Can I connect a windows client to a OD?

Hello

I think it is better that you frame your post, as you are requesting support, in terms of what you want to achieve, rather than asking questions about specific technology capabilities. What I mean is that if you ask this...

Is it possible to make a windows client join on OD?

the answer is "No", but you could have found that out pretty quickly from the Internet.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/11/a-power-users-guide-to-os-x-server-yosemite -edition/3/#h2

But if you are asking can Mac and Windows users share files

I would like to know if it is possible so people who login there mac and view all there files and login windows and have all those files show up?

then the answer is yes.

OS X Yosemite: Set up a Mac to share files with Windows users

If you want to do 'peer-to-peer' file sharing that is possible via the above. If you want to 'centrally' manage this, have a central file share, you can setup an OS X server and use the SMB protocol to share folders with varied permissions. It's straightforward.

You don't need Active Directory to achieve the functionality you want.

As for the 'magic triangle', you should think of it like the 'Bermuda Triangle' and not go there.

Ok so for the file sharing is that making it be a roaming profile? Such as lets say I save a file on the Mac desktop will it appear on the windows desktop when they login it?

Nope.

All that nice stuff, having a mobile profile that essentially syncs a user's home folder to different machines is available in a Mac only (Open Directory) environment but not cross platform. Again, basically, because OD does not authenticate Windows computers and/or users as Active Directory does. Therefore these sort of (high-end) features you are looking for just aren't there - in an OD only environment.

Again though, that does not mean you cannot share files between Macs and Windows machines in an OD only environment.

winter4w wrote:

Ok so for the file sharing is that making it be a roaming profile? Such as lets say I save a file on the Mac desktop will it appear on the windows desktop when they login it? Here is a example for what i'm looking for. User1 logged in a Mac. He saves a document on the Desktop, then he logs off. He then later goes on another mac and logged in. The file he was working on earlier is there. He then logs off that mac. Now he goes on a windows PC. He logs onto that pc and there is that file on the desktop still.

So is this something possible I can do with file share. I am looking into getting OSX server so I am a noob at this. I have setup windows servers in the past that do this but I do prefer OSX server because of its price and is not limited in some areas.

Thanks 🙂

As for your earlier questions as well with respect to authentication, have a look at how do i bind windows 7 to os x server 10.8 threat which refer to the use of pGina which can be used to bind the MS systems.

As for file sharing, you can use various solutions for this purpose including, file sharing on a Client Mac (not Server), Server on a Mac and a plethora of Cloud services to achieve said purpose. Both Client and Server has good sharing capabilities for genuine sharing including with MS Systems.

If the share is on the Windows Computer, with a drive formatted for NTFS you can follow these steps to enable OS X to write to it. Keep in mind that you will also have to create a share for it.

Leo

Have you had a look at setting up the 'feared' golden triangle for Windows Server? A good article with how-to's is Pro tip: How to configure a Golden Triangle which is very informative.

Leo