[UniMacTech] Default profiles on Mac OS 10.5 with Active Directory (server 2003)

[Terry Brady]

Hi David,

On 26/08/2008, at 9:31 AM, David Kudrev wrote:

> Hi there folks, I have a bit of a curly one, so I'm working on a  
> default profile on the Macs, which are connected to Active  
> Directory, so what I want it to do, is for a user with an AD  
> username/password, log onto the machine, and have a default profile  
> set up (custom dock, wallpaper, settings, etc). Although it's not  
> happening, I'm getting the OSX default profile (as opposed to the  
> one I made and did;
> sudo ditto -rsrc /Users/default/ /System/Library/"User Template"/ 
> English.lproj/ then repaired permissions.
>
> If I was to create a local account on the workstation, it will come  
> up fine. However if I log in as a user on the AD, it will come up  
> with the default Mac OS profile, with the exception that the home  
> folder will appear as the network drive (so no local home folders).
>
> Is there ANY way that I can get a user to log on via Active  
> Directory on the mac and keep the default profile? Any questions you  
> folks that may have, would be more than happy to answer! Thanks for  
> this, as this has been wracking my brain for the past few days.

The User Template directory is only ever used if the user's home does  
not already exist. In your case, it sounds like you have configured  
the AD plugin to use the UNC path and connect a user to their network  
home. Since that home exists already, the template is not applied.

The Desktop and Library directories are created automatically at first  
login. Documents, Movies etc are created as required when the relevant  
applications are launched.

One option you have is to enable the "force local home" setting in the  
AD plugin. That means each time a new user logs in to a workstation,  
their local working environment will be created based on your  
template. Of course it means the user's data resides on the internal  
hard disk by default too, which may not be what you want.

In the bigger picture, to manage Dock settings, Desktop pictures etc  
you should look at implementing managed policies (aka "MCX") through a  
directory service. There's good information online to get you started  
- eg <http://www.bombich.com/mactips/activedir.html>.

Regards,
Terry


-- 
Terry Brady
Systems Engineer (Education)
Apple

Phone:	07 3025 3345
Mobile:	0401 690 679
Email:	tbrady at asia.apple.com
iChat:	bradyt at mac.com


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