Two Mobile Account Management Queries

[richserve]

I’m testing Mobile Accounts with a test group/user. I plan to convert all our network accounts to mobile network/local home sync accounts soon to maximise speed working with and transfering user’s data between our desktops and server.

So far, no problems at all. My questions are:

1) Is ~/Library synching now native to 10.4.4 and later ? If so, are there any things I should check that I might wish to exclude/include myself via WGM ? I have one machine set with a hacked mcxd.app as per the instructions in the AFP548.com article and John DeTroye’s article – that works great. I have another machine that has not been modified at all – that is synching everything (including ~/Library content) properly too, so I guess no mods. necessary.

2) What’s the best way to periodically (and as safely as possible i.e. through ARD) remove the build-up of local home directories (‘rabbit effect’) per machine? There is a Steve Hayman script in JohnD’s guide but I’m struggling with it via ARD.

Many Thanks

[richserve]

Well, that’s good.

Really, the build up of local home directories from synching will be manageable, I think, every 6-8 weeks, maybe more. Our college runs 3 terms per academic year (about 12 weeks each), approx 400 user accounts of which 60-70% are in use all year. All students have a 900MB quota, encouraging a backup to CD regularly. Staff (about 6 of us anyway) have a 2GB quota. Network homes are spread across 2 250GB Xserve volumes. The client machines hard drives have roughly 40-45GB free.

In short I think I can manage OK without blitzing the Users folder every week. The only permanent local user is the initial admin account, used for such purposes only. Plus most students tend to gravitate to the same ‘favourite’ machine even though they could login to any.

One thing I noticed is that on the first test machine (mod. mcxd.app .plist files), after several smooth login/synchs., my second test mobile account saw the prohibited folder icons for their Network Home sub-folders, bar the Public and Sites folders (the Network Home is still added to the Dock). Logging in to my second test machine (non-mod. mcxd.app) with the same account was OK for access. Synching took place correctly all the time, so I guess it’s a one-off caused by blasting the ARD ‘remove homes’ script (which seemed not to work) I mentioned earlier at the former machine.

Anyway, thanks again.

[richserve]

PS

What’s handy is being able to enable mobile homes per group via Workgroup Manager, so I can steadily bring them on stream and see how things go.

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