AD users using HomeSync on an OS X share

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Level 1

10 points

AD users using HomeSync on an OS X share

Hi,

We have a central “windows 2003 AD” which I DO NOT administer. I have bound our “Intel Xserve 10.4.9” to it and promoted the “Intel Xserve” to OD master. I also have an “Xserve RAID” attached to the “Intel Xserve” which I would like to use for the users home directories.

Single Sign On “SSO” is working as I have shares on the “Xserve RAID” which both MAC and Windows users can access without being prompted for a username or password.

The default user home directory is setup in the users “AD” profile, which I can not change as I do have permissions to do so.

I do however have full rights to a “container” within “AD” where I can create other “Containers”, “Group Policies”, “computers” and “Groups” but all “Group Policies” will only apply to computers within my container as I do not have rights to move users from their default container.

This is my question:

How can I make the shares on the “RAID” available for the mac users as a home directory, which in the case of a laptop will allow me to setup “HomeSync” for users, and in the case of desktop systems just have their own home share mount on the desktop at startup as their “USERNAME”.

You may ask why not use the default “AD” home directory via SMB, well this area is limited to around 200MB which I again have no control over and it can’t be increased so any idea of using the central “Windows 2003 AD” shares as “HomeSync” shares is out of the question.

Thanks for any help,
Regan B.

Intel Xserve Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Jun 1, 2007 7:53 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 3, 2007 9:02 AM in response to Regan B

Hi

It would be easier and quicker if you connected the XServe RAID to your AD Server.

However: I have not tried this but it might work, you could try creating a share point on the XServe RAID, mapping it as a network drive on your AD Server and using that for creating home folders. You can then supplement the AD with Managed Preferences (Mobility) from your OD Server.

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Answer 2

Regan B Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 6, 2007 5:17 AM in response to Antonio Rocco

Hi,

What you are suggesting will work but unfortunately I do not have access to the “AD” server.

Thanks,
Regan B.

Mac OS X (10.4.9)

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Answer 3

Jun 6, 2007 6:26 AM in response to Regan B

Have you tried the second method?

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Answer 4

davidh

Level 4

1,890 points

Jun 6, 2007 6:36 AM in response to Regan B

Have a look at the following and see if they don't help.

You really shouldn't have a problem (sounds like you've already cleared the more difficult hurdles)

http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=20040915152755925

http://www.bombich.com/mactips/activedir.html

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Answer 5

Regan B Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 7, 2007 7:35 PM in response to davidh

Thanks for all the information, I have read the two documents initially, which was a big help. I am still having issues though.

Antonio Rocco, would I need "admin" rights to the AD server to do your second suggestion?

I have noticed that I can mount a user home on the OS X clients if the user home folder is in the default "Users" share on OS X server, so "osxserver.com.au/username" will mount only the volume "username". If however I have the user home folder on the RAID, which is connected to the OS X server, I need to put the complete path to the users home folder "osxserver.com.au/staff/username" and this will only mount the "Staff" volume not the users "username" volume.

I have tried remove the default "Users" share and creating a new "Users" share on the RAID but this still gives me the same issue.

Is there some simple way to fix this?

Thanks for all you help,
Regan B.

Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Mac OS X (10.4.9)

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Answer 6

Jun 8, 2007 8:48 AM in response to Regan B

Hi

Yes you would need admin rights. If you physically don’t have access then ask the AD Service Administrator to do it for you.

Don’t remove or delete the default Users, Groups or Public folder that gets created when the Server is installed – the server will have a major fit if you do this – just unshare them. Create a new Users folder at another location – it can be any drive you like, RAID included – share that instead. Celect Network Mount click the lock and authenticate using the Directory Administrator account, select AFP, Enable network mounting of this share point and User Home Directories, save any changes. Go back to the users list and select Home, you may have to click the Refresh button here or possibly restart the server, changes can be a bit slow sometimes. The path name should now reflect the change ie: afp://serverfqdn/Users.

Create Home folders in the usual way.

Hope this helps – Tony

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Answer 7

Regan B Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 8, 2007 11:27 AM in response to Antonio Rocco

Hi,

Thanks for the information, I will try this when I am at work next. Its a long weekend here so there maybe a delay in my response.

So if this works and this is the home folder for the OS X user, what stopping me from syncing to this mount point, is there somewhere on the sever I can just associate this volume with the homesync?

Thanks for all you help,
Regan B.

Mac OS X (10.4.9)

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Answer 8

Regan B Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 11, 2007 9:42 PM in response to Regan B

Hi,

Unfortunately that does not work, all the users are in AD so the only thing I can do is make them part of an OD group. This allows me to set a group share for them but for some reason this is not working as a user home share as this only lets me mount the group share not the individual username shares.

I have noticed that if I look at a user via DSCL in the terminal, I can see that every user in AD has an “NFSHomeDirectory” of “/Users/username”. Is this something that can be change to help my situation.

Thanks,
Regan B.

Mac OS X (10.4.9)

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