Binding XServe to Windows 2003 doamin

Question

We just got our new XServe box today. My question is during setup, do I want to configure to host an Open Directory domain or join an existing domain? Or both. Kind of new to the Mac scene so any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

Since this is actually not an Xserve specific question you'll probably get more eyes on it in an OS X Server forum - there is one dedicated completely to Directory Services for 10.6: http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1353
That being said if you want to bind to AD you should plan to do it from the start and do it early in the server set-up. The ideal way to do it is to configure the server in OD as "Stand Alone", bind to AD in the Directory Utility and then promote the OD status to "Master". The OS should take care of everything else for you.
NOTES: If you already have an OD Master you can demote it to Stand Alone and then recreate this process but *it will destroy all OD records you've already created* so plan for that and back them up and reimport them. This is one big reason it is easiest to do this early on rather than later.
Also you need good forward *and reverse* DNS services for OD/AD binding to work as planned.
There are several other picky little things depending on how you're planning on using OD/AD services so do your homework and test early and often.
My $.02,
=Tod