[Samba] roaming profiles

[Gary Dale]

Wojciech Giel wrote:
> Gary Dale wrote:
>   
>> The netlogon share is, AFAIK, used if you want to provide scripts to be 
>> run at logon. It's not essential for roaming profiles but it's also 
>> probably not large so there is no point in not having one. Corporate 
>> types love being able to control end user's using netlogon scripts.
>>     
>
>   
>> Profiles are a copy of your Windows account profile that gets synched 
>> when you log on or off a Windows computer. The problem is, if you have 
>> lots of files in My Documents, it can get large and synching can take a 
>> long time.
>>     
>
>   
>> AFAIK there is no need for them both to be on the same machine but I've 
>> never tried doing it any other way. Not sure how to specify them on 
>> different machines. You can put your netlogon and profiles anywhere. 
>>     
>
> But can I stay only with this entries in smb.conf
>  [global]
>  .....
>          logon script = scripts\logon.bat
>          logon home = \\OXHILL\%U
>          logon path = \\OXHILL\%U\.profiles
>          logon drive = H:
>
> and get rid of [profile] share at all on pdc or member.
>   
I'm not sure what the point would be. Scripts are small files so even 
across a slow connection, they will download quickly. The profiles, on 
the other hand, can be large and synching them is slow. Moreover, having 
a copy on a server eliminates the need to back up workstations (although 
if users have a lot of files in their profiles, the synching can be slow 
- try to get them to keep files on server shares). With the profiles 
stored on a server, you just need to backup the server.

>   
>> The path you specify in your smb.conf above puts it in a hidden (.profile) 
>> directory in a user's Unix home folder. However, they may not have one. 
>>     
>
> it is created automatically by scripts. But I only need  to configure samba to 
> work correctly in this layout.
>   
If your users all have Unix accounts, but this is not necessary for 
Samba to work. However, it's no big deal to put the profiles elsewhere. 
Your choice.

>   
>> I keep mine in 
>> /home/samba/netlogon and /home/samba/profiles/%U myself. You can still 
>> share that for each user but it keeps your /home directory smaller - 
>> only Unix accounts & samba show up directly in /home.
>>     
>
> thanks
>
>   

Good luck!