Creating a home share for each user

When to create a home directory

You can create a share that contains home directories of registered CIFS users.

For example, if there are users called user1 and user2, the share contains directories for user1 and user2. When user1 connects to the filer and asks for its list of shares, the display shows a share called user1, but not user2 or any other individual user.

Note: If Domain1\user and Domain2\user are the same, they do not have different home directories. To prevent access by the wrong user, set Windows permissions and UNIX permissions at the root of the user's home directory.

Accessing a home directory

Users access their home directories in the same way as any other share. That is, users can open the share with Network Neighborhood, by mapping a drive, or by using a UNC name. The UNC name is

\\filer\username

Share name length limitations

Because share names are truncated to 12 characters, the home directory name might show a truncated version of the user's account name.

For example, consider the 13-letter name administrator. From the filer point of view, the home directory for administrator has a name that exactly matches the account name administrator, but use of that directory is offered under the truncated share name administrato.

If there were users administrator and administrator1, they would see an offer for their own home directory, but both would see it as an offer to share the name administrato. Therefore, each user gets the correct directory, even though the share names appear the same.

Creating a share containing user home directories

The following procedure creates a share that automatically contains home directories for CIFS users:

Enable the home directory option by entering the following command.
```
options cifs.home_dir homedirpath 
```
Where homedirpath is the UNIX path name that will be mapped to the share CIFS.HOMEDIR. This share automatically contains CIFS user home directories.

If the directory containing the home directories is /vol/vol1/homes, enter the following command:
```
options cifs.home_dir /vol/vol1/homes 
```
Within the directory specified by the cifs.home_dir option, create a directory for each user. Make sure that the following conditions are met:
- Each directory name matches the user's login name exactly.
- Each user is the owner of the directory.

Creating share home directories

Using the cifs.home_dir option to create home directories is useful only if users do not need to read or write other users' home directories. If they must access other users' home directories, follow this procedure:

Create an additional share, from either Windows or the filer, that maps to the same path name as the CIFS.HOMEDIR share.
From either Windows or the filer, assign each user the appropriate access permissions to other users' home directories.

Example from the filer

The following example shows how to create an additional share, assign user access rights to the share, and display the share information from the filer command line. If authentication is through the /etc/passwd file, UNIX permissions are shown; otherwise, Windows NT permissions appear.

cifs shares -add enghomes /vol/vol1/homes \

   -comment "Readable home directories"

"Readable home directories"

cifs access enghomes -g engineering r-x

cifs shares

Name         Mount Point                       Description

----         -----------                       -----------

enghome      /vol/vol1/homes                   Readable home 
directories

                        engineering{g} / r-x

C$           /vol/vol0                         Remote Administration

                        BUILTIN\Administrators / Full Control

HOME         /vol/vol0/home                    Default Share

                        everyone / Full Control

CIFS.HOMEDIR /vol/vol1/homes                   Home Directories

                        everyone / Full Control

Result

Users in the engineering group can read all home directories in HOMES on the root volume, which corresponds to the share defined by the options cifs.home_dir command. However, they can only write to their own home directories, which reside in the CIFS.HOMEDIR share.

Part No. 210-02334
File: cifs12.htm
Last updated: 02/24/99 12:16:32