Portable Home Directory workaround

[NateVoigt]

Hello Jamf Friends,
I am working on a new directory environment using Open Directory on Mac OS server with Jamf to bind clients, I am doing this because we are decommissioning our old Active Directory server in the months ahead. Currently I have network user profiles set up and linked to network user home folders that reside on our server. Users are able to log into client machines while on the local network and the information from their home folders syncs on logout. The issue is that as soon as a user goes remote, they no longer can log into their network profile due to losing connection with the server. My goal is to have network profiles that users can log into remotely and use, that will either sync with our server remotely or upon reconnecting to the server's local network.

So far I have tried:
Mobile profiles- added some code to workGroup through directory utility, created a home folder on both the server and client but only syncs login info
Local Only Home folders- works if and only if user is on the server's local network and authorized bound to server
Pointing DNS to external IP of server- no noticeable change

Is there a way to emulate/implement Portable Home Directory Folders using Jamf, Active Directory or possibly a VPN? Any help or tips would be appreciated as well as my only knowledge of this comes from Apple's Server Admin Guide. Thank you!
Nate

[Aguiness]

Hi I am not aware of how to do this with jamf but Apple do not recommend using mobile homes as the syncing gets complicated and the user can and will lose data, i believe the mobile home option was not recommended after 10.6 as it really does not work.
you need to use some thing like rsync to do the syncing this can be scripted but ideally when onsite.
perhaps user training is a better option as far as ensuring the correct files are backed up. They are not like roaming profiles in windows due to the complexity of the mac home folder
i'm sure someone else will jump in but i would not recommend automating this due to the risk factor

[mark_mahabir]

In our lab environment we use scripts to replace folders like Documents, Desktop, Movies and Pictures with soft links to a network share. However this wouldn't work off-campus, so we set up our staff Macs with local homes and mobile (AD) accounts.

We don't have a VPN solution in place yet, so users are encouraged to drag and drop files to their network shares - which we map for them on the desktop automatically - when on-campus; or place files in OneDrive if they know they will need access to them when off site.

What about rsync scripts based on something in this thread?