Home directories and mounts in OSX

[stevey_g]

Hi there guys. Im a network administrator at a large school, we currently use a Windows Server 2003 domain with network authentication, profiles and a home directory mapped to each students account on login as well as other mapped drives for general use. My question is, is it possible to a) map the users home directory to the Mac on login, and point the mac home directory to it? Also, maybe adding a shortcut to it on the desktop for ease of use. b) Be able to map the fixed network drives to the machine and again shortcut to the desktop?

This would ideally be done via script, so that we can locate it on the server and be able to modify it if necessary in a central location.

Any information on this would be extremely useful, as I havent really touched Mac's before, altough i do have some knowledge of Linux, which may be useful.
FYI. The machines are already joined to the active directory, and domain authentication works fine

 

[liketom]

sure should work - don't know why you would want 2003 , get rid of it and go server os x

 

[stevey_g]

sure should work - don't know why you would want 2003 , get rid of it and go server os x

Not my choice im afraid. The powers that be wanted 2003, and as most workstations are xp, it makes logical sense. Anyways, ok its possible..... but how? Code for scripts would be ideal!!!

 

[Falleron]

Hi there guys. Im a network administrator at a large school, we currently use a Windows Server 2003 domain with network authentication, profiles and a home directory mapped to each students account on login as well as other mapped drives for general use. My question is, is it possible to a) map the users home directory to the Mac on login, and point the mac home directory to it? Also, maybe adding a shortcut to it on the desktop for ease of use. b) Be able to map the fixed network drives to the machine and again shortcut to the desktop?

This would ideally be done via script, so that we can locate it on the server and be able to modify it if necessary in a central location.

Any information on this would be extremely useful, as I havent really touched Mac's before, altough i do have some knowledge of Linux, which may be useful.
FYI. The machines are already joined to the active directory, and domain authentication works fine

Hi, I may be able to help a bit. Can you provide some more detials. What version of OS X are you using?

I am pretty sure I am correct that OSX.3 is unable to handle "deep" shares. For example, its happy with \\server\share but not \\server\share\"username" . However, 10.4 Tiger sorts this problem out.

When I know more about your setup I should be able to help.

 

[stevey_g]

Hi, I may be able to help a bit. Can you provide some more detials. What version of OS X are you using?

I am pretty sure I am correct that OSX.3 is unable to handle "deep" shares. For example, its happy with \\server\share but not \\server\share\"username" . However, 10.4 Tiger sorts this problem out.

When I know more about your setup I should be able to help.

Im using Panther... BUT our home directories are shared explictly so deep mappings arent required

 

[Falleron]

Im using Panther... BUT our home directories are shared explictly so deep mappings arent required

Have you got a test account you can use with just \\server\share ?

There is also a command you can use in terminal to adjust the settings. Its "dsconfigad". You can use:

dsconfigad -show to view the setup

By default, osx will map the drive on the desktop + in the dock. However, if you want a propper home directory where user settings are stored on the server you will need the following command.

dsconfigad - localhome disable

This will force osx not to create a local user account.

One other thing to check is that osx is trying to mount the mapping in SMB rather than AFP. I am sure your shares are SMB. You can view this info from the command above (dsconfigad -show). If its not smb just do:

dsconfigad -mountstyle smb

Hope this is of some help.

Also, make sure your client is upgraded to osx.3.9. Use your software update. Earlier versions of osx.3 had a few probs with AD.

 

[stevey_g]

Oooh. Im getting something different now: An error message basically saying login failed becuase the home directory is held on an smb or afp server.

How can i remedy this?

 

[stevey_g]

Anyone

 

[stevey_g]

Anyone got a clue??

 

[Falleron]

Its a hard one without being there. I will have a think.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Using network homes with the Active Directory plug-in for Mac OS X 10.3.3 or later - I have no ide what "the AD plug-in" is or where you can get it, though...

 

[stevey_g]

Using network homes with the Active Directory plug-in for Mac OS X 10.3.3 or later - I have no ide what "the AD plug-in" is or where you can get it, though...

Done all that chap, Still cant get it to work. Would it be anything to do with SMB signing on the 2003 server?

 

[superbovine]

this place is for you...http://archive.macosxlabs.org/

 

[stevey_g]

Still cant find the information I need

Is there anyway I can simply reenable the local homes, then have a shell script execute on logon to map a share to //servername/username? I know you can do this in windows, and as mac os x is supposed to be more powerful, i should think this would be relatively straightforward. I think the %USERNAME% switch is used in windows, what about OSX?

Ta

Steve

 

[Falleron]

From the terminal, you can re-enable local homes by typing:

dsconfigad -localhome enable

This will enable local homes and then mount the network drive as a desktop icon + a shortcut in the desktop. In theory anyway.

 

[stevey_g]

Nope only get the macintosh HD on the desktop.... any other ideas