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Question

Uses for Open Directory

  • March 17, 2009
  • 1 reply
  • 6 views
A
  • Anonymous

Hey Guys-

This isn't really a list topic so if you could reply to me off list that would be great.

I work in an AD environment managing about 400 Macs. We have them all bound via Admit Mac, I'd like to get rid of it and use Apples built in AD support, but we need DFS support.

Anyway, I did some research into a "Golden Triangle" setup last summer, using Active Directory and Open Directory on the clients, but decided then that I didn't see enough of a benefit. I was just wondering if some of you guys that use this setup would mind giving me an idea of some of the ways that you use Open Directory/WGM in your AD environment.

As a side note, we are a university and so aren't interested in restricting the users like a grade school might be, we just want to be able to manage them better.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Ryan Harter
UW - Stevens Point
Workstation Developer
715.346.2716
Ryan.Harter at uwsp.edu

    1 reply

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    • tlarkin
    • Honored Contributor
    • March 19, 2009

    Ryan

    I am not sure if this will help but I will toss in my 2 cents on the subject...

    If you already have xserves in your environment and they aren't being put to use you could do OD, bind to AD and create the golden triangle like you mentioned before hand. This can come in handy to help load balance your servers. Instead of the AD server getting pounded all the time for file sharing and authentication you can balance some of that off to your OD server.

    WGM should actually be called work group mangler (I can't take credit for that name either, I heard it from someone else). It has come a long way now in 10.5 but still has "frailties." I have a very strong love/hate relationship with WGM.

    Even though you may not want to manage the Macs that much, with OD and MCX you can manage them very easily. No more local management and no more running scripts or what not, just update MCX, and log in/out your macs and you are now set.

    I guess what I am trying to get at is that from a sys admin point of view the OD environment will give you tons of more flexibility and options to accomplish what you want with your systems, however, all of these extra luxuries also come with having to fix any problems that you might encounter with them. Over all, I think that my OD environment is good, and all but I think Apple is still a bit confused on whether or not they want to become an Enterprise level company. They seem to make great products and then fall just short somewhere here or there. Once they step it up notch they will be a heavy contender for that market share, but until then it is hard for me, or probably anyone to tell you if it is worth it or not.

    I have 6,000+ macs so for me it is totally worth running OD on my servers. We are also K-12 education, so it again is worth it to me to have those management abilities of the systems.

    I hope that somewhat helps,


    Thomas Larkin
    TIS Department
    KCKPS USD500
    tlarki at kckps.org
    blackberry: 913-449-7589
    office: 913-627-0351

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