Magic Triangle Home folder woes

[ajstan]

Hi,

 

I've been setting up a magic triangle setup for our 16 iMacs (10.8) and amazingly it all seems to have gone quite well. However, I seem to have got stuck correctly mapping A/D users' home drives.

 

In WGM Ive added 'network home share point' and chosen to authenticate with that users credentials.

When a user logs on you can see their correct home drive path (in this case smb://whs4034-uss-03/student_home$/2013/ahmeh248.309) and when I go to System Preferences->Users and Groups->*Click on the user* then login items->double click on this link - it works correctly and opens user home folder.

 

 

 

However, if I use the shortcut listed in finder or on the desktop, the path appears to be 'smb://whs4034-uss-03/student_home$/' - somewhere this user can't look and I get an error message.

 

Somebody please help

[HereIGoAgain2601]

I might be wrong wight his but I'm I think thats just the way it is. We have a magic triangle set up and when we map the network home folder it populates to the folder above where the actual user folder lives. I think its an OS X thing as after a lot of troubleshooting we realised users need to have read access to the above folder, where as on windows we could just give them full control over the home folder with no access to the above areas.

 

Are you using force local home directory or are you using network accounts?

[ajstan]

Thanks for reply.

 

Yes that's exactly what mine is doing- trying to populate the folder above. So on your setup are students required to select their username after pressing documents? I'm using network accounts (I think)

[ajstan]

Anybody??

[pantscat]

It's permissions - users will need (I think) "Traverse folder" custom permissions on the folders above... then OSX will happily map it.

 

I'll double check - I've got it documented somewhere!

[seawolf]

Hi,

 

I've been setting up a magic triangle setup for our 16 iMacs (10.8) and amazingly it all seems to have gone quite well. However, I seem to have got stuck correctly mapping A/D users' home drives.

:

 

Just one question. Why are you using a Magic Triangle and WGM when your clients are running 10.8? Doing this is unsupported and prone to errors as managed preferences and WGM are being deprecated. Is there a specific reason why you are sticking with this method of management?

Edited March 5, 2014 by seawolf

[ste1988]

Using Profiles and profile manager will give you far greater control over home drive mapping, also i find pushing settings out seems to work much quicker and easier than WGM.

[ajstan]

It's permissions - users will need (I think) "Traverse folder" custom permissions on the folders above... then OSX will happily map it.

 

I'll double check - I've got it documented somewhere!

 

Thanks, I tried this but as suspected the user had to then trawl through all user accounts in the folder to find their own. There must be a better way!

 

 

Just one question. Why are you using a Magic Triangle and WGM when your clients are running 10.8? Doing this is unsupported and prone to errors as managed preferences and WGM are being deprecated. Is there a specific reason why you are sticking with this method of management?

 

I've previously used 10.7 and assumed that as WGM was available to 10.8 that it would work ok. How else would you apply policies and prevent students from accessing certain applications?

 

 

 

Using Profiles and profile manager will give you far greater control over home drive mapping, also i find pushing settings out seems to work much quicker and easier than WGM.

 

Really? How does this work?

 

Thanks everyone

[HereIGoAgain2601]

Just one question. Why are you using a Magic Triangle and WGM when your clients are running 10.8? Doing this is unsupported and prone to errors as managed preferences and WGM are being deprecated. Is there a specific reason why you are sticking with this method of management?

 

I know Apple is trying to push people down the profile manager route, but at present there is still some support for Workgroup manager? Why else would they bring out a new version of the program for 10.8 and 10.9? Having said that we do have issues with 10.9 and applying preferences but I'm more inclined to think this is down to our dreadful .local domain.

[ajstan]

I've heard a lot of bad things about WGM and 10.9 hence why I stayed with 10.8. I would think it's more likely to be evil Mavericks screwing that up

 

It all seems to be working ok other than the documents though - I just want users to be mapped their home folder so they can seamlessly save work on a windows computer, then continue it on the macs.

[pantscat]

Thanks, I tried this but as suspected the user had to then trawl through all user accounts in the folder to find their own. There must be a better way!

 

 

 

I got the permissions wrong - they actually need "List Folder / Read Data" permissions.

[seawolf]

I know Apple is trying to push people down the profile manager route, but at present there is still some support for Workgroup manager? Why else would they bring out a new version of the program for 10.8 and 10.9? Having said that we do have issues with 10.9 and applying preferences but I'm more inclined to think this is down to our dreadful .local domain.

 

I really don't know why they bothered with WGM in 10.9. Let's just say that Managed Preferences no longer work "as expected" it's Russian roulette using them in 10.9.

 

It would be best if you got rid of the .local domain for sure. It can be done. I have done a domain rename on a Windows network and it took only a week to get it all working fantastic. You just have to plan it well and then execute it to plan.

[ajstan]

I got the permissions wrong - they actually need "List Folder / Read Data" permissions.

 

Just tried this. Again the user has to manually select their homefolder.

 

Why on earth isn't it using the correct path!!!??

[pantscat]

In WGM Ive added 'network home share point' and chosen to authenticate with that users credentials.

 

Skim read and missed this - why not use the advanced binding options to connect the user's AD home directory? See here: http://information-technology.web.cern.ch/sites/information-technology.web.cern.ch/files/screen09.jpg

[ajstan]

Skim read and missed this - why not use the advanced binding options to connect the user's AD home directory? See here: http://information-technology.web.cern.ch/sites/information-technology.web.cern.ch/files/screen09.jpg

 

 

I have. Is there anything else I need to do after?

[pantscat]

Well... this is where it gets interesting.

 

If you have "force local home directory on startup disk" unticked - it'll use the AD home directory by default...

