The logon server that authenticates the user determines the location of the user's home directory.
You can configure users to have a home directory that can be collectively backed up and maintained on the system. By default, an i5/OS® logon server considers the home directory path stored in the user profile (on the i5/OS operating system) to be the PC client user's home directory. For example, if user JOE has a home directory configured in his user profile as /home/joe, then this path is treated as a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) name (Windows® 98) for the client, and the client's view of this folder would be \\logonServer\home\joe. The /home directory would need to be shared with a share name of HOME so that a Windows 98 client can map a drive to the directory.
Windows 2000 and Windows XP clients using the IBM Network Primary Logon Client for Windows (IPLC) will attempt to map a drive to the user's home directory automatically when they log on.
Sometimes it is desirable to store user home directories on a server other than the logon server. This might be the case if a lot of data is normally transferred to and from the home directories (perhaps they are also being used to serve roaming profiles) and the logon server is not equipped to handle this extra load and provide responsive logon support to many clients at the same time. Remote home directories can be configured in the user profile for the system. The remote home directory is actually a share on a different server, and it is specified by the QNTC path to the share. For example, if home directories are to be stored in share HOME on system DRACO2, then the home directory field for user JOE can be /qntc/draco2/home. Alternatively, individual home directories can be shared from DRACO2, in which case the home directory would be /qntc/draco2/joe.
Specifying the QNTC path name here does not imply that the client is going through the QNTC file system on the logon server to reach the remote share on the home directory server. The client makes a separate direct connection to the remote home directory share. The reason why the QNTC path format was chosen is to be consistent across the system, because this is stored in the user's profile. Then other applications running locally on the system would, in theory, be able to access this same home directory.
Because this configuration also changes the home directory for the local user who signs on to the i5/OS operating system through PC5250, for example, the ramifications of this need to be considered if there is a possibility that the user might sign on directly to a system that is configured as a logon server.