Mac OS X Server: Alternatives to Windows NT 4.0 domain control (PDC) technology

Summary

This article contains information about alternatives to Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 domain control (PDC), which is no longer supported by Windows 7 and later clients, or by Lion Server.

Products Affected

Lion Server, Mac OS X Server 10.5, Mac OS X Server 10.6

Background

Windows NT 4.0 domain control is a system of network user and group authorization used by Windows Vista and earlier clients and Windows 2008 and earlier servers. Mac OS X Server v10.6 and earlier included the ability to be a primary (PDC) or backup (BDC) domain controller for these Windows systems.

Windows 7 and later clients no longer support the Windows NT 4.0 PDC technology provided in Mac OS X Server v10.6 and earlier. See the Microsoft Technet article Windows NT 4.0 domain join is not supported with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 for more information.

Windows NT 4.0 domain control is not a feature of Lion Server.

Solutions

  • You can integrate your Mac OS X Server into an Active Directory domain. Read more about directory integration in the Lion Server Advanced Administration guide or the Mac OS X Server v10.6 Open Directory Administration Guide, available from Apple Servers and Enterprise Software Manuals.
  • Users can authenticate and log in locally on the Windows computer, then manually mount share points hosted on Lion Server.
  • You can install the Samba SMB server on Mac OS X Server and configure it provide Active Directory-style login authentication for Windows.
  • You can install a free, third-party Windows Login Window replacement called pGina on your Windows clients. This software allows Windows to authenticate directly to Mac OS X Server Open Directory or another LDAP directory. See http://www.pgina.org for more information.
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