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Found Footage: Managing Active Directory with Workgroup Manager

by Robert Palmer May 8th 2008 at 3:30PM

Years ago, Macs didn't even acknowledge the presence of Windows networks, which made those LAN wine-and-cheese parties pretty awkward. Now, however, OS X machines are exemplary network citizens, and apparently can even manage Windows workstations under the right circumstances.

TidBITS linked to a roundtable discussion at Cornell University, where Philip Halcomb, of Cornell's Mann Library ITS staff, demonstrated managing user accounts in Active Directory. Now, this wouldn't be very exciting, except for the fact that he was using Mac OS X Workgroup Manager to do it. Sweet.

Phil's part starts at about 7:30. It's a long QuickTime video, too -- almost an hour -- but for IT folks, especially in an education environment, the roundtable series is a must-see.

(Thanks, MHA, for Phillip's name!)



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Years ago, Macs didn't even acknowledge the presence of Windows networks, which made those LAN wine-and-cheese parties pretty awkward....
 

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Robert Palmer

Thanks, actionbastard and Bret Knight, for the correction about Active Directory. I'll be the first to admit that Windows networking is not my forte, but apparently I know just enough to be dangerous.

Extremely dangerous.

May 08 2008 at 11:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
actionbastard

This is not about managing Windows accounts with WGM.

This is about managing Macs with WGM that are bound to an AD domain. P.H. added schema extensions to his AD domain so that he could use WGM to manage his Macs for users with accounts that exist in his AD domain so he wouldn't need to use an OD server to do it. He even mentions in the vid that he doesn't even need the OD server for authentication.

Take a break and watch the vid again.

May 08 2008 at 8:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to actionbastard's comment
adisor19

Fair enough but this is not important to me as i don't have any Macs to manage at work. I only have PCs joined to AD. Having WGM manage those accounts directly, is very useful to me and that's what i wanted to point out.

Is there other tools like this available for the mac ?

Adi

May 08 2008 at 8:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bret Knight

adisor19, if you had carefully read what actionbastard said you'd realize that what the presentation was about was managing Macintosh network-based user accounts using Workgroup Manager against an extended Active Directory data base schema. It was incorrectly inferred by Mr. Palmer that it is possible to use Workgroup Manager to manage an entire Active Directory data base directly or the attributes of a Windows user's account on an Active Directory server. Unfortunately you will still have to use a PC to manage your Active Directory data base and your Windows users' accounts.

May 08 2008 at 10:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
adisor19

WHOA !

I've been using my MBP to administer my Windows AD at work for almost a year now i never knew about this !

I've been using Apple Remote Desktop to VNC on all the PCs but i would always jump to my work PC when managing AD accounts as i didn't know the Apple Workgroup Manager was able to do it.

I am EXTREMELY impressed and thankful to learn this :)

Adi

May 08 2008 at 8:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ryan Trevisol

Well you can call me Ryan if you like. ;-)

What can I say? I'm feeling professional and formal today.

May 08 2008 at 5:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Ryan Trevisol's comment
Ryan Trevisol

Hmmm . . . I KNOW I clicked reply. :-

May 08 2008 at 5:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ryan Trevisol

Hmmm . . . I KNOW I clicked reply. :-

May 08 2008 at 5:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ryan Trevisol

Sweet find Mr. Palmer!

I do work in an education environment, and once my district gets its head around Active Directory, I'll use this daily.

Oh, and welcome! I quite enjoyed your article about removable hard drives the other day.

May 08 2008 at 5:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Ryan Trevisol's comment
Robert Palmer

Thank you Mr Trevisol. I like how we're keeping our discourse professional, with the surnames and all. ;)

May 08 2008 at 5:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MHA

It was Philip Halcomb of Cornell's Mann Library ITS staff.

May 08 2008 at 4:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jon Wise

Neat-o! Learn somethin new every day!

But "years" implies more recency, when in fact I was networking Macs and Windows machines in the 80s.

Too many people think Windows>Mac interoperability is a new thing. In fact the first device named the SuperDrive was dubbed as such because it could read DOS-formatted floppies. Networking, exchanging files, and even running Windows on a Mac is not a new trick.

Just trying to clarify that years is < 10.

BTW, TCP isn't the only networking protocol -- the mature iteration of it is quite young, but networking existed before TCP/IP 4 (and MacTCP)

May 08 2008 at 4:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jon Wise

"Years ago...?"
I hope you mean decades ago.

May 08 2008 at 4:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Jon Wise's comment
Robert Palmer

Fun fact: Decades are made up of years.

May 08 2008 at 4:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Robert Palmer

Plus, MacTCP only started shipping with Mac OS since 1994. That's less than 20 years ago.

May 08 2008 at 4:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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