Mac OS X Lion Server For Dummies®

PART II

Creating and Maintaining User Accounts and Directories

In this part...

users are the reason for servers. Keeping track of the users is the reason for much that's in Lion Server. This part focuses on maintaining shared network directories that enable multiple users and servers to communicate and network administrators to keep track of it all. I describe user authentication, the process in which a user connects to the computer with a name and password. The server also provides authorization, the process of controlling access to files and services.

The more users and computers, the bigger the user management task. Directory services enable you to manage not only user accounts but the computers themselves. Here, I describe how Mac OS X Server's Open Directory can centrally store information about the users and the computers in a single place, and in a secure manner. A shared directory also separates the user from a specific computer so that a user can log in from any computer and access her home directory.

On large networks, you may need to access other directory servers hosted on Windows servers. That's no problem for Lion Server: I describe how to use Mac OS X Server with Microsoft Active Directory.