How do I join a Microsoft Active Directory Domain in OS X?

I'm having some problems trying to join our university's Active Directory.

Some of the errors I'm receiving are:

The plugin encountered an error processing request.

Authentication server encountered an error while attempting the requested operation.

Unable to add server.

Authentication server encountered an error while attempting the requested operation.

(5202)

Unable to add server.

The plugin encountered an error processing request.

(10001)

Any ideas?

The plugin encountered an error processing request.

Authentication server encountered an error while attempting the requested operation.

Unable to add server. Authentication server encountered an error while attempting the requested operation. (5202)

Unable to add server. The plugin encountered an error processing request. (10001)


Well, I figured it out! Our Active Directory is very large. I'm actually only technically a container admin deep within a large tree of Colleges within the University so I believe that had something to do with it.

Instead of using the easy quick Join interface I had to open up Directory Utility and join this way.

When I pressed 'Bind' I typed in the direct OU path for my particular Container that my machine should be placed in and it let me bind.

I don't have this issue on Windows but Mac is needing it to be specifically assigned to that OU before my level of authority will allow me to add the Mac.

I hope this helps someone!


We have found in our environment that some AD accounts can login on mountain lion and some cannot. The same users that fail with 10.8 can login just fine on 10.6 or 10.7 machines. Try binding using other accounts with the ability to add machines to your domain.


Solution in 2 parts

  1. An article I read and closed 10 minutes ago said "Some accounts can loin and some cannot. All the ones that cannot have 1 thing in common. they are ID'd as 'Domain Users'"

  2. The other covered the registration process. Images of each dialogue and everything. Thank heavens IE lets you reopen recently closed tabs...

http://itscwiki.tamu.edu/wiki/Join_Active_Directory_in_OS_X_Lion