- 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
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Like this article? We recommend
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Directory Services/Dominant Platform: Who Gets To Be the Boss?
Once you've decided that you'll integrate Mac and Windows servers in a basic network, you need to determine which platform will be dominant—hosting directory services for your network. While it's possible to have multiple directory services running within a network, it's easier to choose one primary platform. Typically, you'll choose the one on which you have more workstations or servers, but there's no requirement that you do so. You may also opt to use a directory services platform simply because it was already in place before you decided to integrate multiplatform servers.
Regardless of whether you opt to use Active Directory running on Windows 2000 or 2003 servers or Open Directory running on Mac OS X Servers, the first step should be to set up the directory architecture. Such work is beyond the scope of this article, but a number of useful books are available to walk you through it. After setting up directory services, you'll need to configure any servers of the same platform and configure user and computer accounts. Essentially, you'll have set up the dominant platform's half of your network.