Problem joining Mac OSX client to samba PDC

[madcat78]

Hi there. I'm trying to join different Mac OSX clients (10.4.x and 10.5.x) into a samba pdc. Windows clients join it without problems. Since it seems that Mac OS requires an active directory i wanted to know if anybody has already tried with success (or not) somethig similar.
If you are thinking why i'm not asking the "gurus" at apple, well you definitely haven't worked with them...
Thanks in advance.

 

[danomac]

How are you trying to join it to the domain? Are there any errors?

 

[madcat78]

Mac clients complain about the DNS name of the forest/domain, but i managed to populate file /etc/hosts giving all the information about samba server and its domain.
The problem is that in the required field it asks for an active directory forest and the domain (and the computer id, which is already created in the openldap computers common name).
I'm afraid mac clients require a windows server with active directory and do not work with samba...

 

[danomac]

When you go into Directory Access to join the domain, are you choosing the "SMB" option and not the "Active Directory" option? You can specify to be a part of AD, but it this case you don't.

Given that the Macs are complaining about DNS, it would seem that the active directory service records for the domain are missing from the DNS server. I'm not even sure samba will support this.

Windows clients will use netbios to locate and fall back to DNS. Active Directory is heavily reliant on DNS.

If you try specifying "SMB" as the directory option it should be able to join.

 

[madcat78]

Well, i'm trying now with a 10.4 mac client but i don't see any SMB option vs Active Directory option inside Directory Access.
I don't have now access to a 10.5 client but i still have some 10.4 to join before thinking of upgrading them... anyway binding only 10.5 clients would be a good starting point.
I'll try it as soon as possible.
Windows clients join samba using netbios to locate the pdc but even without a DNS, using /etc/hosts like in the old days should do the job. At least for a test environment.
Thank you anyway

 

[PHV]

You may also consider a lmhosts file.

Hope This Helps, PH.
FAQ219-2884
FAQ181-2886

 

[madcat78]

Must say i'm a little puzzled because i don't see any SMB option vs Active Directory in 10.4 or 10.5.
I can add an open directory server successfully under LDAPv3 and using RFC 2307 (Unix) standard.
But i always get this DNS problem. I tried file lmhosts under samba server, mapping ip and hostname of clients but nothing changes.
Really anyone as ever tried doing what i'm tring to do?
Regards

 

[danomac]

What is controlling the DNS for your network? If you're just running BIND on the samba server you can add the service records required. The OS X client likely isn't using netbios to join to the domain. I did manage to connect a OS X 10.3 to a samba server with much head-scratching. We don't have that client anymore, so I can't check the configuration for you.

 

[madcat78]

I don't have a DNS for my internal network. 'till now i haven't had any use for it.
So you managed to join a samba domain and use centralized autentication with open ldap? Sounds great!
May be i'll try to add a DNS service and see if things changes.
Thank you

 

[danomac]

I do remember having a lot of problems with DNS when I originally set it up. My current samba domain controller (in one of our remote offices) runs bind+samba+dhcp, and I've had no issues with it.