Home directories are not automatically created for Domain Users on ESX/ESXi 4.1 hosts that are joined to an Active Directory Domain

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• An ESX/ESXi 4.1 host is joined to an Active Directory domain. Active Directory user accounts are granted the Administrator role on the ESX host and are able to login to the host via the console or SSH.
• When Active Directory users login to the host, the home directory appears to be /, instead of the system default of /home/<username>.
• Modifying the /etc/likewise/lsassd.conf file explicitly with these settings has no effect:

homedir-prefix = /home
homedir-template = %H/%U
create-homedir = yes

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable

Resolution

The create-homedir codepath has been disabled on ESX/ESXi 4.1. Attempting to configure this behavior using the /etc/likewise/lsassd.conf file will not succeed. To configure home directories for Active Directory user accounts, the directories must be manually created.

The /etc/likewise/lsassd.conf file can be modified to detail the location of the home directories once they exist by Adding or modifying these lines:

homedir-prefix = /home
homedir-template = %H/%U

This causes the homedir-prefix = /home to set the starting point for all home directories to be /home and homedir-template = %H/%U sets the home directory to be the homedir-prefix %H followed by the user account name %U. The variable %D can also be used to substitute the Active Directory domain name into the user's home directory.

Run these commands in sequence to restart the lsassd daemon and clear the Active Directory cache for these settings to take effect.

1. /etc/init.d/lsassd stop
2. rm /etc/likewise/db/lsass-adcache.filedb
3. /etc/init.d/lsassd start