Network Home Directories?

[kleinmatic]

Can anybody share success/failure stories with using Network Home Directories?

We’re switching our 75-user network (60/40 Mac — will probably get more Mac-y as time goes on) from a win2k server to an Xserve G5 (with RAID 5 X-RAID, all 10/100 switched ethernet).

We got Network Home Directories working in our testing environment and are fairly pleased with it — it’s a neat concept, seems fast enough. It could save us real time when doing computer setups, and it makes backing up everybody’s home directory easy.

But is it worth doing? I know that if the Xserve ever gets sick (or if any of our network switches get sick, etc) my users will all crash and not be able to work at all. Is the convenience and robustness of network home directories worth the trade-off? I fear that it’s putting all of our eggs in one basket.

Keep in mind that we have a G5 with OS X server that we’ll use as an OD replica, if that helps at all.

Thanks!

[kleinmatic]

Don’t I need a FC Switch to mount the drives on two computers simultaneously?

[kleinmatic]

Hm. So, theoretically: with Server B acting as OD Replica, I could:

– change Server B from replica to master;
– put XRaid FC Connection into Server B;
– change dns so Server A’s traffic goes to Server B;

Would that, in theory, bring everybody back up again until I can fix whatever ails Server A?

Also, more generally, in your opinion, are the benefits of Network Home Dirs worth the freezing-cold fear that everything can scew up at once?

Many, Many thanks.

[kleinmatic]

I don’t have an FC Switch, so can I do this manually, by moving the FC cable from Server A to Server B, and let ip failover do its other magic?

Another question: Can the failover server do other things, like Filemaker serving, etc. while it’s not needed for the failover? Or does it have to be a “Vice President” — waiting patiently, doing nothing, until its needed?

[PhillyMJS]

kleinmatic wrote:

But is it worth doing? I know that if the Xserve ever gets sick my users will all crash and not be able to work at all. Is the convenience and robustness of network home directories worth the trade-off? I fear that it’s putting all of our eggs in one basket.

I’m hammering out the details of a project for a mid-sized client right now, and we are defiinitely going to use network home directories. I too worried about a server crash bringing the whole place to a screeching halt, but there’s an answer– mobile user accounts. If you’re not familiar with them, they’re designed to put a local copy of a NHD on a laptop user’s machine so they can use the computer normally while not on the LAN.

I’ve done quite a bit of testing with them and they work quite well, with one caveat– Panther Server does not offer sync capabilities between the local and network home directories, AFAICT. Tiger Server will remedy this oversight, but for now we’ve had to find a 3rd-party sync utility (ChronoSync) to sync the two folders.

For laptop users who leave the office, the syncing needs to be done (at a minimum) when first rejoining the LAN after being away, and when about to be removed from it again. You can also use mobile user accounts for non-mobile desktop Macs, purely as a hedge against server failure. On those machines, the syncing should be done around noon and again in the evening, to minimize data loss if the server hosting the NHDs goes bye-bye.

I’m kinda hoping my client will delay the project a bit so we can set them up with Tiger Server and not have to mess with ChronoSync. It’s a nice utility, but automatic syncing as a server function would certainly be preferable.

~Philly

[kleinmatic]

To me, Mobile Homes is kind of like not using NHD — the data is all still stored locally, and has to be synced by some means we hatch ourselves. It’s nice to have centralized policy control, but we really need a way to backup local directories and NHD is the cleanest best way, IMHO.

We’ll definitely take advantage of Tiger’s implementation, which seems to be more “iDisk-Syncing-esque.”

[kleinmatic]

So is this the idea?

Server A – OD Master; Server B – OD Replica, filemaker server.

Server A goes down; we switch the FC cable to Server B, bring up Server A’s ip (via multihoming) on Server B. Make Server B the master.

That all?

[dragonmac]

I like NHD and use them in a productions environment. I have a mix of OS X and 9 clients (MacMgr set on server) all using NHD. 25 clients + 6 PC’s not using NHD’s. Server is 10.3 dual 1.8ghz 2.5GB RAM and is connected to a Gigabit port on Switch all others users are 100BaseT.
I find the use of NHD far out-ways the down time issue. I have had this setup in ASIP with MacMgr, and now in X for 1.5 years, for 5 years and have had maybe 12 hours of real down time for users(thats on the high end of a guess). Good backups and regular maintenance on the Server keeps everyone happy.
As far as the Sync issue you can very easily setup login and logout Hooks to use “rsync” which is built in to X.2.+ clients and server. If you wanna get fancy add an iHook front end so users can see what rsync is doing. If they transfer large files it could take a 1 or 2 mins to login/out. Don’t want them to think they crashed.
You mentioned above Server is on only 100BaseT which is a real waste of an Xserve So I RECOMMEND a new switch. Prices for Gigabit are much more reasonable then when I bought mine. (2 port Giga, 24 port 10/100 GX4).
Also as far as your solution for redundancy, WARNING-Messing with Server IP’s or DNS settings CAN CAUSE MANY PROBLEMS!!! OD, LDAP, KDC, and many other services on the server CAN Break with IP/DNS changes!!! Not a good work around. But thats just my experience.
This ain’t ASIP folks 😆

