Where to put users home directories on Mac MIni Server?

[asdl]

I’ve got a setup question on a recently purchased Mac Mini Server:

I bought the server as a family server – a place everyone can store their files centrally, store multiple iPhoto libraries (100+ Gb?), iTunes libraries plus FLAC collections, a recipe wiki, family calendar and address book, plus a centralized scanning repository to get rid of mountains of paper.

I figured that would require a lot of storage so I bought the Promise 3 TB raid (5). I set the two internal MacMini 500 Gb drives as mirrored Raid 1, so the system drive now has 500 Gb.

Should I put the users’ home directories on the 500 Gb system drive – there’s still a lot of space on it, and I don’t see adding many apps to the server – certainly not 400 Gbs worth. But when the users need more space, can they somehow expand onto the Promise RAID? Or would I need to set up a second sharepoint for them, which would appear as another attached drive on their desktop?

Or should I just start them right off on the attached Promise RAID, which has so much room and will be easier to enlarge?

[deemery]

For what it’s worth, I host my home directories on an external (FW800) RAID Mirrored enclosure. Under Leopard/Snow Leopard server, this has worked fine. (It was really hard to configure under Tiger server, but eventually I got it to work.)

You’ll need to be very careful about how you set up the accounts in the Workgroup Manager to configure the home directories properly. As I recall, first you have to go to Server Manager and establish the mount points as LDAP home directory automounts. Then you can launch Workgroup Manager and the home directory automount should be selectable.

But note my posting here where I’m now having problem with those home directories after upgrading the disk drives in the RAID enclosure.

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