Integrating Macs into a Windows network.

[Koldov]

Hi All,

 

 

 

Out of the blue without any consultation with myself (obviously), I receive an email from a supplier quoting for a shiny new MacBook Pro for my Headteacher... I guess it will arrive and be presented to me with a demand to attach it to the network somehow.

 

 

However, I don't really know anything about Apple infrastructure or how far it can integrate with a Windows network. Could anybody give me a quick 101 on what I can expect it to be able to do/not do in regards to server access, AD, GPO's, printing (bearing in mind we do not have airprint enabled printers), shares, possibly SIMS/DISCOVER....

 

Anything else I might need to watch out for/heads up/gotchas....

 

Kol.

[Oaktech]

Are you the actual NM or a tech?

 

If you're the NM I'd be throwing toys out of prams. It's your network, it runs Windows for a reason, etc, etc.

 

If you're just a tech then I'd either bootcamp it to windows for use on the network or tell him it's not worth the expense in terms of your time to integrate one device.

 

If you have an RDS server you could offer for him to work in that?

[Brimstone]

It's your network, it runs Windows for a reason, etc, etc.

 

 

It's not his network, it's the schools network

[Chris_Cook]

I feel your pain.

 

However, it should be possible to do most things on that list, apart from sims/discover - you would need some sort of remote desktop solution or boot camp for that.

 

It should be possible to connect to your AD. which would give you logins. You won't get GPOs, but for a one off computer that's probably not a big deal.

 

There is an option in finder to connect to windows shares. Under the GO menu there should be a connect option. Type in SMB://Server_name/share_name.

 

If you have a network printer, that should also connect directly, but it might bypass any print monitoring. Your printer manufacturer should have instructions. USB printers should be fine.

 

You can get versions of Office etc for Mac. I would avoid the mac specific programs like keynote and pages, unless they can remember to convert the files every time they save. They are a pain if sharing documents with PC users.

[Koldov]

Sole ICT Technician AND 'Network Manager' (but in name only I'm afraid)... It doesn't come with any of the money or power unfortunately!

 

We are a very small Primary without a big budget and although my initial knee-jerk reaction was the same as yours, it's not a battle I'm going to choose - as I already have a member of SLT gunning for me... The Head is new and is very pro Apple after experiences around the world, so I guess I'm just going to have to make the best of it.

 

Having a lowly tech from a local school telling him it's too much effort, would I'm sure initiate my early departure!

[BKGarry]

You could also put in a Virtual Box VM for SIMS if you do not have an Remote Desktop server.

 

You can also add the SMB shares as login items, so it automatically connects for him.

 

Your biggest challenge will be SIMS. I used to run it in a Virtual Box VM (which was just our network image in there) but I have since switched back to a windows PC, just as I had enough of people's snidey comments about it.

 

Do you already have an RDS solution in place?

[Koldov]

However, it should be possible to do most things on that list, apart from sims/discover - you would need some sort of remote desktop solution or boot camp for that..

 

Sorry, as I'm a complete Apple n00b - does this mean SIMS doesn't work on a Mac?

 

It should be possible to connect to your AD. which would give you logins. You won't get GPOs, but for a one off computer that's probably not a big deal...

 

Ok thanks, I'll look into this and hope my Google-fu is strong!

 

There is an option in finder to connect to windows shares. Under the GO menu there should be a connect option. Type in SMB://Server_name/share_name.

 

Could this be done as a desktop shortcut or put in My Computer (or Mac equivalent) like a mapped drive?

 

If you have a network printer, that should also connect directly, but it might bypass any print monitoring. Your printer manufacturer should have instructions. USB printers should be fine.

 

This doesn't require the printers to be Airprint enabled? Doesn't it require the same network (as our printers are on a seperate VLAN)?

 

You can get versions of Office etc for Mac. I would avoid the mac specific programs like keynote and pages, unless they can remember to convert the files every time they save. They are a pain if sharing documents with PC users.

 

Will have to look into this as well, as it appears to come with something called iWork suite, which I presume is the Apple version of Office...

[BKGarry]

SIMS

SIMS is a windows only program so you either need to force the mac into windows with bootcamp, run a windows VM or Have a Remote Desktop Server

Shared Folders/Mapped Drives

You cannot make desktop shortcuts for drives as such, but you can drag them to the dock to force a reconnect, or add them as log in items so they always connect on login (when at the network)

Printing

Airprint is not needed for OSX/MacOS printing, we actually have windows printers will pull print queues shared directly from our windows server to the macs

Office

iWork is good, but some people do prefer to use Microsoft Office

[Koldov]

Do you already have an RDS solution in place?

