Mac Open Directory server as replica to Active Directory possible?

marcusbjerknes
New Contributor II

Is it possible to have a Mac Open Directory server to be set up as a replica to Windows AD? I'd like to achieve something like this... An Active Directory user log on to an iMac bound to the OD server, the OD server checks with the AD if the account exist, and if it does exist, it automatically creates the home folder on locally attached storage on the Mac Open Directory server.. Possible or not?

1 REPLY 1

Phantom5
Contributor II

To your first question: simply no!, Open Directory cannot be a replica of Active Directory. But... you can achieve what you are trying to do. It's called a Magic Triangle

1- On OS X Server make sure your Open Directory is a standalone directory
2- Open Directory Utility at /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications or thru System Preferences
3- Click in the lockpad if it's locked, select Active Directory and bind your server to your Active Directory domain
4- Go to Server.app and promote your Open Directory to Open Directory Master
5- In Server.app > Users / Groups you will then see your AD domain users and groups
6- In Server.app > Sharing create a sharepoint to host home folders and assign the AD groups you want to be able to create directories inside. Make sure you enable the "Home directories over..." option
7- In Server.app select your users and assign the sharepoint as their home folder directory.

You could also create an SMB sharepoint in Server.app and then in AD assign a remote server home folder to every user instead of a local disk