Filter
Top Products
108 Chapter 8 Working with Users and Groups
Creating a Mobile User Account
Mobile accounts are network accounts that have been set up to be accessible even
when the user is not connected to the server where the account resides. The mobile
account user is provided with a local home folder on the computer the user is logged
in to. This functionality reduces network traffic and improves overall performance.
You can use the MCXCacher tool to create a mobile account from the command line.
MCXCacher performs the pre-login checks and refreshes cache if required. This tool will
only work if the client is bound to a network directory system containing the target
user record.
Important: Creating a mobile user account is a client-only operation. These commands
must be either performed on the client computer or while connected through SSH to a
client computer.
To create a mobile account:
1 Use the MCXCacher to create a mobile account on the current computer.
$ sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/mcxd.app/Contents/Resources/
MCXCacher -U
ajohnson
Where
ajohnson
is the short name of a user in the parent folder and
/Users/ajohnson
is the Home Folder.
2 Run the passwd command to change passwords.
$ passwd
ajohnson
Then enter verify passwords. You can also set the password by logging in while
connected to the network.
3 Create a standard home folder for a user with a mobile account.
$ sudo createhomedir -u ajohnson -c -l
When a mobile account is enabled, it appears in the login window and in the Accounts
pane of System Preferences with the label Mobile. You can alsol select the user in
Workgroup Manager and click Preferences > Mobility. If “synchronize account for offline
use” is checked, the account is mobile.
The MCXCacher tool does not have a man page. This tool, located in the /System/
Library/CoreServices/mcxd.app/Contents/Resources/ folder, performs the pre-login
checks and refreshes cache if necessary. The following examples describe other options
for MCXCacher tool.
To create (or overwrites an existing) mobile account on the current machine:
Enter the following, replacing
usershortname
with the user’s short name and
homepath
with the location of the user’s Home Folder.
$ sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/mcxd.app/Contents/Resources/
MCXCacher -U
usershortname
[-h
homepath
]