Setting up Mac Mini Server

A Mac Server can define user accounts to be used by people logging in over the network. These accounts can also be set so all the users files are stored on the server, in Apple speak this is called a network login and a network home directory. If your going this route, you would not define a user account on the client Mac as it will instead use the account on the server.

You would need to set up Open Directory on the server and an AFP (AppleShare) share that will hold the user home directories. Once the server is setup you would then tell each client Mac to 'join' to the Open Directory Server this is done in Accounts in System Preferences on the client Mac. Once the Mac is joined you will be able to enter a network user name in the client Macs login screen to login to the server stored account. You will then be able to use any account on any of the Macs.

It is not really feasible to push the mail settings to the client computer. You are better off manually setting up Mail on the client Mac - you only have to do this once per user anyway. Once you have setup preferences for the network login accounts, the settings are stored on the server and will work each time you login thereafter no matter which Mac you login from. If your familiar with the term this setup is equivalent to Windows roaming profiles.

If you use a different login name for the network account to your existing local account then the local account will not be affected. You might want to transfer the contents of your existing local account to the new network account. To do this you could try the following

Create new network account

Login using old local account

Now while logged in using old local account - connect to the File Server

Enter the new login details

It should hopefully list the Share that stores your new network account, complete the connection

You should now have the Share mounted, copy the contents of your local account to the corresponding location in your new network account

Note: The Library folder in your home directory contains all your settings

Once complete logout of the old local account

Try logging in to the new account

In terms of limitations, it is going to be slower than a local account because it has to go across the network, and some badly written applications may have some issues but most will be fine.

At this stage your local account has not yet been deleted so if you have problems you can revert to it.