 

But... I've been having some issues with the size of the library folder that gets created there: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mac/133003-library-folder-can-redirected.html

[ajstan]

When I untick 'force local home directory on startup disk' it no longer even maps the folder above the user account. As far as I can see it doesnt even attempt to map users home folder.

 

I hate macs

[round2it]

I might be wrong wight his but I'm I think thats just the way it is. We have a magic triangle set up and when we map the network home folder it populates to the folder above where the actual user folder lives. I think its an OS X thing as after a lot of troubleshooting we realised users need to have read access to the above folder, where as on windows we could just give them full control over the home folder with no access to the above areas.

 

Are you using force local home directory or are you using network accounts?

 

 

this is 100% correct took me a while to sort it

[furby]

I hate macs

I know that feeling well.

What do you see for that/a user in the Directory Utility? More specifically the home folder location

[ajstan]

It's been a while since I've posted in here but I thought I'd do one final update. I managed to get it all working almost perfectly.

 

When I have "force local home directory on startup disk" unticked I was mistaken before - I was achieving a fully functioning roaming profile and it WAS working correctly.

 

The special feature which had me fooled where a windows machine would allow you to the root of a home drive ( \\server\path\jsmith\) the mac will only map: \\server\path\jsmith\Documents, \\server\path\jsmith\Pictures, \\server\path\jsmith\Music, \\server\path\jsmith\Downloads, \\server\path\jsmith\Desktop and will not let you access the root. When a user logs in these folders are automatically created in their home folder forcing them to always save into their home folder but always in any one of the folders listed.

This had the potential to turn into an almighty headache but then I found when testing running the large music files running directly off a share caused some instability meaning ideally these files needed to be worked on locally.

 

I turned "force local home directory on startup disk" back on and gave all students 'list folder contents' on all directories above their home drive and found that the documents were then given a link straight on the dock. This means users can work locally but are responsible for copying their work into their home drive. Works well enough for me

[nathanzamprogno]

I have a related problem and I thought I'd ask the people on this thread.

 

I can't see how I see or change the path to a user's home directory in Yosemite server (10.10.1), when that server is bound to an Active Directory master.

 

In earlier versions, one used Workgroup Manager, selected the user, and the "Home" tab provided for the choice of a local home directory or a network share point.

 

Presumably this should be done through the Profile Manager now, but I can't see where this equivalent feature to the one in WGM is located.

 

When I log into an AD-sourced network account, the user is receiving a home directory under their name but located on the local computer's /Users directory.

 

Interestingly, they are also getting a network sharepoint located on Windows server mounted to their desktop which contains their Windows (AD) homedir as a subdirectory.

 

I would like to nominate this directory as the path to the home directory, or alternatively a homedir sourced in the homedir share I created on the OD server.

 

 

 

How do I change home directory locations in Yosemite server?

 

 

 

Notes:

* My Mac lab is desktops, not laptops.

 

* I've tried the 10.9 version of WGM on my 10.10 server. It runs, and I can see all my AD users, and that the homedir location is presently set to a local path. Attempting to change it here throws an error.

[HereIGoAgain2601]

Hi, how have you bound the macs to AD? There will be an option called "Force local home folders" when you actually bind the mac to active directory whether this be manually or through profile manager. The behaviour you are describing usually happens if this box is ticked. When you untick it the folder reverts to the network for storage, but this redirects all of the Mac settings and we had various issues with programs crashing if the user didn't have a local home folder. We have had to educate our students and staff to save to an icon on the dock for their network home folder rather than giving them a fully networked account. We had numerous issues with Office for Mac, Logic and Apple iWork applications when users were using network folders and the mac was forever crashing and taking ages to open programs. For some reason you always get the mounted drive to the share of the actual home folder, and this appears because there is an option for mounting the network home folder on login.

[nathanzamprogno]

I have bound each workstation to AD with the Directory Utility, and the Mac server likewise.

I am aware of the setting for forced local home folders and it is unticked.

 

As I understand it, these are the options for home directories:

 

1. No homedir.

2. Local homedir located at /Users on the workstation. This is what I'm getting, but don't want, because anything a user saves to their space is only for that workstation and won't follow them.

3. Homedir located in that share on the Mac server designated for that purpose. I'm used to this in a pure OD environment.

4. The path to a Windows homedir, embedded in the user's AD account, located on a Windows server. -- My users can at least see this by way of an auto-mounted share, but they have to scroll through a lot of folders to see theirs.

 

I'm getting #2, would prefer #4, but would settle for #3, but can't see how to change what the server is doing now.

[furby]

edit/You posted while I was typing - What error/happens when you have it un ticked? I'd go to the machine to double check as I don't find that setting sticks all the time with Profile Manager Edited January 20, 2015 by furby

[Quackers]

We 'Force local home directory on startup disk'

 

Then we turn the following script (which redirects the documents to the network) into an executable using a free utility called platypus

 

chmod -R -N ~/Documents

chmod -R -N ~/Movies

chmod -R -N ~/Music

chmod -R -N ~/Pictures

rm -rf ~/Documents

rm -rf ~/Movies

rm -rf ~/Music

rm -rf ~/Pictures

ln -s "/Volumes/Homes/$USER/My Documents" ~/Documents

ln -s "/Volumes/Homes/$USER/My Documents/My Videos" ~/Movies

ln -s "/Volumes/Homes/$USER/My Documents/My Music" ~/Music

ln -s "/Volumes/Homes/$USER/My Documents/My Pictures" ~/Pictures

 

Then use Profile Manager to run the executable at login.

 

Also we set in the default user profile the DSDontWriteNetworkStores to true in com.apple.desktopservices to speed up SMB share access on the Mac OS.