Apple Mac OS X Server (Administrator’s Guide) - Manual (Page 65)

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C H A P T E R
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Directory Services
Directory services provide a central repository for information about the systems,
applications, and users in an organization. In education and enterprise environments,
directory services are the ideal way to manage users and computing resources. Organizations
with as few as 10 people can benefit by deploying directory services.
Directory services can be doubly beneficial. They centralize system and network
administration, and they simplify a user’s experience on the network. With directory services,
information about all the users—such as their names, passwords, and preferences—as well as
printers and other resources on a network can be maintained in a single location rather than
on each computer on the network. Using directory services can reduce the system
administrator’s user management burden. In addition, users can log in to any authorized
computer on the network. Anywhere a user logs in, the user’s personal Desktop appears,
customized for the user’s individual preferences. The user always has access to personal files
and can easily locate and use authorized network resources.
Apple has built an open, extensible directory services architecture, called Open Directory,
into Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server. A Mac OS X Server or Mac OS X client computer can use
Open Directory to retrieve authoritative information about users and network resources
from a variety of sources:
m directory domains on the computer itself and on other Mac OS X Servers
m directory domains on other servers, including LDAP directory domains and Active
Directory domains on non-Apple servers
m BSD configuration files located on the computer itself
m network services, such as file servers, that make themselves known with the Rendezvous,
AppleTalk, SLP, or SMB service discovery protocols
Mac OS 9 and Mac OS 8 managed clients also use Open Directory to retrieve some user
information. For more information, see “How Macintosh Manager Works With Directory
Services” on page 420 in Chapter 10, “Client Management: Mac OS 9 and OS 8.”