Directory Utility User Guide
- How can I get a domain joined Mac to authenticate prior to login? Our problem happens when a user has a password expire, they can no longer connect to the wireless. On our windows side, we use a policy that allows the computer to authenticate using the computer record, which allows it to be connected to allow the user to logon/change expired.
- Once your Mac has been added to the domain, open Users & Groups by opening Spotlight (use ⌘SPACE shortcut) and typing Users & Groups. With the lock at the bottom left hand corner of the window unlocked, select Login Options. Once selected, next to Display login window as, select Name and Password. Once selected, logout of your computer,.
Important: With the advanced options of the Active Directory connector, you can map the macOS unique user ID (UID), primary group ID (GID), and group GID attributes to the correct attributes in the Active Directory schema. However, if you change these settings later, users might lose access to previously created files.
![Domain Domain](/uploads/1/1/9/5/119502392/185753303.png)
Bind using Directory Utility
Mar 28, 2012 Q: I add an iMAC to a Domain successfully but I cannot log on using Domain users. The log on Windows only show the local iMAC login and I don't see the choice for Domain users login.
- In the Directory Utility app on your Mac, click Services.
- Click the lock icon.
- Enter an administrator’s user name and password, then click Modify Configuration (or use Touch ID).
- Select Active Directory, then click the Edit button (looks like a pencil).
- Enter the DNS host name of the Active Directory domain you want to bind to the computer you’re configuring.The administrator of the Active Directory domain can tell you the DNS host name.
- If necessary, edit the Computer ID.The Computer ID, the name the computer is known by in the Active Directory domain, is preset to the name of the computer. You can change it to conform to your organization’s naming scheme. If you’re not sure, ask the Active Directory domain administrator.Important: If your computer name contains a hyphen, you might not be able to bind to a directory domain such as LDAP or Active Directory. To establish binding, use a computer name that does not contain a hyphen.
- (Optional) Select options in the User Experience pane.See Set up mobile user accounts, Set up home folders for user accounts, and Set a UNIX shell for Active Directory user accounts.
- (Optional) Select options in the Mappings pane.See Map the group ID, Primary GID, and UID to an Active Directory attribute.
- (Optional) Select advanced options. You can also change advanced option settings later.If the advanced options are hidden, click the disclosure triangle in the window.
- Prefer this domain server: By default, macOS uses site information and domain controller responsiveness to determine which domain controller to use. If a domain controller in the same site is specified here, it’s consulted first. If the domain controller is unavailable, macOS reverts to default behavior.
- Allow administration by: When this option is enabled, members of the listed Active Directory groups (by default, domain and enterprise admins) are granted administrative privileges on the local Mac. You can also specify desired security groups here.
- Allow authentication from any domain in the forest: By default, macOS automatically searches all domains for authentication. To restrict authentication to only the domain the Mac is bound to, deselect this checkbox.
See: - Click Bind, then enter the following information:Note: The user must have privileges in Active Directory to bind a computer to the domain.
- Username and Password: You might be able to authenticate by entering the name and password of your Active Directory user account, or the Active Directory domain administrator might need to provide a name and password.
- Computer OU: Enter the organizational unit (OU) for the computer you’re configuring.
- Use for authentication: Select if you want Active Directory added to the computer’s authentication search policy.
- Use for contacts: Select if you want Active Directory added to the computer’s contacts search policy.
- Click OK.Directory Utility sets up trusted binding between the computer you’re configuring and the Active Directory server. The computer’s search policies are set according to the options you selected when you authenticated, and Active Directory is enabled in Directory Utility’s Services pane.With the default settings for Active Directory advanced options, the Active Directory forest is added to the computer’s authentication search policy and contacts search policy if you selected “Use for authentication” or “Use for contacts.”However, if you deselect “Allow authentication from any domain in the forest” in the Administrative Advanced Options pane before clicking Bind, the nearest Active Directory domain is added instead of the forest.You can change search policies later by adding or removing the Active Directory forest or individual domains. See Define search policies.
Bind using a configuration profile
The directory payload in a configuration profile can configure a single Mac, or automate hundreds of Mac computers, to bind to Active Directory. As with other configuration profile payloads, you can deploy the directory payload manually, using a script, as part of an MDM enrollment, or by using a client-management solution.
Payloads are part of configuration profiles and allow administrators to manage specific parts of macOS. You select the same features in Profile Manager that you would in Directory Utility. Then you choose how the Mac computers get the configuration profile.
In the Server app on your Mac, do the following:
- To configure Profile Manager, see Start Profile Manager in the macOS Server User Guide.
- To create an Active Directory payload, see Directory payload settings in Mobile Device Management Settings for IT Administrators.
If you don’t have the Server app, you can download it from the Mac App Store.
Bind using the command line
You can use the
dsconfigad
command in the Terminal app to bind a Mac to Active Directory.For example, the following command can be used to bind a Mac to Active Directory:
dsconfigad -preferred <adserver.example.com> -a <computername> –domain example.com -u administrator -p <password>
After you bind a Mac to the domain, you can use
dsconfigad
to set the administrative options in Directory Utility:dsconfigad -alldomains enable -groups domain <[email protected]>, enterprise <[email protected]>
Advanced command–line options
The native support for Active Directory includes options that you don’t see in Directory Utility. To see these advanced options, use either the Directory payload in a configuration profile; or the
dsconfigad
command–line tool.- Start reviewing the command–line options by opening the dsconfigad man page.
