How to join Ubuntu 8.04 to Windows Active Directory (Domain)

Posted by: Bobby Allen on: May 23, 2008

• In: UNIX & Linux
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These days many more companies are using mixed IT enviroments using a mixture of Windows, Linux, UNIX and Mac’s and I for one am using a mixture of Microsoft Windows and Linux (Ubuntu). On my network I use a Microsoft Active Directory and want to be able to get all Server (Linux & Windows) as well as Desktops (Linux and Windows) to authenticate in a central location.

Since browsing the web I managed to find this cool package that can be installed on Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) which enables you to add and authenticate Ubuntu 8.04 against a Windows Domain Controller (Microsoft Active Directory)

So here goes…

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install likewise-open
sudo domainjoin-cli join fqdn.of.your.domain Administrator
sudo update-rc.d likewise-open defaults
sudo /etc/init.d/likewise-open start

Using the above commands you have installed ‘likewise-open’ which is the package that makes it possible for the Ubuntu client/server to logon to a Windows domain, added the client/server to the windows domain, updated the system services and then started the service.

Now that the LikeWise package has been installed you can now logoff (although I recommend full system reboot) and logon in this format:

DOMAIN\username

You need to ensure that you prefix the username with the Domain name.

The good points about this kind of setup is as follows:

• Single username/password combination across entire network.
• Enforces password policys
• Likewise Open enables Linux, Unix and Mac authentication on a Microsoft network using Active Directory. A user can now interactively log in to the Linux, Unix or Mac machine using Active Directory credentials, and can access any kerberized services that the non-Windows machine hosts.