Joining My MAC Laptop To The Domain

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Joining my MAC laptop to the domain  

 
Follow these steps to join your Apple Mac laptop to the University domain.  

An account must exist on the domain before the laptop can join it. Contact the Service Desk at
210-567-7777, option 1 to have them create the domain account, then proceed with joining the
domain. Go to Step 7 to check the system's computer name for the domain account. When the
domain account is created, return here and begin joining the Mac laptop to the domain.  

1) Go the Apple Menu and open System Preferences.  

2) In System Preferences, select "Users and Groups" (if you are running Mac OS X 10.7 Lion) or
"Accounts"(if you are running MacOS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or earlier).  
 

Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion"   Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard"  

3) In the resulting pane, click Login Options (see the image below; you may need to click the
padlock in the lower left-hand corner and enter your Mac user credentials to unlock the
preferences).    
 

4) Click the window's "Show All" button to return to the full System Preferences window.  

5) In System Preferences", check to see if the Absolute Manage icon is present.  


 

If the icon is not present, review the instructions for installing the Absolute Manage Agent.  

If the icon is present, click on it and continue to Step 6.  

6) Click the Client Information tab and check the version number in the lower right-hand corner.  

As of June 2012, this should show "(v.2409)". If your installation was prior to June 2012, review
the instructions for installing/updating the Absolute Manage Agent and for help in filling in the
Client Information fields.  

7) Click the "Show All" button again to return to the full System Preferences menu.  
 

Select and open the "Sharing" preferences.  

In the Sharing preferences window, your Mac's "Computer Name:" is shown in the top field.  

 
Note: Active Directory limits computer names on the domain to 15 characters and does not
permit spaces. The current naming convention is "Dept-UTTag", where Dept is a three- or
four-letter department abbreviation and UTTag is the laptop's inventory tag number. Change the
name, if necessary, to meet the Active Directory requirements.  

8) Unlock the Sharing preferences, if necessary, by clicking the padlock in the lower left-hand
corner. You may need to provide your laptop login credentials.  

9) Click "Screen Sharing", click the button next to "Only these users:" (under "Allow access
for:"), click the "+" button and add the Administrators group.  

10) Click "Remote Login", click the button next to "Only these users:" (under "Allow access
for"), click the "+" button and add the Administrators group.  
 

11) Click the "Show All" button again to return to the full System Preferences window.  

12) Select and open the "Users & Groups" preferences (for Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion") or the
"Accounts" preferences (for Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard").  
 

Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion"   Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard"  

13) Unlock the preferences, if necessary, by clicking on the padlock in the lower left-hand
corner. You may need to provide your laptop login credentials.  

14) Click "Login Options", then click the "Join..." button next to "Network Account Server:".  

15) When the window below appears, click the "Open Directory Utility ..." button.  
 

16) When the Directory Utility launches, unlock it, if necessary, by clicking the padlock in the
lower left-hand corner.  

Select the "Services" icon on the top toolbar, the double-click "Active Directory".  
 

17) When the Active Directory pane appears, click the "Advanced Options" expansion arrow to
display all settings options, as shown below.  

18) Enter win.uthscsa.edu in the "Active Directory Domain:" field.  

In the "Computer ID:" field, make sure the entry matches the Computer Name you created in
Step 7. If necessary, change it here so that the values match.  
Note:  

If you will be using SecureDoc to encrypt your Mac laptop, proceed directly to Step 20.  

If you will be using FileVault 2 to encrypt your Mac laptop, continue on to Step 19.  

19) Under the User Experience tab, check "Create mobile account at login" and "Require
confirmation before creating a mobile account"; this will save the account to the Mac operating
system, allowing the user to login even if the Mac is not connected to the domain.  

20) Check the remaining boxes as shown below.  

21) Click the Administrative tab and put a checkmark in the "Allow administration by: box.
Click the "+" button, then enter uthscsa\AbManAdmins as shown below.  
 

21) Click the "Bind ..." button to join the Mac laptop to the UTHSCSA domain and Active
Directory.  

NOTE: When the binding operation has been completed successfully, the "Bind ..." button will
change to an "Unbind ..." button.  

Click the "OK" button and quit the Directory Utility.  

 
22) RESTART YOUR MAC.  

Note: To log in using your domain account credentials for the first time, you will need a physical
(wired) network connection within the University. Subsequent logins can be accomplished wired
or wirelessly (if your Mac has a wireless card). Whenever your domain password is updated or
otherwise changes, you can access the domain via VPN to synchronize the password with your
mobile account.  

Note: By default, the new mobile account you created will be a standard user. To promote it to
an administrator account, return to the Users & Groups (or Accounts) screen in System
Preferences.  

Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion"   Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard"  

Unlock and authenticate with a valid administrative account.  

Select your account name and check "Allow user to administer this computer". This is greyed out
in the example below because the panel is locked.  
 

Lock the panel when you've finished making your changes.  

Your MAC laptop has now been joined to the UT Health Science Center San Antonio
domain.  

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