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DarkMx-6

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hello,

We run a macOS server Yosemite at a high school and I need to clean all the student profiles before the year starts in the fall.

What is the best way to go about doing this? I have removed the profile then gained ownership of their files so I can delete them but that is a really long process for all the students I have to do.

Disclaimer I know very little about macOS server or open directory

Thank you!
 
To be clear, are you refering to on profiles on workstations, or profiles on the server?

This may be of some help, depending on your needs.

It's been too long...don't remember the details.
 
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Both actually

Thinking about this a bit more, I would suggest caution.

All the options I am aware of are command line, not for Unix beginnners...both on the client and server. Here's a thread for Mac admins discussing a script to delete all users automatically.

Many larger institutions simply re-image or re-deploy lab/workstation/client computers once a year, to refresh everything, including user accounts AND home directories.

On clients, keep in mind there are two seperate functions:

  1. Removing user accounts/profiles
  2. Removing user home directories

Via command line, which is faster than through the GUI:

  1. Command to delete a user accounts/profile: sudo dscl . -delete /Users/<whatever>
  2. Command to delete a home directory: sudo rm -rf /Users/<whatever>

Keep in mind both are instantly destructive! Test on things you can blow up.

-----

As for server....I don't recall, does the Server app allow for bulk user deletion? Sounds like no...
 
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