The User State Migration Tool (USMT) is a command-line
utility that you can use to automate the task of migrating user
profiles in wipe-and-replace and side-by-side migrations. USMT is a
part of the Windows AIK and is designed to be used in highly automated
migration scenarios. USMT migrations occur in two phases: in
collecting profile data from the source computer using Scanstate.exe
and in importing profile data to the destination computer using
Loadstate.exe. In PC Refresh scenarios, the source computer and the
destination computer are the same machine.
USMT allows you to capture user accounts, user files and folders
(including NTFS permissions), operating system settings, and
application settings. You can use USMT to migrate profile data to
destination computers running Windows 7 from source computers running
the Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 operating systems. You
cannot use USMT to migrate settings for mapped network drives, local
printers, device drivers, local user account passwords, shared folder
permissions, and Internet connection sharing settings.
Configuring USMT Migration Settings
If you use USMT with basic options, it moves the most common
application settings as well as data from folders most commonly used
to store documents. Although this selection works in most cases,
many organizations use unique local storage configurations and
deploy unusual applications. You can configure USMT to migrate data
stored from these unique locations and unusual applications by
configuring an appropriate XML-formatted configuration files. Here
are the XML-formatted configuration files that you can use with
USMT:
-
MigUser.xml. This file contains rules about user profiles and user
data. The default settings for this file move all data in My
Documents, My Video, My Music, My Pictures, desktop files,
Start Menu, Quick Launch settings, Favorites, Shared
Documents, Shared Video, Shared Music, Shared desktop files,
Shared Pictures, Shared Start menu, and Shared Favorites. This
file also contains rules to ensure that all the following file
types are migrated from fixed volumes: .qdf, .qsd, .qel, .qph,
.doc, .dot, .rtf, .mcw, .wps, .scd, .wri, .wpd, .xl*, .csv,
.iqy, .dqy, .oqy, .rqy, .wk*, .wq1, .slk, .dif, .ppt*, .pps*,
.pot*, .sh3, .ch3, .pre, .ppa, .txt, .pst, .one*, .mpp, .vsd,
.vl*, .or6, .accdb, .mdb, .pub, .xla, .xlb, and .xls. The
asterisk (*) represents zero or more characters. -
MigDocs.xml. This file contains information about the location of
user documents. Use this file if local user documents are
stored in nonstandard locations. -
MigApp.xml. This file contains rules about migrating
application settings. These include Accessibility settings,
dial-up connections, Favorites, folder options, fonts, group
membership, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) settings,
Microsoft Office Outlook Express mailbox files, mouse and
keyboard settings, phone and modem options, Remote Access
Service (RAS) connection phone book files, regional options,
remote access, screen-saver settings, taskbar settings, and
wallpaper settings. -
Config.xml. This file is used to exclude features from the
migration. You can create and modify Config.xml using
Scanstate.exe with the /genconfig option.
In some situations, there may be files or application settings
that are not migrated when you configure the XML files listed in the
preceding paragraphs. In these instances, you must create a custom
XML file. You can also use custom XML files to reroute folders,
specific file types, or specific files. Rerouting is the process by
which you move all files of one type that may have been stored in
separate places on the source computer to a specific, final location
on the destination computer.
Scanstate.exe runs on the source computer. If you are running
Scanstate.exe from within Windows on computers that have either the
Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating system, you must do so from an
elevated command prompt. If you are running Scanstate.exe on a
computer running the Windows XP operating system, you must be logged
on with an account that is a member of the local administrators
group.
You can use Scanstate.exe to perform an offline migration of
data. An offline migration occurs when you run Scanstate.exe from
the Windows PE environment, rather than from a client Windows
operating system environment. The benefit of performing an offline
migration is that it occurs more quickly than when you perform an
online migration. You can configure a special bootable Windows PE
image that performs an automatic offline migration. You can also
deploy this image using Windows Deployment Services, which allows
you to perform automatic offline migrations on a computer from a PXE
boot. Although you can use Scanstate.exe in offline mode, you cannot
use Loadstate.exe in this manner. You must always run Loadstate.exe
from within the Windows client operating system environment.
Scanstate.exe is a command-line utility. When using
Scanstate.exe, you must specify the location in which the migration
store will be hosted. The following command creates an encrypted
migration store named store123 on the file share named Migration on
the file server named Fileserver and uses the files MigApp.xml and
MigUser.xml. You encrypt the store using the key mykey:
Scanstate \\fileserver\Migration\store123 /i:MigApp.xml /i:MigUsr.xml /o /encrypt /
key:"mykey"
You run the Loadstate.exe utility from an elevated command
prompt on the destination computer. You should install all
applications that were on the source computer on the destination
computer prior to running Loadstate.exe. If you install applications
on the destination computer after running Loadstate.exe, individual
application settings might be overwritten by the new
installation.
