Mac OS X Lion Server For Dummies®

Managing User Groups with Workgroup Manager

The important thing to remember about managing users in an Active Directory environment is that you need to add the users from Active Directory to your Open Directory domain on the Mac server. Doing so is necessary because Active Directory manages the permissions and policies of the users in an Active Directory environment. Active Directory user information isn't directly translatable to a Mac client. Open Directory serves as the mechanism to implement client management policies similar to the policies that Windows clients enjoy from Active Directory.

Adding users from Active Directory is as simple as dragging and dropping users into Open Directory, which you can do with Workgroup Manager, found in /Applications/Server. Follow these steps:

1. Open Workgroup Manager.

   Workgroup Manager asks you to authenticate with your local server manager username and password to connect to the local server.

2. Enter your local admin username and password and then click OK.

   Workgroup Manager opens.

3. Click the lock icon to bring up an authentication dialog to allow changes to Open Directory.

   An authentication dialog opens.

4. Enter the username and password for the Open Directory administrator and then click OK.
5. Click the Accounts icon in the toolbar (the default) and then click the Groups icon directly below the Accounts icon.

   The window now looks similar to Figure 7-9.

   Figure 7-9 The Group accounts area of Workgroup Manager.

6. Click the New Group icon in the toolbar. ...