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AD User as 10.4 Server Administrator


Hello everyone,

I am relatively new to Mac OS X Server/Active Directory integration, I have a customer who is testing integration of a server running Mac OS X Server 10.4.3 into their AD domain. Binding the 10.4.3 Server and joining the Kerberos realm have proven to work correctly, but I have been asked to designate a specific AD domain-based account as an administrator for the 10.4.3 server. In this case, I use "administrator" and "administer" to refer both to manipulation of service settings on the server, as well as the creation/deletion/ manipulation of user and group accounts in the server's local NetInfo database. I am curious about whether this is possible and best practices, with the following options and observed results:

1) In Directory Access under the Active Directory plug-in, adding the domain-based user's name to the list in Advanced Options>Administrative>"Allow administration by" had not apparent effect, and the user listed did not have any capability for administering the server, either using server administrator applications, or in local computer administration applications running locally on the server, such as NetInfo Manager or System Preferences. The language in the Active Directory plug-in refers to the "Allow administration by" list as a list of groups, so I did not really expect adding a user account there to work.

2) Using NetInfo tools (NetInfo Manager in my case) to add the domain user to the 10.4.3 server's local admin group did allow the domain- based user to administer the server, but the resulting account behaved strangely within Workgroup Manager, with the domain-based user apparently able to make changes to other domain-based accounts. Workgroup Manager was unable to actually save the changes that it made, but the fact that WGM even appeared able to do so disturbed the customer's IT staff. I conclude that this probably isn't a good approach.

3) The approach that we have not yet tried (time constraints on the part of the AD admin) is to create a separate domain-based group with its sole member the domain-based user that the customer would like to have administer the machine. Once the domain-based group is created, add it to the list of groups that may administer the machine as defined in the Directory Access Active Directory plug-in. I'm curious whether this will work.

In summary, the questions I have are:
-Will option (3) above allow an AD domain-based user account to administer the Mac OS X Server?
-If not, is there a way of allowing an AD domain-based user account to administer the Mac OS X Server?
-Is there a best practice for allowing an AD domain-based user account to administer the Mac OS X Server?

Please let me know whether there is additional information I can provide, or whether what I have outlined above is unclear.

best regards,
/cd








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