Problems with Joining Mac computers to AD infrastructure


Recommended Posts

Sometimes not many, sometimes countless. Really need some more information on what you're trying to achieve here because various scenarios can result in different issues.

 

Are you hoping to just use it for authentication? Are you expecting it to behave like any other computer object in AD?

 

Give us something to work with :).

  On 03/12/2018 at 16:19, GrayW said:

Sometimes not many, sometimes countless.

Expand  

I concur, it's really an afterthought for Apple, they've all but completely given up on enterprise integration.

 

Enforcing password policy would work though, that functions as expected on macOS, but you wont get any GPO benefits because it doesn't handle those, period.

 

If you want to properly manage Macs in your environment you'd be looking at some type of third party service, like JAMF and to some degree KACE can do some, there is also free software such as Munki that can do software/patch deployment, you could use it to push scripts to manage settings as well.

 

Hopefully that helps you in your quest.

  • Like 3

As @JaredFrost said, if you've got the resources then go for something like JAMF. It resolves a vast number of the issues that can appear when integrating Apple devices.

 

If you haven't and you're really looking for GPO like behaviour, then you're going to need to use Profile Manager (which quite honestly doesn't work half the damn time). To use that, you're going to need macOS Server running on a device that is the same version as the devices you are managing. Sometimes you can get away with being a version either side, but that just causes more issues. Unfortunately, they make macOS Server more and more useless with each update. This is where you enter the world of the "Golden Triangle".

 

I'll be honest, it's become so problematic and unstable these days that I'm currently planning the move away from macOS Server to Munki for the software and patching + Ansible/Chef for configuration management/quick setups and just having them bound to AD for the authentication.

 

It's a deep dark rabbit hole if you don't have the time and money to throw at it.

  • 2 weeks later...

If your only goal is to centrally set and control password policies for your Mac infrastructure I think you would be better served by an MDM solution. As others have mentioned good MDM products include JAMF, VMware AirWatch and Microsoft InTune. As it sounds like you already have the Microsoft stack deployed perhaps InTune would be a good fit.

 

One of the major drawbacks with Mac's in an active directory domain is the keychain. I've found that quite often users are prompted to change their password when using separate Microsoft apps such as OWA (Outlook Web Access) or RDS. When the password is reset outside of MacOS the keychain password is not updated. This seems to cause almost endless password prompts and authentication issues.

 

I'd roll out a good MDM and leave the Mac's with local logins.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • How to take HDR screenshots on your iPhone running iOS 26, and other new features by Aditya Tiwari Apple has leveled up the screenshots game on its latest iPhone software update, iOS 26. Alongside the updated Photos app, Compact mode in Safari, and new wallpapers, iOS 26 comes with a redesigned screenshot editor, featuring the controversial Liquid Glass system design. The iOS 26 update brings new features and changes that let you customize your screenshot experience in a better way. For starters, it displays the captured screenshot with rounded corners, shifting away from the rectangle on iOS 18. Turn on HDR screenshots on iOS 26 A highlight of the updated screenshots features on iOS 26 is that you can take screenshots in HDR (High Dynamic Range). Apple has added a new Screen Capture page in the Settings app that lets you do that. You can follow these steps to enable HDR screenshots on iOS 26: Open the Settings app on iOS 26. Go to General > Screen Capture. Now, select the HDR option under the Format section. Press the Home + Volume Up button combination to take a screenshot. Next time you take a screenshot on your iPhone, it will be captured with full dynamic range and stored in HEIF format. In other words, if you take a screenshot of a photo and video available in HDR, the feature will preserve those details. On the other hand, the SDR quality saves screenshots in PNG format and offers more compatibility. As shown in the image below, you can check whether a screenshot is captured in HDR or not by swiping up on a screenshot in the Photos app to open its details. Record your iPhone screen in HDR on iOS 26 Not just screenshots, the HDR option also works for screen recordings. Such files are saved in HEVC HDR10 format, whereas screen recordings taken in SDR mode are saved in HEVC. After switching to the HDR options using the steps above, you can use the same old steps to screen record your iPhone; the option is available in the Control Center. That said, you can do a lot more to improve your screenshot experience on iOS 26. The Screen Capture page in the Settings app lets you customize your screenshot experience in multiple ways. Here's how use can use the different features Apple has added in iOS 26. Turn on full-screen previews by default When you turn on the "Full-Screen Previews" toggle button on the Screen Capture page, iOS 26 will display screenshots in full view instead of showing a small thumbnail in the bottom left corner that vanishes after a few seconds. The full-blown UI allows you to quickly edit or annotate a screenshot and share it with your friends across various apps. Alternatively, you can disable the toggle option and trigger this UI by tapping on the temporary thumbnail that shows up after taking the screenshot. Prevent CarPlay screenshots from flooding your device Apple has also changed (fixed) how screenshots work on CarPlay. Until now, screenshots on CarPlay have been an "it's a feature, not a bug" experience for the users. If your iPhone is connected to your car, an extra screenshot of the CarPlay interface is automatically captured when you press the buttons to take a screenshot on your phone. This functionality has been a pain point for many users, who have raised their voice on Apple's support forums. It seems the company heard them, and iOS 26 update brings a new toggle button in the picture, allowing you to have a manual way to enable or disable CarPlay screenshots. Use Visual Intelligence on screenshots iPhone's screenshot tool also supports the improved Visual Intelligence feature (works on iPhone 15 Pro or later). You can select objects in a screenshot and search for matching content in apps that offer integration with Visual Intelligence. These screenshot updates for iOS 26 are currently available for testing through the developer beta program on supported iPhone models. Apple is expected to release the first public beta of iOS 26 next month. If you plan to install the developer beta on your device, note that early builds may be unstable, and ensure that you back up your data in advance.
    • Looking around, it seems to indicate that an App is doing a download in the background.
    • Dopamine 3.0 Preview 39 by Razvan Serea Dopamine is an awesome free audio player which tries to make organizing and listening to music as simple and pretty as possible. Dopamine has been designed for Windows 7, Windows 8.x and Windows 10 and plays mp3, ogg vorbis, flac, wma and m4a/aac music formats quite well. The best part? It's created by long-time Neowin member, Raphaël Godart. If you’re looking for a music player to handle a large music collection, you should definitely give Dopamine a try. Dopamine 3.0 Preview 38 changelog: Added Added Ctrl-F shortcut to focus the search bar and ESC to clear it Added support for cover art images that have file name albumart.jpg, albumart.jpeg or albumart.png Added Turkish translation Changed Slightly improved the look of the mini player Improved scaling of text on Now Playing screen for smaller screens Order selections are now menus instead of toggle buttons Updated the Brazilian Portuguese translation Updated the Spanish translation Updated the Turkish translation Updated the Vietnamese translation Fixed Fixed an issue where a random song would start playing after the queue ended when using gapless playback. Fixed an issue where album lists were not refreshed after a search returned no results. Fixed an issue where progress was not reset to 0 when playback has finished Fixed an issue where a track that is longer than 4 minutes was scrobbled to Last.fm immediately after it started playing Fixed some sizing issues on the "Folders" screen Fixed search problems Download: Dopamine 3.0 Preview 39 | 98.4 MB (Open Source) View: Dopamine Home Page | Forum Discussion | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      serfegyed earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Dedicated
      firey earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Dedicated
      fettermanj earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • One Month Later
      SekTheFirst earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • First Post
      zayanhani earned a badge
      First Post
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      639
    2. 2
      ATLien_0
      232
    3. 3
      Michael Scrip
      219
    4. 4
      Xenon
      145
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      141
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!