configuring iMac for windows network

[Jack-Bessey]

Hi All,

at my college we run our mac suite independently from out network, we are now looking to integrate this with our network, but low and behold i cannot seem to find out how to set up home folders on the mac.

[furby]

It should be quite easy. Sure that will illicit a chortle from some

 

You can manually go and set it on the iMac. The slightly longer way as I don't know what your setup is.

 

1. Go System Preferences

2. Users and Groups

3. Login Options (unlock)

3a. If it's not already change Display Login Window to Name and password

4. Click on Edit... (Network Account Server)

5. Open Directory Utility...

6. Double click Active Directory

7. Active Directory Domain would be whatever (contos.com)

8. Click Bind... Stick in admin user and password. Just username rather than domain\username

9 *important* - Untick "Force local home directory on startup disk"

 

Restart and wait for the "Network Account Unavailable" message to disappear (can take a little while)

 

Are you using profile manager to set preferences? What versions of OS X are you using? You can automate of the above.

[CamelMan]

We did ^ however be aware that some Mac software wont save to Windows Servers (Logic in our case) so you may need an additional file storage solution (ours is extra iMac as a file server). Works OK - users can authenticate but we have no GP (obviously), file saving etc - literally just bound for logins. Our "home folders" are mapped by script which gives them access to a relevant area and then we set permissions on folders from there.

[truebluesteve]

We did ^ however be aware that some Mac software wont save to Windows Servers (Logic in our case) so you may need an additional file storage solution (ours is extra iMac as a file server). Works OK - users can authenticate but we have no GP (obviously), file saving etc - literally just bound for logins. Our "home folders" are mapped by script which gives them access to a relevant area and then we set permissions on folders from there.

 

Pretty much the same here. Be prepared for a lot of frustration though. Final Cut Pro X is another fussy piece of software that doesn't like home folders very much.

[3s-gtech]

We bought a Mac Mini Server to manage the Macs using Workgroup Manager, to image them and to manage our iPads too. We have a separate NAS for Logic and Pro Tools projects. Not much extra expense, but worth it.

[CharlieRich]

We bought a Mac Mini Server to manage the Macs using Workgroup Manager, to image them and to manage our iPads too. We have a separate NAS for Logic and Pro Tools projects. Not much extra expense, but worth it.

 

Exactly the same as above. Running Mavericks Server on a Mac Mini and a thunderbolt 10TB storage array for our Mac client backups. All good so far!

[davidacland]

On the home folder topic, we always recommend leaving "force local home directory on startup disk" ticked so the apps are working and saving locally. Using full network home folders will cause a lot of grief!

 

We also uptick the "use UNC path to derive network home location" as that has caused a lot of login failures.

 

Instead we use a login script that reads the SMBHome from Active Directory and mounts it separately.

 

David Acland - Amsys

[win]

@davidacland can i ask which login script you use for your manual mounts (mavericks or yosemite)?

 

Was it this one?

 

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=4841

[davidacland]

It's similar, we've been working on it for quite a few years so its evolved quite a bit. The core bits of code are (in a bash script):

 

ShortDomainName=`dscl /Active\ Directory/ -read . | grep SubNodes | sed 's|SubNodes: ||g'`

# To get the NETBIOS domain name

 

adHome=$(dscl /Active\ Directory/$ShortDomainName/All\ Domains -read /Users/$USER SMBHome | sed 's|SMBHome:||g' | sed 's/^[\\]*//' | sed 's:\\:/:g' | sed 's/ \/\///g' | tr -d '\n' | sed 's/ /%20/g')

# to get the user's AD home

 

# Then we mount the network home

mount_script=`/usr/bin/osascript > /dev/null << EOT

tell application "Finder"

activate

mount volume "smb://${adHome}"

end tell

EOT`

 

If you trigger it via a launchagent it will mount the home using the credentials of the logging in user.

 

We've added a bunch of logging and other custom bits to the script but the bits above are the core parts.

 

David Acland - Amsys

[win]

Thanks David, just upgraded one to yosemite and looking for a manual mount script, thought it would be more reliable as it doesn't work with our folder redirection policies.

 

I have no idea how to interpret the above but will give it a go anyway!

[davidacland]

Here's a link to our git hub version (full script), you just need to make a launchagent to get it to run at login:

 

https://github.com/amsysuk/public_scripts/blob/master/mount_SMBHome/mounthome.sh

 

Just in case, loginhooks (which are deprecated) don't work as they run as root and so send the wrong username to the script.

 

David Acland - Amsys

[win]

Thanks @davidacland I downloaded that file and done a bit of research, so to make it work:

 

1. Create a file here

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.mounthome.app.plist

 

Comprising of

 

Label

com.mounthome.app

Program

/usr/sbin/mounthome.sh

RunAtLoad

 

Assuming /usr/sbin is the correct place to put that script?

 

A launchd Tutorial

Edited December 8, 2014 by win