Account Server Questions

[DeadlyJohny]

Hey everyone!

 

I have two monster desktop computers (running windows 7) that are used by kids at a school I volunteer at and I have a third computer that runs as a server (Running windows server 2012 essentials r2). At this moment, that server is nothing more than a network server but I'd love for it to also be an account server for the two other computers I spoke about.

 

The intent is that the two computers are nothing more than power houses that doesn't really store any account information. I want them to be able to store the "My Downloads","My Desktop","My Music","My Videos","My Documents" etc folders on the server computer and the two computers simply access them. Is there a way to do this? If so, could anyone point me in the right direction? 

 

Other features I'd love to have is:

-Logging off a student from the other computer if he tries to logon into the other one.

-Ability to easily create new accounts

-Ability to use pictures/password instead of username/password for ease of identification of account.

-Accounts automatically have access to network drive on creation/login

 

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks,

-John

[FoxHound]

All this can be done by creating  a domain and setting up the proper Group policy settings for your users. You can configure your Server to act as both a domain server as well as a file server, Group policies will help you implement all the little thing you mentioned however it will take allot of research into each particular item to figure out how to implement it the way you want. If you don't have the time to do the research you can always get a IT professions familiar with systems administration to set it up for you.

[Altecice]

yup as above, You will need to add the Domain Controller role on the server, From there you will be able to go into "add users computers/groups" and create your user accounts and you can do lots of options via the GUI in there (like account logon times etc). After that go over to the computers you want to connect to the domain (and use the domain accounts) make sure the server and PC's can ping for connectivity and join them to the domain. 

 

Everything above you require can then be set by Group Policy settings that are "pushed" to your domain accounts. How you set up your GPO's and OU's is up to you but I would do some googling... Group Policy can be confusing.

[DeadlyJohny]

So creating a Domain and user accounts on this domain on my server, will store all the user account documents and folders on the server or on the local machine?

 

Thanks for all the help,