Mac laptop users - home folder best practice

[iSteve]

Hello,

 

We have a batch of MacBook Pro users, and have been using Mobile Accounts with these as this is what we've always done. User logs in to laptop, it synchronises their home folder from the network, to their laptop, and any changes the make to files away from the network are synchronised back to the server. Sounds great, right?

 

We've run in to a few problems with this in recent years - Home Sync can't cope with syncing open files leading to a home sync error which causes end users to break out in to a sweaty panic. Some users reported vast chunks of their home folders disappearing (and so we moved back to serving these over AFP, which seemed to cure the problem). We spoke to a company regarding a different issue, and touched on best practice for mobile users. It seems that using Mobile Accounts is not the done thing anymore due to reliability. Suggestions were made such as users storing home folders on USB drives, or using cloud storage - which is in vogue, but breaks away from our method of working where files are on OUR server, and sync to the laptop etc. For Windows machines we use Offline Files, and feel that Mobile Accounts, on Mac, replicates this functionality....ish.

 

What are you guys doing in terms of staff with Mac laptops? How are you making files available on laptops, and available on desktops should the staff member log in to a desktop machine? What should we be doing?

[2ilent8cho]

First off you need to move away from Sync'd home directories. They are gone in Mac OS 10.12 Sierra, no longer supported. We have almost 100 Mac Staff laptops deployed. We still use Mobile Accounts so it caches the AD login details, but we tick 'Force Local Home Directory'.

 

We have Time Machine Server for backup, and OneDrive business for storing documents in so they can get their files on their Mac, iPad, or on another computer via the web browser.

[Martyn_OIAM]

Local logins. Use Google Drive/One Drive. Ensure File Vault is enabled.