Home Folder AutoProvisioning
Policies in this category are intended to automate the creation or renaming of user home folders and home shares upon user accounts creation or renaming through Active Roles.
You can specify a server on which to create home folders and home shares, define how to set permissions for new home folders and shares, specify naming conventions for new home folders and home shares, and limit the number of concurrent connections to home shares.
For example, using this type of policy, a corporate rule can be defined so that every time Active Roles creates a user account, it also creates a folder on a network file share, and assigns it as the user’s home folder.
How the Home Folder AutoProvisioning policy works
When running a Home Folder AutoProvisioning policy, Active Roles performs various actions depending on whether a user is created, copied, or renamed.
Creating home folders and shares when creating user accounts
When Active Roles creates a user account (whether from scratch or by copying an existing account), the policy can cause Active Roles to create a home folder and, optionally, a home share for the account using the path specified in the policy. The name of the home share is composed of the user name, and the prefix and suffix specified in the policy.
The policy provides the option to enable creation of home folders with paths and names that differ from the path and name prescribed by the policy. For example, a Property Generation and Validation policy can be configured to generate the Home Drive and Home Directory properties on user accounts. When making changes to those properties, Active Roles verifies that the specified home folder exists, and creates the home folder if necessary.
A special policy is implemented in Active Roles that restricts the folders on the network file shares in which home folders can be created. The Policy Object containing that policy is located in the Configuration/Policies/Administration/Builtin container. The name of the Policy Object is Built-in Policy - Home Folder Location Restriction. You can access it by using the Active Roles Console. The policy settings include a list of the folders on the network file shares in which creation of home folders is allowed. For instructions on how to view or modify that list, see Configuring the Home Folder Location Restriction policy.
Renaming home folders when renaming user accounts
When Active Roles modifies the user logon name (pre-Windows 2000) of a user account, the policy can rename the home folder and, optionally, re-create the home share for that user account. The name of the new home share is set up in accordance with the naming convention specified in the policy.
The policy renames the existing home folder based on the new user logon name (pre-Windows 2000). However, if the home folder is in use, Active Roles cannot rename the folder. In this case, Active Roles creates a new home folder with the new name and does not affect the existing home folder.
