Windows domain network drives for mac users

Hi folks - there is probably a thread about this already , but there are so many pages I couldn't find what I was looking for!

Basically, one of the schools I support has a windows domain, with mostly 2008 R2 servers. The pupils however, use a whole load of macbooks and imacs, running Snow Leopard.

On the windows domain, the pupils (who have their own individual logins) get their mapped network drives via a logon script (batch file) , which is set to run at logon via group policy. Obviously this does not work on the macs. I have tried to setting each user's home page to the same shared drive, so they can at least access that, but this actually seems to totally screw up all the program icons along the bottom of the screen when logging into the macs!

What I am asking, in a nutshell, is this; is there any way of getting windows domain users to always see multiple network drives, when logging onto macs?

The school also has a mac mini server, but I am not au fair with it at all as of yet!

thanks for your time,

just to clarify, the pupils are logging onto their macs with their individual domain user accounts. Each mac has been physically added to the windows domain, with the AD plugin.

Do you not just tick the "Force local home directory on startup disk" check box?

Alternatively write an apple-script and bundle it as an application and drop it in the Application folder so they at least have access to it.

What you really want to do is get the Snow Leopard Server and WGM working alongside your WIN 2008 R2 domain, you will then have the central control for dock menu items, folder mappings etc.

Hi thanks for the reply. Where do I tick `force home directory on startup disk'?

The school does have a mac server, but I am still finding my way around it!

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Originally Posted by jbutlin

Hi thanks for the reply. Where do I tick `force home directory on startup disk'?

The school does have a mac server, but I am still finding my way around it!

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That checkbox is in Directory Utility (/System/Library/CoreServices/Directory Utility). But that will only work if the UNC path for the home folder is set in AD. If you're using a logon script to map the home drives in Windows, then it's possible your UNC paths aren't actually set (that's how it is for some accounts in my environment).

As was mentioned, using some sort of management system (i.e. Workgroup Manager or Profile Manager on an OS X Server) would be the ideal solution. You can set a share to auto-mount at login.

If neither of those solutions works for you or is difficult to implement in your environment, there are even other options to consider. The AppleScript method previously mentioned is one. You could also do it via bash scripting. And there's probably other ways I don't know about...

Thanks very much - I appreciate it! It turns out that the mac server does have workgroup manager on it, and I am finding my way around it now. It seems fairly striaghtforward, which is making my life a lot easirer!

Thanks for discussing the issue here. Special thanks to MarsRed for the reply. It has saved my time too. The workgroup manager on Mac server can solve your purpose.

Huh, I did not see that people had replied to this.

I have been using Snow Leopard Server for a while and have just gotten round to ironing out some of the little issues. This blog article was really useful for setting the homepage (to our gateway) and a desktop background (As they are for Logic, I use a Logic tips n' tricks wallpaper):

7 Workgroup Manager Tricks to Keep your Managed Macs in Line | IT GLOBAL, Laptop Motherboard information

Well done and thanks everyone - you have all been so helpful.

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Originally Posted by Tsonga

Do you not just tick the "Force local home directory on startup disk" check box?

Alternatively write an apple-script and bundle it as an application and drop it in the Application folder so they at least have access to it.

What you really want to do is get the Snow Leopard Server and WGM working alongside your WIN 2008 R2 domain, you will then have the central control for dock menu items, folder mappings etc.

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This is exactly what you need to do. WGM is a lot like setting up GPOs on a Windows network, and it's got a fairly cuddly interface. The hardest bit I found was importing the users from AD into OD. But that's because I completely missed the button to click to do it...

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Originally Posted by kirchie

This is exactly what you need to do. WGM is a lot like setting up GPOs on a Windows network, and it's got a fairly cuddly interface. The hardest bit I found was importing the users from AD into OD. But that's because I completely missed the button to click to do it...

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What config did you use? I extended the AD schema and ran into no user import issues :/

It was user error in the end, I didn't realise I has to run the new augmented user function :P