`createmobileaccount` Problem or Server Settings Issue?
The following steps were recommended on setting up an existing account on a client machine to mobile homes over on the afp548.com forum:
1. Join client machine to OD.
2. Remove the local user record for the user. Best to do this using dscl as the accounts pref pane will want to delete the home folder.
3. Change the ownership of the existing home folder to the new user from LDAP.
4. Use the /System/Library/CoreServices/ManagedClient.app/Contents/Resources/createmobilea ccount tool to cache the new account.
5. Login as the LDAP user.
I thought that I had everything set properly, the "Sync Home Now" menu items appears in the menubar and it steps through all apparent folders that are set in the Workgroup Manager preferences for the user, but no sync actually occurs (tested by making some changes on the server side user account when logged in and the changes do not propagate back over to the remote client).
I tried to delete the user a few times and reset this back up (the command I used: `createmobileaccount -vsn username -h /Users/username`), however the same results each time. I even went so far as to allow Mac OS X to create the account and try the sync from a new managed account while moving the older user files to another folder under /Users with similar results.
The output of the createmobileaccount command as called above are:
--BEGIN COMMAND OUTPUT--
createmobileaccount built Oct 2 2007 22:44:49
verbose output on.
user name = "username"
home path = "/Users/username"
user password = "(null)"
prompt for password = FALSE
encrypt new home = FALSE
create as external account = TRUE
home sync new account = TRUE
sync URL = "(null)"
/usr/bin/dscl -raw . -read /Users/username RealName RecordName GeneratedUID UniqueID PrimaryGroupID NFSHomeDirectory HomeDirectory dsAttrTypeStandard:OriginalHomeDirectory dsAttrTypeStandard:OriginalNFSHomeDirectory
dsAttrTypeStandard:GeneratedUID: 1B367422-7683-473F-816A-BE82C69C1DB3
dsAttrTypeStandard:NFSHomeDirectory: /Users/username
dsAttrTypeStandard:OriginalNFSHomeDirectory: /Users/username
dsAttrTypeStandard: PrimaryGroupID: 20
dsAttrTypeStandard:RealName:
Some User
dsAttrTypeStandard:RecordName:
username
Some User
dsAttrTypeStandard:UniqueID: 1025
No such key: dsAttrTypeStandard:OriginalHomeDirectory
No such key: HomeDirectory
--END COMMAND OUTPUT--
Please do advise as this seems to be a serious impasse at the moment.
I would also like to set up the account so that the user synchronization occurs differently for each machine that will be used (ie, there is 1 desktop and 1 laptop aside from the server on which these accounts reside for this one particular user). Thus I'd like to exclude certain folders (such as /Pictures and iPhoto for the laptop mobile account and so forth, while grabbing all on the desktop) and it appears that the ability to change these synchronization settings are grayed out for the times this appeared to work, yet did not. I also only had set for the user preferences on Workgroup Manager to manage the Account Creation -> Always for this particular user. Perhaps Machine/Computer Names need to be set up instead for things to work right? I would not be surprised that I'm missing something on the server side that may be preventing things to sync properly.
1. Join client machine to OD.
2. Remove the local user record for the user. Best to do this using dscl as the accounts pref pane will want to delete the home folder.
3. Change the ownership of the existing home folder to the new user from LDAP.
4. Use the /System/Library/CoreServices/ManagedClient.app/Contents/Resources/createmobilea ccount tool to cache the new account.
5. Login as the LDAP user.
I thought that I had everything set properly, the "Sync Home Now" menu items appears in the menubar and it steps through all apparent folders that are set in the Workgroup Manager preferences for the user, but no sync actually occurs (tested by making some changes on the server side user account when logged in and the changes do not propagate back over to the remote client).
I tried to delete the user a few times and reset this back up (the command I used: `createmobileaccount -vsn username -h /Users/username`), however the same results each time. I even went so far as to allow Mac OS X to create the account and try the sync from a new managed account while moving the older user files to another folder under /Users with similar results.
The output of the createmobileaccount command as called above are:
--BEGIN COMMAND OUTPUT--
createmobileaccount built Oct 2 2007 22:44:49
verbose output on.
user name = "username"
home path = "/Users/username"
user password = "(null)"
prompt for password = FALSE
encrypt new home = FALSE
create as external account = TRUE
home sync new account = TRUE
sync URL = "(null)"
/usr/bin/dscl -raw . -read /Users/username RealName RecordName GeneratedUID UniqueID PrimaryGroupID NFSHomeDirectory HomeDirectory dsAttrTypeStandard:OriginalHomeDirectory dsAttrTypeStandard:OriginalNFSHomeDirectory
dsAttrTypeStandard:GeneratedUID: 1B367422-7683-473F-816A-BE82C69C1DB3
dsAttrTypeStandard:NFSHomeDirectory: /Users/username
dsAttrTypeStandard:OriginalNFSHomeDirectory: /Users/username
dsAttrTypeStandard: PrimaryGroupID: 20
dsAttrTypeStandard:RealName:
Some User
dsAttrTypeStandard:RecordName:
username
Some User
dsAttrTypeStandard:UniqueID: 1025
No such key: dsAttrTypeStandard:OriginalHomeDirectory
No such key: HomeDirectory
--END COMMAND OUTPUT--
Please do advise as this seems to be a serious impasse at the moment.
I would also like to set up the account so that the user synchronization occurs differently for each machine that will be used (ie, there is 1 desktop and 1 laptop aside from the server on which these accounts reside for this one particular user). Thus I'd like to exclude certain folders (such as /Pictures and iPhoto for the laptop mobile account and so forth, while grabbing all on the desktop) and it appears that the ability to change these synchronization settings are grayed out for the times this appeared to work, yet did not. I also only had set for the user preferences on Workgroup Manager to manage the Account Creation -> Always for this particular user. Perhaps Machine/Computer Names need to be set up instead for things to work right? I would not be surprised that I'm missing something on the server side that may be preventing things to sync properly.
Mac OS X (10.5)
