Migrate from Mac OS X Network Account to Local
For one reason and another I'm considering migrating some Mac OS X (10.5 & 10.6) users from network/mobile accounts to local accounts. What's the best way to do this?
I know that the client machines will prioritise any local account over a network account, but I think I probably need to reset permissions / ownership of the home folder to do this properly. I heard there may be an existing procedure for this and wonder if anyone can explain or attach it?
Thanks
mr-gadget
I know that the client machines will prioritise any local account over a network account, but I think I probably need to reset permissions / ownership of the home folder to do this properly. I heard there may be an existing procedure for this and wonder if anyone can explain or attach it?
Thanks
mr-gadget
The first thing is that you should not have a local and network account that have the same names.
Next, to migrate the account, create the local account from the system preferences. After the account is created, I would use the ditto command to copy the data between user home folders, followed by the terminal command chown -Rfv <owner> </filename>
Next, to migrate the account, create the local account from the system preferences. After the account is created, I would use the ditto command to copy the data between user home folders, followed by the terminal command chown -Rfv <owner> </filename>
ASKER
jhyiesla:
Thanks for the suggestion. I did consider doing that but it seems like a lot of copying when the home folder is already there. I just want to make sure that the right ownership and permissions are assigned.
nappy_d:
Thanks also... why should you not have a local and network account that have the same names? My understanding is that the Mac will simply use the local account in preference to the network one. So, if I'm planning to stop using the network account, other than for file-server and email authentication there shouldn't be an issue?
Virtually all the Macs I want to change have mobile accounts, so there's already a home folder on the local drive.
To put this into context...
There have been endless sync problems with mobile accounts since long before I joined this company and now we have a server performance problem too (https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/27031186/10-6-7-Snow-Leopard-Server-Performance-Slowing-To-Unuseable.html)
...so I'm considering taking network accounts out of the equation completely for the time being, perhaps to reintroduce them at a later date.
Thanks for the suggestion. I did consider doing that but it seems like a lot of copying when the home folder is already there. I just want to make sure that the right ownership and permissions are assigned.
nappy_d:
Thanks also... why should you not have a local and network account that have the same names? My understanding is that the Mac will simply use the local account in preference to the network one. So, if I'm planning to stop using the network account, other than for file-server and email authentication there shouldn't be an issue?
Virtually all the Macs I want to change have mobile accounts, so there's already a home folder on the local drive.
To put this into context...
There have been endless sync problems with mobile accounts since long before I joined this company and now we have a server performance problem too (https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/27031186/10-6-7-Snow-Leopard-Server-Performance-Slowing-To-Unuseable.html)
...so I'm considering taking network accounts out of the equation completely for the time being, perhaps to reintroduce them at a later date.
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I used this technique to do what you are suggesting going the other direction and I would imagine that it would also work to go the direction you are trying to go as well.