Directory Access Help w/ OS X 10.4

[ktai]

Hi, I have many OS 10.4 computers that I would like to have authenticated on our Active Directory domain (windows server 2003) but I am having trouble with the Directory Access utility. I have read many tutorials on how to do this, but for the life of me I cannot get it to work. I think right now my main problem is the binding. Forgive me for asking stupid questions, but can anyone explain to me what I should be binding to what. Another thing I should mention is that we are using a domain ending in .local, which I read somewhere that OS X does not work with, any truth to that?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jmgalvin]

Just to cover your bases, you might try also posting this question in the Mac Hardware forum on tek-tips.

Using OSX 10.3.8 on a G4

 

[AnimusTek]

The .local will truely make your setup extremely difficult, if not impossible. The use of that particular private TLD is restricted to local computers (per RFC), and should never be used in a actual network domain setup. Once you have taken care of that issue, I can help you with the rest. We have integrated our 50+ Macs into our Windows 2003 domain, and are managing them with OpenDIrectory and WorkgroupManager.

 

[DesperateHusband]

If you hope to use network home folders located on a Windows 2000/2003 Server you will have the following issues.

AFP on Windows 2000/2003 server is version 2.1 while Apple is running 3.1 or later. Version 2.1 has a path/filename limit of 88 characters. Meaning large file names buried in some of Apple's preferences folders will not be accessible and can cause some programs like "classic" to crash and not function correctly.

SMB has some other quirks when network home folders are used such as users not able to delete or rename some files on the network share

To solve either mount style problem for network home folders you need Thursby's AdmitMac, which is a serialize client for each computer OR Group Logic's ExtremeZ-IP which installs on the server with the home folder locations.

Both programs compensate for Apple's and Microsoft's differences very nicely but are not cheap by any means.