Apple Mac OS X Server (Administrator’s Guide) - Manual (Page 78)

78 Chapter 2
Shared Data in Existing Directory Domains
Some organizations—such as universities and worldwide corporations—maintain user
information and other administrative data in directory domains on UNIX or Windows servers.
Open Directory can be configured to search these non-Apple domains as well as shared
Open Directory domains of Mac OS X Servers.
When a user logs in to a computer on your network, Open Directory still searches for the
user in the computer’s local domain and in shared domains on Mac OS X Servers. But if the
user is not found and Open Directory has been configured to search an LDAP domain on a
UNIX server, Open Directory consults the LDAP domain for information about the user.
Directory Domain Hierarchies
Local and shared domains are organized into hierarchies, tree-like topologies that have a
shared domain at the top and local domains at the bottom of the tree. A hierarchy can be as
simple as a local domain and a shared domain, or it can contain more shared domains.
Mac OS 9 user Mac OS X user Windows user
Mac OS X Server
Local
domain
Shared
domain
LDAP server
2
1
3