steps to set up portable home on leopard server

[kray]

I am setting up a new Leopard Server and want to make a portable home account for my macbook pro. It has been so long since I did this with Tiger (the account on the macbook is already set up as admin, managed, mobil) that I can’t remember the steps for sure and I want to make sure that the files in on my powerbook get pushed to the server on the first sync.

1. I think the server has be set up as an open directory od master, right?
2. Then I create a user with the same user name and password on the LDAP directory of the server as on my macbook, right?
3. Set the mobility preferences for the server account (with “create home with syncing” set to off, to stop the network home from replacing the macbook home), right?
4. Choose sync now from the macbook

I already have backed up the macbook home directory (just in case something goes horribly wrong), but I am hoping that someone can confirm these steps. I tried this all yesterday but got the “network home not available” message when I tried to sync.

[Magus255]

We recently reinstalled our server and have had to deal with the same kind of thing. I have found that the easiest way seems to me to login with a local admin account and move the user home directory, then delete the user, then move the files back. Logout and login as the user and make a new mobile account. Then just check to make sure everything went well. For your steps 1, yes od master. 2 create user, same username and password is easier but you can still make it work without same info. 3 you might need to turn syncing on, without syncing it will just cache login info which should work for you but maybe not. 4 works.

with the network home not available message, did you remember to set a home directory location and all that for the ldap user?

[kray]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: Magus255[/u][p]We recently reinstalled our server and have had to deal with the same kind of thing. I have found that the easiest way seems to me to login with a local admin account and move the user home directory, then delete the user, then move the files back. [/p][/QUOTE]

So you end up with the users home dir in /Users/bob/ but no user named bob?

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: Magus255[/u][p]Logout and login as the user and make a new mobile account. [/p][/QUOTE]

If you have just deleted the user bob, how do you log in as bob?

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: Magus255[/u][p]Then just check to make sure everything went well. For your steps 1, yes od master. 2 create user, same username and password is easier but you can still make it work without same info. 3 you might need to turn syncing on, without syncing it will just cache login info which should work for you but maybe not. [/p][/QUOTE]

Not sure what “turn syncing on” means. Are you referring to Mobility Preferences, or am I missing something?

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: Magus255[/u][p]4 works. with the network home not available message, did you remember to set a home directory location and all that for the ldap user?[/p][/QUOTE]

Yes. My users home dirs are in /Volumes/disk1/home1/

I hit “Create Home now” Saved, and confirmed that the dir had been created. As and aside, does anyone know why the disk space thermometer under Server Admin -> File Sharing, for my external disk is yellow while the two internal disks are green?

[Magus255]

First, yes you end up with a home dir /Users/bob with no bob user, really it should be bob’s dir that was moved. Second, You log out of admin and login to the network account of the user. Yes the mobility preference, if you don’t have it set to sync then it will just make a new user and not copy server files, so your choice. Once you login and have created the account you can just move the home folder back, either overwriting the 1 it created or with rsync. If you move it back before you make the account it should sync the changes with the server and upload the local stuff to the server. Either way you will probably have to log back in as admin and fix the permissions on the folder.

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