Will Mountain Lion Server for Windows AD make it easier?

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Will Mountain Lion Server for Windows AD make it easier?

Hi all,

Sorry for the odd question, but I'd like to know if you think purchasing Mountain Lion server for a Windows AD environment will make it easier to manage the OS X clients on the network?

I have around 300+ PC's all heavily integrated in a Windows AD Network. I am using everything in AD - SCCM, CA, DHCP/DNS, File/Print etc

I have around 30 Lion clients (10.7.5) and I have had these AD integrated for logon/authentication, home drive mapping and printing. No problem here, and 10.7.5 appears to make things even better (no mDNS hacking) as I run a .local domain.

But here's where its starting to fall apart - 802.1x.

I've got it to work, but with hacked profiles files as iPCU doesn't create system/login window authentication profiles. I had to resort to manually creating them from examples I've found discussed here. It was not ideal - compared with how the Windows equivalents are setup.

Having a Mountain Lion server means I can generate proper profiles (Profile Manager), and manage the clients too. It even looks like if the clients are updated to Mountain Lion, I can push certificates.

What do you think?

Posted on Oct 10, 2012 2:24 AM

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Answer 1

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Matt_nz_Karamu Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 14, 2012 10:01 PM in response to Matt_nz_Karamu

I bought Mountain Lion, activated Profile Manager and enrolled my clients.

I can now push wireless settings easily to them. Not sure about certificates, but wifi profiles are a breeze.

Well worth the money.

I would delete my question but not sure how. But yes - it does make it alot easier, and its cheap enough to do. I just used a standard iMac - mid 2011 and it runs fine. There are no other services running.

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