FreeIPA: Could not chdir to home directory /home/bbilliards: no such file or directory

I recently installed a FreeIPA server and a FreeIPA client. I generated a Kerberos ticket for a test user, Bob Billiards, on the IPA server:

# kinit bbilliards
Password for bbilliards@IPA.OSRIC.NET:

Then I attempted to ssh into the IPA client as that user. The connection was successful, but it could not find the user’s home directory:

# ssh bbilliards@ariel.osric.net
bbilliards@ariel.osric.net's password:
Could not chdir to home directory /home/bbilliards: no such file or directory

The location of the home directory was set when I created the user, as can be seen here:

# ipa user-find bbilliards
--------------
1 user matched
--------------
  User login: bbilliards
  First name: Bob
  Last name: Billiards
  Home directory: /home/bbilliards
  Login shell: /bin/sh
  Principal name: bbilliards@IPA.OSRIC.NET
  Principal alias: bbilliards@IPA.OSRIC.NET
  Email address: bbilliards@ipa.osric.net
  UID: 1110200001
  GID: 1110200001
  SSH public key fingerprint: [redacted]
  Account disabled: False
----------------------------
Number of entries returned 1
----------------------------

Shouldn’t the system be able to create the home directory automatically? It turns out it can, if you specify the --mkhomedir switch when installing the IPA client:

# ipa-client-install --mkhomedir

Now when I ssh into the machine it creates a home directory:

# ssh bbilliards@ariel.osric.net
Creating home directory for bbilliards
-sh-4.2$ pwd
/home/bbilliards

You may prefer to mount a Network File System (NFS) directory as a home directory instead so that users have the same home directories across machines.