- Mac OS X and the Windows Server Environment
- Windows Clients on a Mac OS X Server Network
- So Why Create a Mixed-Server Environment?
- Directory Services/Dominant Platform: Who Gets To Be the Boss?
- Window Servers in an Open Directory Infrastructure
- Mac OS X Servers in an Active Directory Infrastructure
- The Active Directory/Open Directory Love Child: Where There Is No Dominant Platform
- For More Information
Windows Clients on a Mac OS X Server Network
On the flip side of the equation, Apple provides excellent support for Windows clients in a Mac OS X Server environment. You can easily configure any share point or print queue for access using SMB by a Windows computer (running any version of Windows all the way back to Windows 95). You can even go so far as to host a Windows domain, one that points all Windows login and access requests to the Open Directory domain that's native to Mac OS X Server. This option allows users to log into Windows PCs with the same username and password that they use to log into Mac OS X computers on the network. It also allows them to maintain the same network home directory. You can even specify Windows login scripts and roaming, local, or mandatory profiles for users.
Apple accomplishes this feat by hosting a Windows NT-style domain and not an Active Directory domain. This limitation prevents you from being able to apply group policy objects to users and computers in the domain, and from being able to use the replication abilities built into Active Directory. (Although Tiger Server does support the use of backup domain controllers through the use of Mac OS X Server's replication of Open Directory across multiple servers.)