Group Policy for Mac

Preferences and Policies
Authentication Services Group Policy for Mac supports Mac Workgroup Manager preferences and policies. It provides intuitive and powerful management of thousands of settings including:

• Finder
• Media access
• Dock settings
• System preferences
• Login
• Application
• Classic
• Universal access
• Network
• Software update
• Energy saver
• Parental controls
• Time machine
• Preference manifests

Extend Group Policy Management to Third-party Applications
Apple’s best practices recommend that third-party solutions for Mac applications include a Preference Manifest File that defines setting types and allowable values. Group Policy for Mac automatically interprets the Preference Manifest file and includes it in the user interface, providing a single point of Group Policy management from Active Directory.

Active Directory Settings Extended to the Mac
Authentication Services also extends many powerful Windows identity and access management polices to the Mac environment for:

• Passwords
• Account lockout
• Kerberos
• User rights assignment
• Security options

Purpose Built User Interface

Authentication Services uses an intuitive and familiar Group Policy management interface that makes it easy to locate and manage Mac OS X settings and preferences from Active Directory.

Active Directory Authentication
Authentication Services' patented technology natively implements Kerberos and LDAP on Unix, Linux, and Mac systems the same way they are in Windows. This provides Mac users a single, secure and compliant authentication tool for both Windows and Mac resources.  Bringing Mac OS X into the Active Directory “trusted realm” immediately enables single sign on. A single log in on the Mac desktop provides access to all Mac resources, as well as any other integrated systems or applications, including Windows, SAP, Siebel, Oracle Databases and DB2.