Question : New user account problems...

We support a school district with many mac laptops for both teachers and students.  We have only been on the job for about 3 months and have no documentation from the previous company.  

There were a few new teachers hired this year at each campus.  Each campus has it's own OS X server with Open directory.  Each student and teacher has an account in open directory.  

At one campus adding a new teacher and putting their account on the laptop worked fine.  At another campus, it did not.  The servers appear to be setup identically as do the laptops at the two different schools.

Here are the steps we took at each school:

1. create open directory account on OS X server.  Add it to the appropriate groups depending on student or teacher.
2. Log in to the laptop using a local admin account and change the login option from user list to name and password.
3. Use directory utility to associate the laptop with the os x server if it is not already associated.
4.  Log off and log back in as the user we created by typing their user name and password.
5. Log back on as the local admin and switch login options back to list of users.
6.  Log off and check user list at login to ensure the new account shows up there.

At one campus this all worked fine.  At the other campus, when we try to log back in as the new user in step 4 we get the vibrating window and cannot log in as this user.  While trying to solve the issue, I logged back onto the OS X server and clicked the button create home directory now in work group manager for the new user.  After doing this I could log in as the user, but ti gave an error saying the home folder is not available.  Nor does the user's name stick in the login list.  I logged back on to the OS X server and checked the permissions for the folder in question from server administrator and it appears the user has all the rights she needs to access her home folders yet her laptop say they are unavailable and will not retain her acocunt when we switch the login option back to list of users?!?!

Help!

Answer : New user account problems...

First, make sure at the login window you see the green dot that says Network accounts are available.

Here are my quick notes for adding a new user in OD:
Click New User > Set Password > Make Home Directory like other users i.e. /Users (because if you use a home folder other than local it can get ugly) > Click Save > Click Create Home Directory Now > Click Save and all should work.

From your notes it sounds like the home directory is not set up correctly, be sure to highlight the correct path and click Create Home Directory Now.