[kleinmatic]

Thanks for all the responses so far! It seems like lots of people are doing Mobile Accounts and then syncing at logout (which is, btw, the way Windows seems to do it when OS X serves Roaming Profiles to Windows users).

Does anybody actually mount their users home directories over the network and actually serve the files live like that?

(the xserve and production machines are all going to be on a gigabit switch, btw).

Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

kleinmatic wrote:

Thanks for all the responses so far! It seems like lots of people are doing Mobile Accounts and then syncing at logout

Whoa! Thats what i want to do but i can’t find any info on it. I wanna sync on login and logout. Anyone got any ihook scripts i can hack up?

[fwalrod]

kleinmatic wrote:

Thanks for all the responses so far! It seems like lots of people are doing Mobile Accounts and then syncing at logout (which is, btw, the way Windows seems to do it when OS X serves Roaming Profiles to Windows users).

Does anybody actually mount their users home directories over the network and actually serve the files live like that?

(the xserve and production machines are all going to be on a gigabit switch, btw).

I’m using NHD’s in a production environment with about 25 designers. It’s nice to let users log in from any workstation and be able to see exactly the same thing they would have on their own desk. They can also connect through VPN and get to their Home dir on the server to access their own files, even if their workstation is shut down. Work files are actually on a separate server.

Caveats: Make sure if you allow iTunes use, that you set it up to store music on the local HD (Shared folder), otherwise it will suck up all your bandwidth AND you end up backing up every user’s 20GB of music all the time.

[Dof]

I’ve implemented a reasonable amount of NHD envirionments wich all run perfect for a longer perion of time now, my customers are quite happy whit it (it’s perfect sollution in combination with NetRestore). They key problem is the single point of failure because when the server is down all the users are down.

This could be prevented by implementing a failover system with the use of FC switches but for most customers the investment on a FC switch and a secondairy server is way to high.

Although a failover system is the best solution my workaround is to regualry make a clone of the server to a raid partition so in case of panic a fast machine equiped with a FC card can boot of the raid partition and let the users do their work while the server is repaired (service contracts with a response guaranty would help speed up the downtime of the server)

For some reasons i still don’t like retrospect running on a x-serve so the dedicated backup machine could do the job a a backup server.

Before using NHD test all the user applications because some of them don’t work in a NHD envirionment, Font Agen Pro and the latest Wacom tablet drivers are a real pain in the @#$.

[MacDave]

Dof wrote:

Before using NHD test all the user applications because some of them don’t work in a NHD envirionment, Font Agen Pro and the latest Wacom tablet drivers are a real pain in the @#$.

I’m specifically interested in hearing about problems that people have had using networked Home directories. I have a client that I am going to switch over to NHD, and they primarily use adobe design applications, and Microsoft Office 2004. All client machines are Mac OS 10.3, server is Xserve Dual G5, with Xserve RAID.

Can anyone chime in here with potential application or other pitfalls in this scenario, aside from those mentioned above?

[Anonymous]

I am serving 500 users with an xserve dual 1ghz and frequently 30-40 simulataneously logged-in clients via NHD. Usually things are fine but if too many people mount appleshare mounts simultaneously CPU usage spikes and the system grinds to a halt for 10-15 minutes. When things grind to a halt EVERYTHING gets slow: launching apps, saving files etc. This is a big downside to the whole NHD approach. I work in higher ed and at the beginning of semesters when faculty are showing classes how to mount shares and use drop boxes this is always a big issue…

[kurtzpd]

I am not sure if these issues are related to NHD, but it seems to be. I have 8 computers setup with NHD all using panther clients on the panther server. I have setup 3 user accounts for the Student Newspaper, Yearbook, and Marketing. I have run into two issues, which I am pretty sure is related to NHD.
First, the Adobe CS apps only like being open in one location when an account is logged-in several places. The only reason I can think of is that they would be using the same user-preferences. Is there a way to use multiple log-in with the Adobe apps?
Second, Font Book doesn’t seem to enable the user fonts. It does it once in a great while, but usually it only uses the host’s fonts.
Any Ideas are Appreciated.

[Author]

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