network users and home directories

[gabrielcik]

Hi,

I created a home folder on my server for myself using the same userid which i use for to login in my macbook...
Everytime i was tring to login as "other" and typing my user, the mac was simply login me in as admin of my mac and not as network users...

So from what i understand, if i want to have a home directory on the server, it has to have an user with a different user id of the one I use in my macbook, right?

I am trying to learn how everything works...

Thanks

 

[chrfr]

So from what i understand, if i want to have a home directory on the server, it has to have an user with a different user id of the one I use in my macbook, right?

A different user ID and different short name are necessary.

 

[gabrielcik]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

I also have noticed that a "network user" home directory has been created on my macbook.
From what i understood this directory on the client is not going to keep a copy of the files I work with on the server, right?
I tried to save a file on the home directory on the server but the size of the directory which I have on my mac book didn't change (still about 12k).

So what for it is needed this directory on the client macbook?

thanks

 

[Norouzi]

To your first question:
Correct, any network user's you want to log in with need to have different UID's and short names from local users. The local computer always looks to itself first then to any directories it's bound to for authentication. If it finds a local user with the same short name as the network user you're logging in with it will log into the local user account, not the network one.

Second Question:
What is the Home Folder location set too in Server? If it's set to "Local Only" or "/Users/username" in WorkGroup Manager your files will only reside on the local HD of whatever computer you log into with your network account. A new Home Folder will be created in /Users of whatever machine you log into. Nothing is synced back to the Server.

If your Home Folder location is set to a share point on your Server, then your files will reside in that folder on the Server and your computer will access them in real time from the Server while you are logged in. You will need to maintain a constant active network connection to the Server for everything to work correctly. The files will reside only on the Server in this case.

You can create a Mobile Home Folder once logged into your network account, which will sync a copy of your Home Folder between the Server and the local HD. I've had mixed results with this though and it can cause Login and Log Out to take a long time depending on how much you're syncing.

 

[gabrielcik]

Hi,

For the files to be stored on the server and not on the client, the directory has to be an automounted point? or it is enought that is a shared folder?

I read the leopard snow server guide, but it is not clear...

thanks!

 

[gabrielcik]

one more question...

If i configure the home directory as automount then i can't login into it (but i can see it in finder from my macbook).

The message is "unable to log in the user account... at this time".

If i don't select an automount directory as home folder, i can login wihtout any trouble.

I checked the changeip -checkhostname: there is noting to change.

My firewall is off.

Thanks

 

[gabrielcik]

Hi,

I was able to connect as network user... for to do this I added the ip address of my server to the dns list in the macbook client...

Can u confirm me that I have to add the ip address of the server to the dns in the macbook client?
I haven't find this info in the guide of snow leopard server... all the time I was simply connecting to the server as .local

Thanks

 

[chrfr]

Can u confirm me that I have to add the ip address of the server to the dns in the macbook client?

The client needs to be able to resolve the server's IP address or name. If you've assigned the server a name that's something like "server.home.private" your client won't find that unless it's pointed to the DNS that is running on your server. In these cases, yes, you need to add the server's IP address as a DNS server on the client.

 

[peroddmund]

Check out the videos of Todd Olthoff on youtube. He explains everything pretty straight forward about OS X server.

 

[taylorlightfoot]

So from what i understand, if i want to have a home directory on the server, it has to have an user with a different user id of the one I use in my macbook, right?

Different names will accomplish this, I believe you could simply give the network user a different password than your local user account. The computer will try to authenticate against the local user accounts first and will go on to try the bound directory server if it doesn't find a successful login in the local accounts.