Computer object password interval
When a Mac system is bound to Active Directory, it sets a computer account password that’s stored in the system keychain and is automatically changed by the Mac. The default password interval is every 14 days, but you can use the directory payload or
dsconfigad
command–line tool to set any interval that your policy requires.Setting the value to 0 disables automatic changing of the account password:
dsconfigad -passinterval 0
Note: The computer object password is stored as a password value in the system keychain. To retrieve the password, open Keychain Access, select the system keychain, then select the Passwords category. Find the entry that looks like /Active Directory/DOMAIN where DOMAIN is the NetBIOS name of the Active Directory domain. Double-click this entry, then select the “Show password” checkbox. Authenticate as a local administrator as needed.
List All Computers In Domain
Namespace support
Domain Login Format
macOS supports authenticating multiple users with the same short names (or login names) that exist in different domains within the Active Directory forest. By enabling namespace support with the Directory payload or the
dsconfigad
command–line tool, a user in one domain can have the same short name as a user in a secondary domain. Both users have to log in using the name of their domain followed by their short names (DOMAINshort name), similar to logging in to a Windows PC. To enable this support, use the following command:dsconfigad -namespace <forest>
Packet signing and encryption
The Open Directory client can sign and encrypt the LDAP connections used to communicate with Active Directory. With the signed SMB support in macOS, it shouldn’t be necessary to downgrade the site’s security policy to accommodate Mac computers. The signed and encrypted LDAP connections also eliminate any need to use LDAP over SSL. If SSL connections are required, use the following command to configure Open Directory to use SSL:
dsconfigad -packetencrypt ssl
Note that the certificates used on the domain controllers must be trusted for SSL encryption to be successful. If the domain controller certificates aren’t issued from the macOS native trusted system roots, install and trust the certificate chain in the System keychain. Certificate authorities trusted by default in macOS are in the System Roots keychain. To install certificates and establish trust, do one of the following:
- Import the root and any necessary intermediate certificates using the certificates payload in a configuration profile
- Use Keychain Access located in /Applications/Utilities/
- Use the security command as follows:
/usr/bin/security add-trusted-cert -d -p basic -k /Library/Keychains/System.keychain <path/to/certificate/file>
Restrict Dynamic DNS
macOS attempts to update its Address (A) record in DNS for all interfaces by default. If multiple interfaces are configured, this may result in multiple records in DNS. To manage this behavior, specify which interface to use when updating the Dynamic Domain Name System (DDNS) by using the Directory payload or the
dsconfigad
command–line tool. Specify the BSD name of the interface in which to associate the DDNS updates. The BSD name is the same as the Device field, returned by running this command:networksetup -listallhardwareports
When using
dsconfigad
in a script, you must include the clear-text password used to bind to the domain. Typically, an Active Directory user with no other administrator privileges is delegated the responsibility of binding Mac computers to the domain. This user name and password pair is stored in the script. It’s common practice for the script to securely delete itself after binding so this information no longer resides on the storage device.Take a look at the changes that you can make to the login process. First, Mac OS X provides three methods of displaying the login screen:
- Logging in with a list: To log in, click your account username in the
list, and the login screen displays the password prompt. Type your
password — Mac OS X displays bullet characters to ensure security — and press Return (or click the Log In button).
- Logging in with username and password: Type your account username in the Name field and press Tab. Then type your password and press Return (or click the Log In button).
- Auto Login: With Auto Login set, Mac OS X automatically logs in the specified account when you reboot. In effect, you never see the login screen unless you click Log Out from the Apple menu. (Naturally, this option is attractive if your computer is in a secure location — like your office — and you’ll be the only one using your Mac.)
To specify which type of login screen you see — if you see one at all — head to System Preferences, click Accounts, and then click the Login Options button.
- To set Auto Login, display the Login Options settings and select the Automatically Log in As check box to enable it. Click the account name drop-down list box and choose the account that should automatically log in. When Mac OS X displays the user Name and Password sheet that you see in Figure 1, type the corresponding password and then click OK.
Login Failed For Domain Machinename Sql
Figure 1: Configuring Auto Login from the Accounts panel.
- Never set the Auto Login feature to an admin-level account unless you’re sure to be the only one using your Mac. If the computer is rebooted, you’re opening the door for anyone to simply sashay in and wreak havoc!
- To determine whether Mac OS X uses a list login screen, you must again visit the Login Options settings panel (see Figure 2). Select the List
of Users radio button for a list login screen or select the Name and Password radio button for a simple login screen where you must type your username and password.
Figure 2: Will that be a simple or a list login screen?
To change settings specific to your account — no matter what your access level — log in with your account, open System Preferences, and click Accounts. From here, you can change your account password and picture, the card marked as yours within the Address Book, and the Login Items launched automatically when you log in.
To log out of Mac OS X without restarting or shutting down the computer, choose the Apple menu and then either choose Log Out or just press COMMAND+Shift+Q. The confirmation dialog box shown in Figure 3 appears. Although Mac OS X displays the login screen after two minutes, someone can still saunter up and click the Cancel button, thereby gaining access to your stuff. Therefore, make it a practice to always click the Log Out button on this screen before your hand leaves the mouse!
Figure 3: Always click Log Out before you leave your Mac.
You can also enable Fast User Switching from the Login Options panel. This feature allows another user to sit down and log in while the previous user’s applications are still running in the background. When you enable switching, Tiger displays the currently active user’s name at the right side of the Finder menu bar. Click the name, and a menu appears; click Login Window, and another user can then log in as usual. Even though you’re playing musical chairs, the Big X remembers what’s running and the state of your Desktop when you last left it. (When you decide to switch back, Tiger prompts you for that account’s login password . . . just in case, you understand.)