Server Admin 10.4 Help

Creating a Custom Home Directory

The user's home directory does not have to reside in the share point folder. For example, you can organize home directory locations by creating several subfolders within a share point. If /Homes is the share point folder, you can place teacher home directories in /Homes/Teachers and student home directories in /Homes/Students.

You can use Workgroup Manager to define a custom home directory for a user whose account is stored in a server's local directory domain or in a shared directory domain accessible from the server you are using. The shared directory domain can be the LDAP directory of an Open Directory master or another read/write directory domain.

The procedure described here requires Mac OS X Server version 10.4.3 or later.

1. Make sure the share point exists and is configured correctly.

   The share point for a local user account's home directory should reside in an AFP share point on the server where the user account resides. This share point does not have to be automountable (that is, it does not require a network mount record in the directory domain).

   The share point for the home directory of a user account in a shared directory domain can reside in any share point that the user's computer can access. This share point must be automountable. Additionally, any NFS share point used for home directories must be automountable.

   For instructions, see Setting Up an Automountable AFP Share Point for Home Directories or Setting Up an Automountable NFS Share Point for Home Directories.

2. If you want the home directory to reside beneath a folder under the share point, use the Finder to create all the folders in the path between the share point and where the home directory will reside.
3. In Workgroup Manager, click Accounts and select the user account you want to work with.

   To select an account, connect to the server where the account resides. Click the small globe above the accounts list and open the directory domain where the user account is stored. Click the Users button and select the user.

4. To be authenticated, click the lock.
5. Click Home to set up the selected user's home directory.
6. Click the Add (+) button to add a custom home directory location, or click the Duplicate (copy icon) button to copy an existing location.

   You can remove a home directory location by selecting it and clicking the Delete (-) button. You can delete only locations that were added with the Add or Duplicate buttons.

7. In the URL field, either enter the full URL to an existing automountable AFP share point where you want the home directory to reside, or leave this field blank for an NFS share point.

   For example, if the AFP share point is Homes and you are using DNS, you might enter "AFP://server.example.com/Homes." If you are not using DNS, replace the DNS name of the server hosting the home directory with the server's IP address:   AFP://192.168.2.1/Homes." Don't put a slash (/) at the end of the URL.

8. In the Path field, enter the path from the AFP share point to the home directory, including the home directory but excluding the share point; leave this field blank for an NFS share point.

   For example, you might enter "Teachers/SecondGrade/Smith."

   Do not put a slash at the beginning or the end of the path.

9. In the Home field, enter the full path to the home directory, ending with the home directory itself. Note that this field automatically updates whenever you change entries in the URL or Path fields.

   In the Home field, enter a location in this format:

   [/Network/Servers/server's-host-name/][Volumes/[drive/]volume/]share-point/path

   The entries within brackets ([]) are optional. Include them only if they apply to the particular share point location. If the share point is for local user accounts, do not include /Network/Servers/server's-host-name.

   Replace the following elements:

   • server's-host-name: Replace this with the AFP server's host name.
   • drive: If the share point is stored on a server with multiple storage devices, replace this with the name of the storage device.
   • volume: If the share point is stored on a server with multiple volumes, replace this with the name of the volume storing the share point.
   • share-point: Replace this with the name of the share point.
   • path: Replace this with the path you entered in the previous step.

   Use an initial slash (/) but no terminating slash.

   For example, the following is a Home entry for a custom home directory for local users: /Homes/Teachers/SecondGrade/Smith

   The following is a Home entry for a custom home directory in the HardDrive volume stored in a server located at server.example.com: /Network/Servers/server.example.com/Volumes/HardDrive/Homes/Teachers/SecondGrade/Smith

   If you used a volume named HomeDirectories in an external drive named externalHD as a location for a custom home directory, the Home entry looks like this: /Network/Servers/server.example.com/Volumes/externalHD/HomeDirectories/Homes/Teachers/SecondGrade/Smith

10. Click OK.
11. (Optional) Enter a disk quota and specify megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB).
12. Click Create Home Now, then click Save.

    If you do not click Create Home Now before clicking Save, the home directory is created the next time the user restarts the client computer and logs in remotely.

    Note: Home directories are automatically created the first time a user logs in only on share points served via an AFP or SMB/CIFS server. NFS home directories must be created manually.

13. For a user account in a shared directory domain, make sure that the user restarts the client computer so that the share point is visible on it.