Mac OS - Network Login Script

[dhicks]

Hello All,

 

I've had a rummage around in previous threads, but I can't find anything relevant, hence the new thread - do please point me at an existing discussion if there is one. We have a new classroom of iMacs arriving soon, all of which will be running Mac OS El Capitan. I have an El Capitan iMac in front of me that I'm now using as my day-to-day workstation. I have the Mac joined to our Active Directory domain, and domain users can login and see their network folders via Apple's SMB implementation. However, previous experience from our IT consultant suggests that using Apple's way of redirecting user folders to the standard Mac Home / Desktop / etc folders creates rather too much network traffic, with every user config file and so on being stored on the network. Seemingly this can get particularly bad when using things like iMovie, where you wind up with temporary video files being stored on a network folder.

 

Therefore, I am manually redirecting selected folders. This turns out to be quite simple - simply delete the /Users/username/Home folder and create a symbolic link to the network version instead. All I need to figure out now is how to have this happen transparently for every user as they login. Deleting username/Home or username/Desktop folders needs root privileges (because Mac OS wants to try and make sure you know what you're doing before it lets you delete your home folder, which is sensible). Therefore, I need a script that runs as root every time a user logs in. Seemingly, Mac OS X login hooks are now depreciated, and might disappear from future versions of Mac OS. The proper method now seems to be to create a launchd item.

 

Is that correct - am I going about this in the right way? As far as I can make out, I'll need to create a launchd Global Daemon that runs as root that starts at boot time, then have a launchd Global Agent run at each user login to signal that Global Daemon in some way to go and sort folders out. That seems slightly overly complex for a startup script, but that seems to be the mechanism that's available. Is that right, or am I missing something here?

[2ilent8cho]

we do it how you are want to do it. i do have a post from earlier in the year where i replied to somebody else with the instructions but im at the airport at the moment on my mobile so a bit fiddly to find it.

 

you can use a program called platypus to turn .sh scripts into apps then tell your mdm to run the app at user login. thats how we get it to work. search for my other posts and im sure you will find the post.

[dhicks]

you can use a program called platypus to turn .sh scripts into apps then tell your mdm to run the app at user login.

 

How does the typical MDM run an application at startup / login time? Using a launchd-based method, or are some still using login hooks?

[2ilent8cho]

How does the typical MDM run an application at startup / login time? Using a launchd-based method, or are some still using login hooks?

 

No idea, we use Profile Manager for our Mac settings.