You need to use the same custom XML files when using the
Loadstate.exe utility to restore data if you used custom XML files
during the Scanstate.exe process.
Loadstate \\fileserver\Migration\store123 /i:MigApp.xml /i:MigUsr.xml /decrypt /key:"mykey"
Selecting a Migration Store
When you have determined exactly what files and settings you
need to migrate from the source computer to the destination
computer, you need to determine which type of migration store you
will use. Although you can use a removable storage device as a
migration store, most administrators do not use this option when
they are moving a large number of user profiles. This store type
requires the technician performing the migration to attach and
detach the device as a part of the migration process. This level of
manual intervention can significantly lengthen the migration process
when you are dealing with several thousand computers. If you choose
to use a network share as a migration store host, you need to
consider the amount of storage space required and the possible
impact on network bandwidth of transferring a substantial amount of
user profile data to and from the network share as the migration
progresses. USMT supports three general migration store
types:
-
Uncompressed. This type holds data in a hierarchy of folders that
mirror the user profile data that is being transferred.
Uncompressed migration stores create a duplicate of the
migrated data in a separate location on the original volume,
on an attached volume, or on a remote location such as a
network share. You can navigate the folder hierarchy using
Windows Explorer or the command line. Uncompressed migration
stores are not encrypted when created by the Scanstate.exe
utility, and they lack the security of other migration store
types. When you are moving multiple computers by using
uncompressed migration stores on a shared network folder, you
need to ensure that each migration store is written to a
separate folder location on the store. -
Compressed. This type writes all migration data to a single
compressed file. You can encrypt this file. You can extract
the data located in this file using the Loadstate.exe utility.
When you move data for multiple computers by using compressed
migration stores, ensure that the resulting migration store
has a unique name that allows you to tie it back to the
computer that you migrated from. -
Hard-link. You can use hard-link migration stores only in
wipe-and-load migrations. The hard-link migration store allows
files to be stored on the local computer while the old
operating system is removed entirely and a new operating
system is installed. Hard-link migrations do not create a
duplicate of the migrated profile data and use less space than
an uncompressed or compressed migration store. You cannot use
a hard-link migration store when you are using a network share
as a storage location.
You should consider the security of uncompressed and
compressed migration stores that are located on shared network
folders. If the security of user profile data is a concern during a
migration, you should use a compressed migration store with
encryption. This method minimizes the risk that unauthorized third
parties are able to access user profile data during the migration
process. You configure an encrypted migration store in the practice
exercise at the end of this lesson.
Estimating Storage Requirements
You can use Scanstate.exe to determine the amount of space
required for each storage type on a computer given a specific set of
migration rules. This can be useful when you are planning a
migration and you do not know how much data actually has to be
stored. The migration report is written in XML format. You can open
the report for review using Windows Internet Explorer, as shown in
Figure 1.
You run the following command to generate an estimate
of the migration store size:
Scanstate.exe c:\migrationstore /o /p:"C:\migrationstoresize.xml"
USMT allows you to automate the process of migrating user
profile data. In this set of practice exercises, you perform several
steps that you would perform with USMT when preparing to migrate
profile data. These include creating an estimate of the size of the
migration store, creating a custom XML file that has the location of
any nonstandard document directories and then creating an encrypted
migration store.
EXERCISE 1 Creating an Estimate of the
Migration Store Type
Prior to performing this practice exercise, ensure that the
Windows Automated Installation Kit is already installed on WKSTN1.
To complete this exercise, follow these steps:
-
Log on to computer wkstn1 with the Mark Lee user
account. -
Create the directories c:\mig-store, c:\mig-reports, and
c:\usmt. -
Depending on whether your Windows 7 installation is x86 or
x64, copy the contents of the c:\Program Files\Windows
AIK\Tools\USMT\x86 or c:\Program Files\Windows
AIK\Tools\USMT\amd64 directories to the c:\usmt
directory. -
Run the following command to generate an estimate of the
migration store size:
C:\USMT\scanstate.exe c:\mig-reports /p:"c:\mig-reports\MigrationStoreSize.xml" -
Use Internet Explorer to open the file
c:\mig-reports\MigrationStoreSize.xml. -
Run the following command to create an encrypted
store:
C:\usmt\scanstate c:\mig-store /encrypt /key:"Pa$$w0rd" -
Verify that the migration store has been created in the
c:\mig-store directory.
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