 

No, there has never been any need to implement an RDS server, Remote Desktop itself is locked down site-wide and only my PC can remote to another computer.

[2ilent8cho]

Printing does not need AirPrint printers, that is for iOS devices not Mac OS. We find printers are way easier on the Mac OS than Windows but that will depend on what printer vendor you have, the drivers tend to auto pull down from Apple and just work. We did have to specify Post Script cards for our Photocopiers though with Ricoh as its an extra.

 

If you have a Remote Desktop Server this is your best option for SIMS access if its a one off Mac i would just use the standard RDP app from the App Store if you think there may be more you might want a different solution.

 

We use Parallels 2X Parallels Remote Application Server to bring SIMS to our Macs which just gives the effect of SIMS being on the Mac , just a fancy RDP really. They use to offer a free 3 user version, but that stopped a few months back.

 

Access file shares is easy, in finder just click Go, Connect to server and in the address box type smb://servername/share . You can create Aliases by dragging the share to the desktop and it will auto connect it up when double clicked. (Aliases are the Mac OS version of shortcuts).

 

You can join them to AD for user authentication.

 

What you really need to do is find out if this is going to be a one off or if more will be having a Mac. If its just a 1 off and the Head Teacher you can get away with very little management. If they intend on getting more now is the time to put tools in place for managing them such as Deploy Studio for imaging, Profile Manager for the Mac equivalent of what you would use Group Policy for, or if you have the money a full blown suite of management tools like Casper.

 

Also how does the head intend on backing up? We use Time Machine Server on our Mac Server with an external 8TB thunderbolt drive. So if its just a one off they may want to get a Time Capsule.

[3s-gtech]

For a single Mac, it can work absolutely fine. You don't need to worry too much - shares, printing and Office are all fairly simple to achieve on the standalone machine. Unless you use an MDM, he will have fairly high access rights on the machine which may or may not be an issue. It can easily be set up to use an AD login with local storage for portability, but he won't be able to log in while off the network by default. The integration is pretty good in 10.11 though, give it a shot.

 

It may be worth hinting that it would be nice to be kept in the loop with regard to IT purchases though.

[mavhc]

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21988?locale=en_GB

 

Every time something's weird on the Mac just go "weird, works fine on Windows"

 

And log how much time you spend supporting that one computer out of x, put that in your report:

Time spent supporting Windows computers 600 hours

Time spent supporting Mac computers 10 hours

Time spent on Windows computers per computer 5 hours

Time spent on Mac computers per computer 10 hours

 

Draw a nice graph, maybe multiply it by your hourly wages.

[Koldov]

It can easily be set up to use an AD login with local storage for portability, but he won't be able to log in while off the network by default.

 

Sorry, another probably obvious question.... When you say 'he won't be able to log in' - does that mean it works like Windows with cached credentials and you log in the same, just without access to the network drives and printers etc...? Or he actually won't be able to log in?

[2ilent8cho]

Just make sure the 'Create Mobile Account at login' is ticked in the Directory utility . That caches the AD credentials.

[3s-gtech]

Sorry, another probably obvious question.... When you say 'he won't be able to log in' - does that mean it works like Windows with cached credentials and you log in the same, just without access to the network drives and printers etc...? Or he actually won't be able to log in?

 

As above - just remember to do this. I've not tested this myself as our Macs never leave the LAN. Otherwise, no log on at all - screen shake = sad face.

[Brimstone]

@Koldov,

 

I'd recommend having a read of these, which should help you...

 

http://training.apple.com/pdf/mac_integration_basics_1011.pdf

 

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/mac-integration-basics-10.11/id1075998956?mt=11

[Allie]

However, I don't really know anything about Apple infrastructure or how far it can integrate with a Windows network. Could anybody give me a quick 101 on what I can expect it to be able to do/not do in regards to server access, AD, GPO's, printing (bearing in mind we do not have airprint enabled printers), shares, possibly SIMS/DISCOVER....

 

Anything else I might need to watch out for/heads up/gotchas....

 

Kol.

 

Get yourself a Mac to manage it. Explain that it's a cost that's necessary. It can be very low end, but you'll need something.

 

You can easily join it to AD. Password changes are a pain, but they'll get used to it (when it asks for the keychain password, that's the old password). See: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201609 . Some third party tools can help.

