AWS Workspace - Are there issues moving a user's OneDrive to the C volume?

Question

We're rolling out Amazon Workspaces to some users to replace their laptops. The Workspaces are the Windows 10 (2019) workspaces, with the typical C and D volumes. We are doing BYOL with Office 365 and OneDrive and have packaged office as part of our Workspace base image and bundle. Some users have legacy applications that expect their OneDrive folders to be on the C drive, but as expected, when installed, OneDrive goes to the users' profile location on D.

Users have asked if they can relocate their OneDrive root folders to the same path but on C instead of D. Initially I said no, as I believed that everything on a Workspace should live on the D drive, but as I look more into it this does not seem like as big of an issue - All files from OneDrive are synced automatically so if for any reason we lost the system volume, we wouldn't lose any of these files.

Are there any downsides to moving OneDrive to C? I'd have to increase the root volume size; is there a greater cost with a large root volume as opposed to a user volume of a similar size?

Answer

You're correct that it's typically recommended to keep user files and other data on the D: drive (user volume) in Amazon WorkSpaces, mainly because this data is backed up regularly by AWS.

The C: drive (root volume) contains the operating system and any applications, and is not backed up. If a hardware or software problem occurs that cannot be recovered from, AWS might have to replace the root volume with a fresh installation of the operating system and applications, resulting in the loss of any data saved there.

However, as you've mentioned, because OneDrive syncs its data to the cloud, any files stored in OneDrive on the C: drive would be protected against loss, even if the root volume has to be replaced.

In terms of cost, increasing the size of the root volume does increase the cost of the WorkSpace. As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, the cost for additional root volume storage is the same as the cost for additional user volume storage. You can check the current pricing on the Amazon WorkSpaces Pricing page.

One thing to note is that the maximum size of the root volume is smaller than the maximum size of the user volume (80 GB versus 2000 GB, respectively, as of my last knowledge update in 2021), so depending on how much data your users have in OneDrive, this could be a limitation.

Also remember to consider the performance implications. The root volume could experience higher I/O demands, potentially affecting the performance of the operating system and applications.

As always, it's best to test this change with a small group of users first to see if any issues arise.

AWS Workspace - Are there issues moving a user's OneDrive to the C volume?

Relevant content