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November 8th, 2012 08:00
VNX Home Directory feature with migrated user shares
Hello,
A site with existing NetApp Filer will be migrating all User home-directories/shares over to new VNX File. EMCopy and ShareDup so far are the preferred tools to migrate these 1500 User shares.
Question: In this case since there will be existing user home shares migrated to the VNX, would there still be any benefit in enabling the VNX Home directory feature? Or is the VNX Home Directory feature better suited for new Users with new Home shares? I have reviewed the many benefits of this feature, but just not sure if it should still be positioned for this migration effort with exisitng users- and if any issues may arise as a result with these existing users.
Thanks for responses and insight,
umichklewis
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November 9th, 2012 08:00
The VNX Home directory feature is beneficial for new installations, but can be deployed with existing users as well. Take a look at the EMC white papers on the home directory feature. You'll learn quite a bit on the regular expressions that are available and how these can simplify home directory implementation.
Let's say your Netapp has the user folders organized \directory1\user_A, \directory\user_B, etc. If you migrate the folders over with the same structure, you can enable the Home Directory feature on the VNX and make it simple for users to access their directory, with just \\CIFSSERVER\HOME. The Home Directory feature uses the incoming user's username and domain to allow you to automatically map them to the right directory. Basically, your database mappings will not use "autocreate", since the directories already exist.
As far as issues go, as long as the mappings in the database are correct, I've never seen a problem.
Let us know your thoughts. Thanks!