MacOS – Lion Server not able to set Open Directory user account to store home directory on server

macososx-server

I'm setting up a new Mac Mini server for a client that came with Lion Server. The Mac Mini will act as an Open Directory server and will store each Mac user in the office's home directory on it.

It's easy to set this by using the Server.app tool and choosing a local share for the home directory. However it seems that I can't set it. When I try to choose the share instead of "Local only" it doesn't save the choice.

How can I get around this? Or alternatively, how can I use the Directory viewer to set this manually? I can see the field that sets the home directory, but I'm not sure of the format required to choose a network share.

Also cross-posting on Serverfault as I'm not sure which is the best place to post this.

Best Answer

I was able to figure this out a while ago, but I realized I only posted the answer to my question on Serverfault. Here's the solution for this:

I ended up setting up Lion Server at my house, creating an Open Directory user with a remote home directory, and looking in the Directory Utility to see what the actual keys were set as. I was then able to use Directory Utility on the client's computer to set the keys manually and it worked perfectly.

Here are the keys you need to set assuming the server's hostname is server, and the directory is /Users/test on the server:

key: HomeDirectory

val: <home_dir><url>afp://server/Users</url><path>test</path></home_dir>

key: NFSHomeDirectory

val: /Network/Servers/server/Users/test

Related Question