Active Directory authentication in Ubuntu

Submitted by madvip on Fri, 06/20/2008 - 07:29.

This article will explain how to log inside a Linux box using Windows Domain credentials. This is especially useful in an enterprise environment. I am assuming that my windows username is james.attard and the domain is called ACME. First of all we install Likewise-Open:

james@madvip.net:~$ sudo apt-get install likewise-open

Now we can try to join the domain ACME with a domain administrator account. I'm assuming that my windows username james.attard is part of the domain admins:

james@madvip.net:~$ sudo domainjoin-cli join ACME james.attard

Now that I have successfully joined the domain, I can proceed to update the rc.d links:

james@madvip.net:~$ sudo update-rc.d likewise-open defaults

We can now start the Likewise daemon:

james@madvip.net:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/likewise-open start

Finally we test the connection to our linux box using our Windows credentials. Note that the format need a double backslash (DOMAIN\\username):

james@madvip.net:~$ ssh ACME\\james.attard@localhost

And here I am in the ACME domain. Remember that if my username is not a domain admin, I can use the ACME\Administrator account.

»