Setting a Windows Domain up on a Mac Network

Cooners

Cooners

Cooners

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15 Dec 2003
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Hi
I'm having a bit of a headache at a school I look after. The school went in an apple direction and before my time had there whole system set up with Apple products. Server is Snow Leopard, Mac's are mainly Mavericks (mix of White macbooks and some Macbook pros) with a handful of Snow Leopard ones mixed in that were too old to upgrade. The teachers all have Macs and the kids have about 10 macs left (they've been breaking over time, they had 30 at first), they also had 30 Windows machines that just aren't on any domain, they just have a student account locally, they have now been ordering more and more windows machines to replace the macs and to help TA's etc.
I they keep asking for student, teacher, TA and other accounts to be set up but as it stands I'd have to do that on a machine by machine basis, there is a windows server here but it's just being used as a file server for the office staff, I'd like to turn it into a Domain Controller, add the windows machines to that but leave the Mac stuff alone for now (will look at moving that across at a later date), I'm happy to leave the DHCP on the Mac server for now as we may have to sort a larger IP range in the near future so I'll move the DCHP over then, the only issue I can't work out is how to point the MAC's to the Mac server for DNS and the Windows machines to the Windows server (I'm thinking if I don't do that I'll have issues one way or another). So how would I get around this and also is there any other pitfuls I could fall into?
 
why would you run the macs and windows on different servers?
use 1 dns server and the problem goes away.
other wise if you are running the macs on its own dns and windows on it own dns, they cant talk. via name
 
Came across a similar situation when I used to work at the local college. You'd be suprised how well Mac's work with AD authentication (e.g. authentication, home drives etc...)

Personally I'd look at moving DNS, DHCP onto a new DC from the beginning. AD requires DNS services. Have all clients reference the Windows DNS server (having multiple DNS servers/zones can cause a headache)

I presume there's no scope for a new server? What version of Windows server is running at present?

Most educational environments I've come across generally run separate domains for staff & students to prevent students gaining access to data they shouldn't be (but that can be done with one domain if the permissions are set correctly)
 
Server is 2008 R2. I would like to try and run the domain separate so I didn't disrupt everyone whilst I worked (I'm only here Tuesdays and Friday's).
This way I could get the windows side done quickly so the kids and TA's could get going then spend some time playing with adding the macs to the AD and getting documents working before moving everyone across and turning the Mac server off.
 
I work in schools and what we do is do things like this in the school holidays. Have a word with the school and see if this is an option.

What are your intentions for the mac server? Are you looking into getting rid of it?
 
I understand that you'd not want to disrupt people but surely the school holiday would be perfect...?

In the school I worked at I setup an Apple Magic Triangle setup which worked pretty well.

You'd then have Windows DC for A/D, DHCP, DNS etc. and a Mac Server (it's just an app you install from appstore for ~£16) with Workgroup Manager where you can nest A/D groups and map homedrives to their account. Then each user would have one user account but be able to login to Windows/Mac and be presented with their documents.

Here's a reasonable guide for setting it up: http://www.papercut.com/kb/Main/MacOSXMagicTriangle I know it's for Mountain Lion (10.8) but same principal applies.

Plenty of other info as well - just google 'Apple Golden Triangle' or 'Apple Magic Triangle'. God knows where they get these stupid names :p
 
Sorry, only just saw this. The trouble is we don't cover them out of term time, I guess we could speak to them and arrange something.
I've looked at the golden triangle and yes maybe that will be the way to go.
Thanks for your advice
 
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