What needs to be done/added on Apple MacBook Air in order to join domain and be managed?

Question

We are a fully windows active directory company.

I now have a MacBook Air (first in company) - that needs to be connected. What are the things I need to install/set in order for me to be able to manage it from my domain controller?

I have WSUS ( I guess I can't manage with it) but things like: login scripts?

Admin rights? Anti virus??? What about permissions? write/read from network folders?

• There is only one user created now on the Mac, how do I give my domain administrator full rights?
• Should I have the user name the same as the domain one?
• once in the domain, can any domain user join this mac?

Thanks

Answer 1

You can bind the Mac to your Active Directory fairly easily. In the Users & Groups control panel, you have a menu for Login Options. You can Join... a Network Account Server from this window.

Once bound to the domain, you can use additional features found in the Directory Utility. The main thing I do for laptops is Create a Mobile Account at Login. This is like an offline profile that allows the user to login via AD credentials even while away from the network. You can also set the AD groups that are allowed to administer the system via options in this dialog. By default, Domain Admins can manage the system. And any domain user can login by default as well (I believe). Use the DOMAIN\username syntax once you've bound to AD.