Mac integrating into AD environment

D

dazzasimmo

Registered
-Essentially what im trying to obtain is any and all information that would help me convince a Windows-based IT team that a Mac Server with network home folders is a much better solution for a Mac-based design studio, than trying to create these home folders on a Windows 2003 AD server (which i believe doesn't work).

-I have seen and heard that connecting from a Mac to 2K3 via SMB causes corruption to all sorts of files (not all the time, but some times)
-I have read pages and pages of forums listing all sorts of glitches that people using 10.4.X are having with integrating into the AD
-I also believe that "home" folders on the 2K3 box isn't proper Mac "home" folders, but instead is just a sharepoint that isn't capable of taking all the library, prefs folder, etc.

-I need to convince this IT dept that Mac really would be best for the Mac environment, and while i know im right and it would be so much better and work much more reliably, etc, im having trouble digging up really good evidence to hand to them. Anything from Apple's or Microsoft's websites is preferable but at this stage anything will help me out!

Any help is greatly appreciated, my meeting is in about 15 hrs but the info will help me beyond this one particular client.

Thanks, D.
 
This is the work that I do pretty much daily. :)

Mac OS X is a great AD domain member. It can integrate very well, using all the AD users/groups/passwords and Kerberos, meaning the server can be a part of a true single sign on environment with strong password authentication, something you can't get out of things like Services for Macintosh.

10.4.x integrates well into AD. I've done this tons of times.

AFP 3.x, shipping in Tiger, provides advantages such as long share names, long file names, shadow file support (or splitting), being resource fork aware (or splitting), auto reconnect, connection sleeping, Kerberos support and enhanced transfer speeds.

Let me know if you need assistance. I'm glad to help out!

Michael
 
Go3iverson said:
This is the work that I do pretty much daily. :)

Mac OS X is a great AD domain member. It can integrate very well, using all the AD users/groups/passwords and Kerberos, meaning the server can be a part of a true single sign on environment with strong password authentication, something you can't get out of things like Services for Macintosh.

10.4.x integrates well into AD. I've done this tons of times.

AFP 3.x, shipping in Tiger, provides advantages such as long share names, long file names, shadow file support (or splitting), being resource fork aware (or splitting), auto reconnect, connection sleeping, Kerberos support and enhanced transfer speeds.

Let me know if you need assistance. I'm glad to help out!

Michael
Click to expand...

But can you get your mac network home folders residing on the AD server?
 
So, there are two behaviors. By default, the Mac OS X client will simply mount the home share on the desktop, over SMB. You can use network home directories as well. The best way to do that is by integrating an Xserve with the AD environment and allowing it to provide a proper AFP environment. The benefit you get here is the QA levels of your third party vendors, since the AFP home environment will more closely mimic the HFS+ environment of the Mac OS X client, as opposed to SMB.

Michael
 
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