Overview
UNIX
64-bit
Networking
Open Directory
File system
Security controls
Xgrid
A key component of any modern computing environment, directory services allow organisations to centralise information about users, groups and computing resources. This network-based repository is the foundation for critical IT services, including managing users and groups, directing workflow solutions, providing employee directories and controlling access privileges. By maintaining a central directory, organisations can consolidate resources, simplify system management, and reduce support and administration costs — while providing strong authentication and password-protected access to network resources.
Why deploy directory services?
By centralising information about users and network resources, directory services provide the infrastructure required for managing users, groups and computers on your network. Directory services can benefit organisations with as few as 10 people and are essential for enterprise networks that have thousands of users. Deploying a directory server helps reduce administrative costs, improve security and provide users with a more productive computing experience.
Open, standards-based solution.
Built into Mac OS X Server is Open Directory, an easy-to-deploy directory and network authentication server that lets organisations benefit from centralised information. The Open Directory server is built around OpenLDAP — the most widely deployed open source LDAP server — to deliver directory services for Mac and mixed-platform environments. LDAP provides a common language for directory access, enabling you to consolidate information from different platforms and define a single name space for all network resources.
One directory.
Whether you have Mac, Windows or Linux systems on your network, you can set up and manage a single directory; you don’t need to maintain a separate directory or separate user records for each platform. This also streamlines the user experience: Users can authenticate to Mac OS X Server and access network resources using a single password from any platform
Strong single sign-on authentication.
A robust authentication authority using Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC) is built into the Open Directory server. Kerberos provides strong authentication with the convenience of single sign-on. That means users need authenticate only once, with a single user name and password pair, for access to a broad range of Kerberos-enabled network services. For services that have not been “Kerberized”, the integrated SASL service automatically negotiates the strongest-possible authentication protocol.
Seamless directory server integration.
The Open Directory server integrates easily into your existing enterprise directory systems. With Augmented Records, you can use your company’s primary directory server — whether Active Directory or Open Directory — for all user and group lookups and authentication. With no schema changes, you can store any custom information needed for client management, calendaring or collaboration services in the local Open Directory server.
