switching from network to local home directory

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Level 1

9 points

switching from network to local home directory

Hello all.

Question: Is it possible to migrate Apple Home Directories from their current location on an AFP share onto a local computer.

Because of issues we are having with Adobe Creative Cloud apps not working correctly in our current network environment, we are planning to switch how our Active Directory profiles perform on our Macs. Currently, we do not "Force local home directory on startup disk" and have the profiles stored on an AFP environment. But because of Adobe, we are planning to upgrade all our machines to OS X 10.11 El Capitan to take advantage of SMB 3.2 and allow local home directories.

If possible, I'd like to automate this process as much as possible, but I'm not sure what to expect. Can I just copy an paste folders from the server to the local machine? Is there some trick where I could check a box and have everything imported automatically? Is it best to only copy individual folders (Desktop, Documents, Music, etc.) but skip the Library files?

Thanks for any help and suggestions.

Mac Pro (Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Apr 27, 2016 2:10 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Apr 27, 2016 8:54 PM in response to namajack

Please log in on the client as the network user, open the Users & Groups preference pane, and unlock the settings with a local administrator's credentials. Click

Mobile Account: Create...

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Answer 2

Apr 29, 2016 7:52 AM in response to namajack

We've had lots of trouble with Chrome and some Adobe stuff, sorted it by creating symbolic links to local caches for certain apps. We found that Chrome and Adobe stuff have "working" folders which can go a bit crazy with perms in a network environment.

Off top of my head we locally redirect / symlink some Caches and Containers whilst keeping network shares / drives etc, kind of best of both worlds. If this is of interest let me know and i'll post more info.

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Answer 3

cdhw

Level 4

3,588 points

Apr 30, 2016 3:40 AM in response to namajack

As Linc Davis said, you want to convert the accounts to 'mobile' and let OS X do the magic. If you have more than a couple of users you may find it more convenient to use Profile Manager to set this in a User Mobility payload.

I'll remark in passing that people have had issues with the OS X Server SMB performance over the last year or so. There have been several discussions in this forum. It's not clear to me whether these have been fixed in OS X 10.11.4 as I got fed up and reverted to AFP for everything so it no longer bothers me.

C.

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Answer 4

namajack Author

Level 1

9 points

May 2, 2016 2:53 PM in response to cdhw

Thanks for the responses folks I have some follow up questions.

Bosco1983: I'm very curious about the symbolic link option, though I'm worried about setting up too many customizations. We only have about 20 Mac users, so I can go in whatever direction is best without worrying about overloading myself. However, as the only "Mac guy" in a small shop, I am hesitant to go too far into the customization weeds.

Linc Davis and cdhw: Converting to 'mobile' accounts is very interesting, but I need to know more about what it's doing before I proceed. I've started doing some research about mobile accounts -- and the Profile Manager as well -- but I'm finding references to the Apple Server which we do not currently utilize. What should I expect when I make the switch? Do I need to run a Apple Server alongside our current Windows Active Directory environment?

I have switched over a couple of folks to SMB using OSX 10.11.4 and haven't had many complaints beyond some permissions problems with a few Adobe files, but as I mentioned, I had to create new local profiles for them. These new folks are connecting to network shares via SMB 3.02.

I'd like to move away from AFP since -- as I understand it -- Apple is focusing development on SMB 3 rather than AFP support in future release of OSX. Perhaps I am misinterpreting that, but I would need to get some very convincing documentation about the benefits of AFP before I can convince my cohorts to go back down that path.

Thanks for your answers. If there are any resources that you would recommend regarding supporting Macs in an Windows Active Directory environment, I would be ever grateful.

.

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Answer 5

cdhw

Level 4

3,588 points

May 2, 2016 3:25 PM in response to namajack

I assumed that you were running OS X Server. This is is OS X Server forum after all...

Anyway, I've never personally tried using mobile accounts without using Server for the directory and network home but I believe that it is possible. See, for example:

http://serverfault.com/questions/724898/set-windows-share-as-network-home-for-ad -joined-mac-users

C.

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Answer 6

namajack Author

Level 1

9 points

May 3, 2016 3:13 PM in response to cdhw

Thanks cdhw. I'll check out the link.

Sorry about posting this in the Apple Server area. I couldn't find a better location on the discussion boards to post this question ... perhaps I should repost this in the "Windows Compatibility" section.

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