Filter
Top Products
140 Chapter 8 Managing Portable Computers
 The user uses the same mobile account to log in to two computers simultaneously.
This might create sync issues with the two computers, causing the computers to
display error messages.
Login and logout syncing should be carefully managed because a user’s login and
logout is delayed while files are syncing. If a user has a slow network connection or is
syncing many files or large files, the user must wait for syncing to complete before
using the system.
If you want to sync parts of a user’s ~/Library folder, you must use login and logout
syncing. Syncing the ~/Library folder retains users’ bookmarks and application
preferences.
Consider syncing smaller files (such as preference files) at login and logout, while
syncing larger files (such as movies) in the background. This reduces login and logout
times because only preference files sync, and movies sync throughout a user’s session
(instead of while the user is trying to log out). You can further reduce network traffic by
choosing not to sync the movies folder, requiring users to access the movies folder
locally.
By balancing login and logout syncing with background syncing, you can reduce the
time required for logging in and logging out, while retaining consistent, synced home
folders.
Setting Up Mobile Accounts for Use on Portable Computers
When distributing portable computers, you face challenges that don’t apply when
deploying stationary computers.
For example, to ensure your portable computers remain managed while off the
network, you must give users mobile accounts and prevent them from creating their
own local accounts, or from changing settings to bypass management.
Configuring Portable Computers
When you distribute portable computers to users, you must configure those computers
to prevent users from circumventing your management scheme.
To set up portable computers for use on your network:
1 Install the operating system, applications, and utilities.
Most computers come with Mac OS X installed. However, to install a newer version,
make sure the computer meets the minimum requirements for installing the operating
system, applications, and utilities.
2 Create local accounts on Mac OS X computers.