 

GPOs are Windows only and don't apply. Use Profile Manager. Mourn for the loss of Workgroup Manager. When you inevitably get more Macs, look for a solution like Casper Suite.

 

Any decent print server will work just fine, same with file sharing.

 

I've never used or heard of SIMS/DISCOVER so I'll leave that one to someone else. Hope this helps. I have years of experience managing Macs in education, so please do let me know if you need anything specific.

[DJ-1701]

Capita SIMS and SIMS Discover were designed as Windows programs, and therefore need a Windows environment to run (physical/virtual windows PC, or a windows terminal service server).

 

There was talk a while back by Capita about iPad iOS Apps, which would be an additional (yearly?) fee, but no other platform has been discussed to my knowledge.

[Koldov]

Hi All,

 

So it happened!

 

Anyway he opened his shiny MacBook...

 

First question:

 

Can I have Microsoft Office?

 

Second question:

 

Can I get onto the server shares?

 

Third question:

 

So can I get outlook to manage my mail?

 

Fourth question (well more of a statement really):

 

When can all this be done? I really want to stop using this (perfectly good/already set-up) Windows laptop....?

 

No you don't.... You really don't.... You want a Windows laptop, but like a Mac.... Sheeeesh....

 

Anyway, I am halfway there - MS Office is on and I have joined to the Domain, I think.

 

Trouble is I can't see how it connects to his home drive - I selected 'Use UNC path from Active Directory ....for home location' - but it shows up on login that he can't connect to the server, with a question mark in the 'dock' for it. It also shows up as smb://SERVER/ROOTOFSHARE/ in the login items, but not his folder and he doesn't have permissions on the root obviously...

 

Any ideas?

 

Just mapped drives, printers and stuff to go!

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Kol.

[BKGarry]

What i do for the weird shares, and this isn't the write way but it works

in finder user Go > Connect to server

 

Type in your SMB shares, and then when connected, dragged the drive down to the stack area of the dock, near the trash can

 

When they disconnect, you can just click on them down there and it reconnects them. Not pretty, but works.

 

Also when connecting to a home drive, make sure you put the gull path

[Koldov]

Hi All,

 

So it happened!

 

Anyway he opened his shiny MacBook...

 

First question:

 

Can I have Microsoft Office?

 

Second question:

 

Can I get onto the server shares?

 

Third question:

 

So can I get outlook to manage my mail?

 

Fourth question (well more of a statement really):

 

When can all this be done? I really want to stop using this (perfectly good/already set-up) Windows laptop....?

 

No you don't.... You really don't.... You want a Windows laptop, but like a Mac.... Sheeeesh....

 

Anyway, I am halfway there - MS Office is on and I have joined to the Domain, I think.

 

Trouble is I can't see how it connects to his home drive - I selected 'Use UNC path from Active Directory ....for home location' - but it shows up on login that he can't connect to the server, with a question mark in the 'dock' for it. It also shows up as smb://SERVER/ROOTOFSHARE/ in the login items, but not his folder and he doesn't have permissions on the root obviously...

 

Any ideas?

 

Just mapped drives, printers and stuff to go!

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Kol.

[Koldov]

Software for this printer isn't available from Apple.....

[BKGarry]

Software for this printer isn't available from Apple.....

 

Generic PostScript or PCL usually works.

[Koldov]

Thought it worth downloading from the manufacturer - I tried a generic once and it didn't take long before admin complained it didn't fold it into an origami flower or some such necessity....

 

Any experience with this?

 

Trouble is I can't see how it connects to his home drive - I selected 'Use UNC path from Active Directory ....for home location' - but it shows up on login that he can't connect to the server, with a question mark in the 'dock' for it. It also shows up as smb://SERVER/ROOTOFSHARE/ in the login items, but not his folder and he doesn't have permissions on the root obviously...

 

Any ideas?

 

Also, once connected to a Windows Server share (just in 'Finder -> Go -> Connect To Server') how do I drag that onto the desk top?

 

Cheers,

 

Kol

[3s-gtech]

I think your users will need permissions to read the root smb://SERVER/ROOTOFSHARE/. That is - so they can see others' home areas. They don't need to be able to go into anyone else's home area.

 

https://welsheduit.wordpress.com/2014/11/07/os-x-10-10-yosemite-and-ad-home-directories-via-smb-fixed/

 

This was certainly the case for us, and changed to requiring this in either 10.9 or 10.10 (we never used 10.9 but did use 10.5-10.8).