[jcarr]

The Mac OS X Server documentation indicates that a server must be a domain member to host network home folders. In addition, to be a domain memeber, the server must connect to a Mac OS X Server PDC, not a Windows 2000 domain.

Can a Windows 2000 (no mixed mode) domain and a Mac OS X Server PDC coexist? Is it possible to avoid having the Mac at the top of the food chain?

[DominikHoffmann]

Mac OS X's Windows networking facility is provided by the open-source Samba package. Samba in its current release version doesn't support providing the functionality of a secondary PDC. It can easily be a stand-alone PDC. In other words, a machine running Samba can be the one that defines the domain of which it is a member automatically and other Windows machines can join, having user home folders hosted on the Samba host (e.g., a Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server box).

Because the user information on Mac OS X Server can be managed by Open Directory (based on the open-source OpenLDAP), this Mac OS X Server LDAP server can be integrated into the Active Directory environment of a Windows server (cf. Directory Access 1.5 Help at Apple).

I have not found information on how to do the reverse, i.e., to make an Active Directory domain defer to a Mac OS X Server's Open Directory database. I have to admit, however, that I haven't looked into this extensively.

Other references:

Panther and Active Directory
Integrating Mac OS X With Active Directory (relating to Mac OS X Server 10.2)

Dominik Hoffmann

[Scotttheking]

Samba 3 works fine as a AD member. You can store the home dirs on it, and have the box authenticate to the domain controller.
I can't speak to OSX as I don't use it for samba.