Chapter 26. Using Directory Services

IN THIS CHAPTER

Setting up Open Directory

Configuring network users and groups

Connecting client Macs to Open Directory

Combining Open Directory with Windows Active Directory

Open Directory, Apple's suite of directory service technologies, provides network-wide authentication, authorization, contact information, and numerous other capabilities. In addition, Mac OS X Server can tie into an existing Microsoft Active Directory domain on your network. Either way, you get a flexible centralized mechanism for defining users, groups, and the resources they can access. Almost every service included in Mac OS X Server makes use of directory services in some fashion. Because so many of the security choices you make when setting up and running a server involve determining who can access what, it's important to understand the fundamentals of how Mac OS X Server's directory services function.

NOTE

For more on Open Directory and some of the problems it solves, see Chapter 25.

In this chapter, I provide a quick introduction to configuring Open Directory (especially some of its key security settings), setting up users and groups, and connecting to Active Directory.

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