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No Mac users here (I no longer work for the U, but for Jackson Hole
Mountain Resort)

When I worked in EGR we had large number of Windows systems that we
didn't maintain nor were in the domain.  Our solution was to create a
DNS alias to the server, and publish the alias instead.  So people
could map \\files\User, or \\files\Groups.  If the server dies, just
point the alias "files" (or whatever you call it) to the new system.
In most cases, the actual share names don't change, so you're safe.

I've never dealt with more than a handful of Macs in any
environment... they already know they are on the fringe and their
abilities may be limited, by choice.  I'd still go ahead and implement
DFS because the benefits far outway the drawbacks for a few users.
I'd provide them with direct mappings (or the alternative above) and
then update as they cry fire.   I'm not sure if you're dealing with
the same scenario though so that may not work.

dpk

On 8/2/07, Harper, Chris <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dennis --
>
> DFS is nice because your storage appears unified when in fact it is
> quite the opposite once you dig into the destination of the DFS shares.
> I investigated using that here at UR but my roadblock came with Mac's.
>
> What solution (if any) did you come up with for this? Or are your Mac
> users (again, if any) just accustomed to knowing where their data is
> located, rather than in respect to the DFS root?
>
> Appreciate your input.
>
> Regards,
>
> Chris Harper
> INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST
> University Relations / Michigan State University
> 401 Olds Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824-1047
> Email: [log in to unmask] / Direct: 517.355.9980
> Web: http://ur.msu.edu / Cell: 517.290.5496
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Dennis Kelly
> Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 5:50 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] Anyone use ADMODIFY.NET?
>
> No we haven't, and there shouldn't be much of a performance hit or
> overhead because DFS is only a pointer to the actual share, so the DFS
> server doesn't handle/proxy the data traffic.  Once the client is told
> the share resides on serverX, it goes straight to serverX for data.
> It probably helps using domain DFS root, so requests are load
> balanced, but that too should be negligable... I do domain DFS root to
> have redundancy, because if a DC goes offline, I shouldn't lose any DC
> services.
>
> dpk
>
>
>
> On 8/2/07, Troy Murray <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Dennis,
> >
> > In the past I've tried to use DFS for users shares and found that the
> > performance was very poor compared to just a straight share UNC.  Have
> > you seen any performance degradation from using DFS?
> >
> > -t
> >
> >
> > On 8/2/07, Dennis Kelly <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > > If you're only concerned about home directories, you can use the
> > > native Administrative Tool "Active Directory Users and Computers".
> > > Select all the users you want to modify and
> > > right-click "Properties".  You can go to the profile tab and click
> > > "Home Directory" to
> > > modify a property for multiple objects.  It does allow the use of
> %username%
> > >
> > > Also, to avoid this problem in the future, you may want to
> investigate
> > > the use of DFS... it's a very flexible way to mange, load-balance,
> > > etc. your network shares.  I use domain DFS root so that I can
> > > replicate the published links across both domain controllers for
> > > additional reliability. You can then use notation like this for
> > > mapping user directories:
> > >
> > > \\domain.com\dfs\User\%username%
> > >
> > > where \\domain.com\dfs is my dfs root.  The link "User" points to a
> > > share \\some-server\User.  If some-server is replaced with
> > > some-other-server, I only need to update the DFS link on one of the
> > > domain controllers to point to \\some-other-server\User.
> > >
> > > Boom it's replicated, and boom no headache of remappings.  I use
> this
> > > for any/all network shares here in Jackson Hole. I can send you my
> > > documentation on it if interested.
> > >
> > > dpk
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 8/2/07, Ehren Benson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > > > Nag-
> > > >
> > > > I was wondering if any of you windows folks ever used the tool
> admodify.net
> > > > to do mass AD changes.  I am trying to use it with a LDAP filter
> to find all
> > > > users who currently have a home directory and then select all of
> those users
> > > > and change the location of their home directory (we got a new box
> for home
> > > > directories).  However it seems when I use the %USERNAME% it does
> not
> > > > enumerate the variable...it just sets each users profile path to
> > > > \\server\users\username (instead of replacing %username% with
> their actual
> > > > username).
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Wondering if anyone else has used it and possibly ran into this
> issue, or
> > > > has had good luck with some other scripts/tools.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > NOTE:  I decided to use admodify with the LDAP filter because I
> don't want
> > > > to change the path for EVERY user, because some do not have home
> > > > directories, and those who do not have them I would like to remain
> that way.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Thanks
> > > >
> > > > /Ehren
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Troy D Murray
> > Blog: http://troymurray.blogspot.com/
> > AIM: troymurray72
> > Yahoo!: [log in to unmask]
> > MSN: [log in to unmask]
> > Google Talk: [log in to unmask]
> >
>