How Data ONTAP matches a directory with a user

Effects of home directory naming styles on user matching

You can specify the naming style of home directories, which determines how Data ONTAP matches a directory with a user.

The following list describes the naming styles:

Windows name: Data ONTAP searches for the directory whose name matches the user's Windows name.
Windows domain name and Windows name: If users from different domains have the same user name, it is necessary to differentiate them using the domain name. If the naming style is Windows domain name and Windows name, Data ONTAP searches for a directory in the home directory path that matches the domain name. Then, in the domain directory, it searches for the home directory that matches the user name.
Example: You can create a directory for engineering\jdoe and a directory for marketing\jdoe. To do so, you would create directories in the home directory paths. The directories created have the same names as the domain names (engineering and marketing). Then you would create user home directories in these domain directories.
Mapped UNIX name: If the naming style is UNIX, Data ONTAP searches for the directory that matches the user's mapped UNIX name.
Example: If John Doe's Windows name jdoe maps to the UNIX name johndoe, Data ONTAP searches the directory named johndoe, not jdoe, in the home directory paths, and offers it as the home share to John Doe.

Effects of not specifying a home directory naming style

If you do not specify a home directory naming style, Data ONTAP uses the pre-6.0 style, which is for backward compatibility. It is useful if you want Data ONTAP to match a directory with a user the same way it did before 6.0.

Before 6.0, Data ONTAP used the user's Windows name for directory matching. Therefore, the pre-6.0 style and the Windows naming style are similar. There are, however, differences between these styles, as described in About symbolic links used as home directory names.

About symbolic links used as home directory names

Before Data ONTAP 6.0, if you wanted home directories to reside in various volumes, you had to specify symbolic links as home directories in the home directory path. Because Data ONTAP 6.0 supports home directories in various volumes, it is less likely that you need to use symbolic links as home directory names. However, Data ONTAP 6.0 continues to support symbolic links as home directory names for backward compatibility.

Effects of naming styles on symbolic links

The way symbolic links work depends on the home directory naming style.

Pre-6.0 naming style

If you do not specify a naming style, Data ONTAP uses symbolic links the same way it did before 6.0. That is, it can follow any symbolic link that points to a directory outside the home directory path to locate a home directory.

Example

Suppose the home directory path is /vol/vol0/eng_homes and you use the pre-6.0 home directory naming style. To locate the home directory for jdoe, Data ONTAP searches for /vol/vol0/eng_homes/jdoe, which can be a symbolic link pointing to a directory outside the home directory path, such as /vol/vol1/homes/jdoe.

Other naming styles

If you specify a home directory naming style, by default a symbolic link works only if the symbolic link points to a directory in the home directory path.

Example

Suppose the home directory path is /vol/vol0/eng_homes and you use the Windows naming style. To locate the home directory for jdoe, Data ONTAP searches for /vol/vol0/eng_homes/jdoe, which can be a symbolic link. If so, the user can access the home directory only if the target of the symbolic link resides in the home directory path. For example, the symbolic link works if it points to the /vol/vol0/eng_homes/john directory; it does not work if it points to the /vol/vol1/homes/john directory.

Note
You can change the default filer settings to allow CIFS clients to follow symbolic links to destinations outside the home directory path. For information on the options for symbolic links, see Controlling CIFS access to symbolic links.