You can create a home directory share at the time you create the share by using the vserver cifs share create command, or you can change an existing share into a home directory share at any time by using the vserver cifs share modify command.

To create a home directory share, you must include the homedirectory value in the -share-properties option when you create or modify a share. You can specify the share name and share path using variables that are dynamically expanded when users connect to their home directories. Available variables that you can use in the path are %w, %d, and %u, corresponding to the Windows user name, domain, and mapped UNIX user name, respectively.

Steps

Add a home directory share:
vserver cifs share create -vserver vserver_name -share-name share_name -path path -share-properties homedirectory[,…]

-vserver vserver specifies the CIFS-enabled storage virtual machine (SVM) on which to add the search path.

-share-name share-name specifies the home directory share name.

In addition to containing one of the required variables, if the share name contains one of the literal strings %w, %u, or %d, you must precede the literal string with a % (percent) character to prevent ONTAP from treating the literal string as a variable (for example, %%w).
- The share name must contain either the %w or the %u variable.
- The share name can additionally contain the %d variable (for example, %d/%w) or a static portion in the share name (for example, home1_%w).
- If the share is used by administrators to connect to other users' home directories or to permit users to connect to other users' home directories, the dynamic share name pattern must be preceded by a tilde (~).
  
  The vserver cifs home-directory modify is used to enable this access by setting the -is-home-dirs-access-for-admin-enabled option to true) or by setting the advanced option -is-home-dirs-access-for-public-enabled to true.
-path path specifies the relative path to the home directory.

-share-properties homedirectory[,…] specifies the share properties for that share. You must specify the homedirectory value. You can specify additional share properties using a comma delimited list.

Verify that you successfully added the home directory share by using the vserver cifs share show command.

Example

The following command creates a home directory share named %w. The oplocks, browsable, and changenotify share properties are set in addition to setting the homedirectory share property.

This example does not display output for all of the shares on the SVM. Output is truncated.

cluster1::> vserver cifs share create -vserver vs1 -share-name %w -path %w -share-properties oplocks,browsable,changenotify,homedirectory

vs1::> vserver cifs share show -vserver vs1
Vserver    Share    Path         Properties     Comment  ACL
---------- -------- ------------ -------------- -------- -----------
vs1        %w       %w           oplocks        -        Everyone / Full Control
                                 browsable
                                 changenotify
                                 homedirectory

Related information

Adding a home directory search path

Requirements and guidelines for using automatic node referrals

Managing accessibility to users' home directories