#Mac os cloud active directory mac
#Mac os cloud active directory windows

Check the box for ‘Allow Authentication from any domain in the forest’ if appropriate for your environment.

Check the box for ‘Allow Administration By:” and then Add the Active Directory ‘domain admins’ and ‘enterprise admins’ group.

Choose the ‘Use UNC path from Active Directory to derive network home location’ if your AD is set to map a user’s home location to a UNC and/or DFS path if not, you may want to uncheck this option.

Uncheck the box for ‘Require confirmation before creating a mobile account’.

Check the box for ‘Create mobile account at login’.

This ID will be used to create a computer object in the AD.

Enter an Active Directory Domain, using the FQDN (example: mydomain.local).

Highlight the Active Directory plug-in and click the Configure icon (pencil icon).

Tick the box next to Active Directory plug-in (Note: You may have to click the lock icon to make configuration changes).

Using Spotlight (LeftCommand+Space), open the ‘Directory Utility’.

Here is what I came up with for a final process in my environment – adjust according to your needs:ġ.) Configure OS X to talk to the Active Directory

#Mac os cloud active directory mac

I hit a few snags as I went through the process, including making domain users local administrators and allowing domain users to log in to the Mac while off-line.

#Mac os cloud active directory windows

I didn’t have a requirement to do much customization the new Mac’s, but they did have to allow users to authenticate to the current Microsoft Windows Active Directory Domain. It wasn’t the right tool for me and my job, but Macs do serve some purposes very well – graphic design and iPhone app development in my current case. Shortcut keys behave strangely, and one can only create so many alternate key mappings before going insane. I ran VMware Fusion, but it could only take me so far – funny things start to happen when you are in a VM, RDC’ing to a client server, opening the VI client and console’ing to a VM. To be fair, I was issued a Mac at a previous company, but didn’t care much for it as the programs I had to run for my job were Windows based. Come to think of it, that’s what VMware is all about too – the right resources in the right place at the right time, independent of underlying hardware, application/OS agnostic, able to rise above local shortcomings by pushing to the cloud…. Really, that’s what Web 2.0 is all about – compatible, interchangeable tools that offer customized functionality for the users’ abilities and needs.

I don’t want to be the Windows guy who says “I don’t do Macs” – part of being a technologist is serving the user base where they are at with the technologies they require to do their job (but please, included me in determining your requirements and technological solutions – a Mac might be really cool, but might not fit with the organizations needs or your IT group’s ability to support your solution). We’re a Microsoft shop, so Mac’s aren’t part of the basic knowledge for our IT staff, myself included. We picked up a few new 17″ MacBook Pro’s at work.