Snow Leopard Server and Windows Active Directory Setup

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Snow Leopard Server and Windows Active Directory Setup

We currently have a Windows 2003 Server environment and are looking to integrate our Macintosh computers. So far I have tested a number of third party software applications that allow integration and Group Policy management for the Macs. Unfortunately they haven't been as good as we'd hoped.

I have bought a Mac Mini with Snow Leopard Server and would like to set it up so that users are authenticated via Active Directory and all the other "Group Policy" aspects are done via Workgroup Manager.

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on how I go about setting all this up. Currently I am stuck on the Snow Leopard Server setup screen. After selecting the "Import Users and Groups" option and then entering the server details on the "Connect to a Directory Server" page I keep getting an error message stating "Cannot authenticate to server - The username and password you have entered are incorrect". I have defiantly entered the correct username and password and have no idea why this is happening.

Am I doing this the right way? If so, why do I get the message about wrong username and password? Or should I just set up the server in a different manner and then worry about Active Directory connections?

Any help on this would be great... thanks in advance.

Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 6, 2010 7:42 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 6, 2010 7:51 AM in response to quaium

Are you entering your AD admin credentials?
The 10.6 Directory Services book does a great job of guiding you through the process.

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Answer 2

quaium Author

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Dec 6, 2010 7:55 AM in response to andres666

I think I've entered it a million times now in various formats... uppercase, lowercase, server/username, server\username, using .local before/after username... etc etc.

I have even tried changing the Client Computer ID (just out of interest what is supposed to go there? The name of my AD server or the name of the Snow Leopard Server I am setting up?).

I am also 100% positive I have typed in the password correctly!

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Answer 3

Dec 6, 2010 8:02 AM in response to quaium

I usually do it like this:

jchica@xxxx.com

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Answer 4

quaium Author

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Dec 6, 2010 8:17 AM in response to andres666

I tried administrator@xxx.local but stil not working sadly!

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Answer 5

quaium Author

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Dec 7, 2010 12:14 AM in response to quaium

No one able to help me on this query? Really need to get this working.

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Answer 6

Dec 7, 2010 8:20 PM in response to quaium

A few things come to mind to check: Is it possible the Mac server is having trouble reaching the AD domain controller? Is it on the same network? If not, are there any firewalls between them? Is it using the AD domain controller for DNS? Is its clock in sync with the AD DC?

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Answer 7

quaium Author

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Dec 8, 2010 4:21 AM in response to quaium

Okay, I have now managed to setup up the server. I did this by creating a Open Directory Master and then binding that to our Active Directory. I have setup Active Directory and LDAP binding on the client Macs.

I then added a user from AD into Workgroup Manager and applied a few preferences. They worked brilliantly. However, the computer Workgroup Manager preferences are not working at all! Is there a different way to add computers to Workgroup Manager (I added them by using the + sign and dragging them in from AD) and is there a way to automatically add a computer once it's joined to the domain, like it goes in to AD?

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