Migrate local client users to OD users

Question

Good afternoon.
In the last year I have been hired at a company with over 140 client machines and numerous intel xserves. The problem (and the nightmare) is that they have never set up the client machines and users as part of the OD.
For the obvious reasons of management, single sign on, and security I would like to implement an OD company-wide with replicas. The main hurdle right now is how do I migrate the local user accounts on each client to OD accounts and keep the local user home folders? I do not need to make these users portable users, just want them to authenticate against the OD.
Also how do I handle authentication for users with laptops when they are offsite?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi Brian,
What we did is create the user with the same name in OD. We set their home folders to /users so that the home folder would point to their local hard drive. We then removed the local user, but did not remove their home folder. The home folder gets renamed, so you need to rename it back, and assign permissions to the OD user. Login as the network user and it works.
For laptop users, we set them up as mobile users. They sync their network home folder (in /users) to their local home folder (also /users) therefore there is no real sync. They can then authenticate offline.
All the best,
Robert