Likewise Enterprise > Features Overview



Active Directory Integration for Linux, Unix, and Mac

An Overview of Likewise Enterprise Features

Likewise Enterprise joins Linux, Unix, and Mac computers to Microsoft Active Directory, yielding a range of benefits for users, system administrators, and security managers.

Users get one ID and one password. System administrators rest easy with the knowledge that users are authenticated with the highly secure Kerberos protocol and authorized for access to resources and applications. Managers see their operational costs drop as Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X computers are centrally managed in Active Directory and configured en masse with Likewise group policies. Security managers find help in their quest for regulatory compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Here is an overview of the features of Likewise Enterprise.

Feature

Description
Likewise Enterprise works with more than 125 Linux, Unix, and Mac platforms.
Likewise makes it possible to centrally manage the computers and applications in a mixed network of Unix, Linux, Mac, and Windows machines from Active Directory, bringing you an array of features and benefits unavailable with NIS, a custom LDAP solution, or an ad hoc Kerberos key distribution center.
Likewise lets you assign a unique ID to each person with computer access — a best practice and a requirement of such regulatory standards as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Active Directory makes ID assignment simple: one ID, one user. Likewise extends that functionality to Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X users.
Likewise authenticates Unix and Linux user names and passwords with the Kerberos 5 protocol, a strong cryptographic mechanism that lets users and computers communicating over an insecure network prove their identity to one another in a secure way. By using Kerberos, Likewise eliminates plain text passwords.
The Likewise Operations Dashboard runs on a Windows workstation to give you a graphical view of the security events that take place on the Unix, Linux, and Mac computers in your network.
Likewise cells map a user to different UIDs and GIDs for different computers. Cells can provide users with a different primary and second group memberships on different machines. Linux and Unix computers that are in the OU (or an OU nested in it) use the cell to map AD users to UIDs and GIDs. Likewise Enterprise modifies the Active Directory User and Computers MMC snap-in so that you can create an associated cell for an OU and then use the cell to manage UID-GID numbers.
Judicious use of Likewise cells can provide a convenient way of controlling access to different classes of Unix, Linux and Mac OS X computers. Likewise Enterprise includes additional methods for controlling access: setting an allow logon rights group policy, specifying logon hours, using logon lists, and disallowing logons by individual users.
Likewise Enterprise tolerates communication failures. The Likewise agent caches user account information so that it can authenticate users even if the computer loses connectivity with AD domain controllers.
When you log on a Linux, Unix, or Mac OS X computer by using your Active Directory domain credentials, Likewise initializes and maintains a Kerberos ticket granting ticket (TGT). With a TGT, you can log on other computers joined to Active Directory or applications provisioned with a Service Principal Name and be automatically authenticated with Kerberos and authorized for access through Active Directory.
Likewise Enterprise includes more than 80 group policies that are custom made for Unix, Linux, and Mac workstations and servers. All the policies are fully integrated with the Microsoft Group Policy Object Editor and the Group Policy Management Console.
Likewise Enterprise includes several thousand group policies for Linux user and computer settings -- policies that are based on the Gnome GConf project to define desktop and application preferences such as the default web browser. These Gnome configuration settings can be applied to Linux computers running the Gnome desktop.
Likewise Enterprise is the only solution that lets you target group policies at only the platforms that you want.
Likewise Enterprise includes 20 group policies made specifically for Mac OS X workstations and servers, including energy saver policies for green offices.
You can set Managed Client Settings for Mac computers with Workgroup Manager, a free server administration tool from Apple for remotely managing user, group, and computer settings on Mac OS X machines. Likewise Enterprise integrates Workgroup Manager with Active Directory by saving Managed Client Settings (MCX) as standard Microsoft Active Directory group policy objects.
Likewise Enterprise is the only solution with a flexible deployment model that makes extending the Active Directory schema to RFC 2307 optional. Either way, you get full product functionality.
You can use the Likewise migration tool to import Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X password and group files -- typically /etc/passwd and /etc/group -- and automatically map their UIDs and GIDs to users and groups defined in Active Directory. Or, you can choose to generate a Windows automation script to associate the Unix and Linux UIDs and GIDs with Active Directory users and groups.
Likewise empowers you to create custom reports about Linux and Unix users, groups, computers, forests, and domains within Active Directory.
Likewise supports a variety of popular Unix platforms, including multiple versions of AIX, Solaris, and HP-UX.

For more information about features, see the Likewise Enterprise Datasheet

For more information about mixing Macs with Windows in the enterprise, see Mac Windows Integration

For information about running Unix with Windows in the enterprise, see Unix Windows Integration.

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