samba - Feb 2021 - Windows User Home Folders automatic creation via GPO

Hello,

I've been following the Windows User Home Folders
<https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Windows_User_Home_Folders> guide in the
Samba wiki to create user home folders on a Samba file server that is also
a domain member.

I followed the Windows ACL sections to a tee, and to cut a long story
short, the end result is I can now supply the appropriate Home folder path
in ADUC (i.e. \\server\users\demo) and have the user folder be
automatically created with the appropriate permissions, as described in the
article.

However, I cannot seem to automate this process via GPO as described in the
article ("Using a Group Policy Preference" section). The GPO is
configured
correctly and I've confirmed it's being applied correctly on the target
machine, however no home folder is automatically created upon user login;
instead, it only maps the home folders **already created manually** in
ADUC. Is this expected behaviour?

I think I must be misunderstanding the purpose of the GPO; do I have to
first manually assign the home folders to each user manually in ADUC, after
which the GPO will automatically map them? Or does the GPO also
automatically assigns and creates the home folders and maps them as a
drive?

Any insight into this is appreciated, thanks.

A.Z

> 
> Hello,
> 
> I've been following the Windows User Home Folders
<https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Windows_User_Home_Folders> guide in
> the Samba wiki to create user home folders on a Samba file server that is
also a domain member.
> 
> I followed the Windows ACL sections to a tee, and to cut a long story
short, the end result is I can now supply the appropriate
Home
> folder path in ADUC (i.e. \\server\users\demo) and have the user folder be
automatically created with the appropriate permissions,
> as described in the article.
> 
> However, I cannot seem to automate this process via GPO as described in the
article ("Using a Group Policy Preference" section).
The
> GPO is configured correctly and I've confirmed it's being applied
correctly on the target machine, however no home folder is
> automatically created upon user login; instead, it only maps the home
folders **already created manually** in ADUC. Is this
expected
> behaviour?
> 
> I think I must be misunderstanding the purpose of the GPO; do I have to
first manually assign the home folders to each user
manually
> in ADUC, after which the GPO will automatically map them? Or does the GPO
also automatically assigns and creates the home folders
> and maps them as a drive?
> 
What works for me and has been recommended in Microsoft Technet for many years
is to connect a drive letter on the Home folder
section of the Profile Tab of the user's properties in ADUC in the form:  
Connect H: \\fqdn\sharename\%UserName%.   (You can do the
same for the Roaming Profile folder if you wish, but I don't use them.)

Then when the user is created (or that added to their configuration), provided
the Share and NTFS permissions are correct on the
share, the user's home folder is automatically created.   I then use the GPO
to set Folder Redirection for the Documents, Desktop,
Downloads etc folders to point at the new location.   Note that you need to log
on and off twice as the user before the folder
redirection takes effect, though the user's home folder is created as soon
as the user is added in ADUC.

Hope that helps.    

@Rowland: maybe this could be mentioned in the WiKi?

Roy