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cagcowboy
Asked: 2009-05-15 00:22:02 +0800 CST

What are the advantages of adding a Mac to Active Directory?

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I was surprised to learn (from this question: How to add a Mac to Windows Active Directory) that you could add a Mac to AD.

What are the advantages of doing so?

mac active-directory

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    One of the main reasons you would do it is to authenticate users against Active Directory. By authenticating against AD it also makes access to file shares and printers much easier, as you are already authenticated.

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  2. It helps with asset management. Most asset management pieces that plug into AD can query for a list of computer objects. As long as those are kept up-to-date, you can use that to help track systems in the organization.

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  3. To name a few:

    • same password policy as Window devices;

    • mounting CIFS shares that are specified for each user in their AD user account;

    • SSO to applications that support Kerberos, login scripts;

    • Restricting access to network/file resources;

    • audit trails, 802.1x (wired/wireless);

    • AD extension for Macs that can control policies much like a Windows client;

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