test folder on the new server, but they open without any issues on my end. Has anyone faced a similar situation? I've also mentioned that Excel opens the files quickly but then tends to freeze. Interestingly, I updated the A record in DNS for the old server to reflect the new IP address, which seems to have fixed the issue. Any thoughts or additional tips?
5 Answers
You might want to step in directly and check what’s going wrong on their machines. While you can't exactly uninstall Excel, you could try reinstalling the entire suite as a troubleshooting step.
Consider setting up a DFS namespace in the future. If you’ve already removed the old file server, renaming the new one to match the old server's name might be an easier fix for now.
Most of the time, these slowness issues are due to file paths in the documents still pointing to the old server. Adding a new Service Principal Name (SPN) for the new server alias in DNS could be a good move.
Is this a task for the workstation or the DNS server?
Have you tried adding a CNAME record for the old server? That can help direct requests to the new server without users needing to change their shortcuts.
Just a heads up, though – that might not work exactly as you think. Windows may struggle to validate the hostname correctly, especially with file shares. Using an alias setup might be a better approach.
For anyone dealing with similar migrations down the road, Windows has a built-in tool for file server migration that works great. It's part of the Windows Admin Center!
DFS is a lifesaver! I actually set up a high availability pair of file servers and used Robocopy for seed migration. Once everything was smooth, we opened them in DFS and shut down the old server without any issues.