Joining Ubuntu Computer to the Domain

There are many different software that you can use to connect Ubuntu computer to the Windows Domain. In this scenario I will use “LikewiseOpen”.

Video Tutorial: How to add Ubuntu computer to the domain

To install the software please follow these steps:

1. Open “Dashboard” and access the “Terminal”. Note: If “Terminal” is not visible from the “Dashboard” please type “terminal” in the search field and the “Terminal” software should appear, then click on it to open it
2. Once the “Terminal” has opened, please , type:sudo apt-get install likewise-open-gui
   
   This will download the “LikewiseOpen” software from the internetNote: you have to be the member of the “sudo” rights users
3. When prompted - type your password. The download will start
4. When prompted - press “Enter” on the keyboard to approve the creation of the folder on the system
5. Once the installation has finished, type:sudo nano /etc/nsswitch.conf
   
   This command will open “nsswitch” configuration file .Note: you have to be the member of the “sudo” rights users
6. Navigate to the “host” record and add “dns” to the line as shown in the example:hosts: files dns mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
   
7. Then press “Ctrl” and “X” on the keyboard to exit from the configuration file
8. Once prompted to save the file press “Y” on the keyboard to confirm
9. Once prompted press “Enter” on the keyboard to save and exit
10. Then, type:sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
    
    This will open “lightdm” configuration file.Note: you have to be the member of the “sudo” rights users
11. At the bottom of the screen type:greeter-hide-users=true
    
    This will ensure that the system will ask to input the username upon the OS startup. This will give the opportunity to use domain credentials instead of local user credentials.
12. Then press “Ctrl” and “X” on the keyboard to exit from the configuration file
13. Once prompted to save the file press “Y” on the keyboard to confirm
14. Once prompted press “Enter” on the keyboard to save and exit
15. Open “Dashboard” and access the “Active Directory Membership”Note: If “Active Directory Membership” is not visible from the “Dashboard” please type “activ” in the search field and the “Active Directory Membership” software should appear, then click on it to open it
16. When prompted, enter your password to proceed.Note: you have to be the member of the “sudo” rights users
17. In the “Domain” field enter the name of the domain that you would like to connect the computer to
18. If you want to add the computer to a specific OU (Organizational Unit), then you can specify the location in the “Specific OU path” field, otherwise  leave defautl
19. Click on “Join Domain”
20. Once prompted enter user credentials that has the administrator rights in the domain that you want to join the computer and press “OK”
21. Once the message indicates that the process has been successfully completed, click “Close”
22. And “Close” again
23. Open “Dashboard” and access the “Terminal”. Note: If “Terminal” is not visible from the “Dashboard” please type “terminal” in the search field and the “Terminal” software should appear, then click on it to open it
24. Type:sudo nano /etc/sudoers
    
    This will open “sudoers” file. This file contains all users that have “admin” or “root” privilegesNote: you have to be the member of the “sudo” rights users
25. When prompted - type your password
26. Type the text as in the example:#User privilege specification
    root ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
    %domain^admins ALL=(ALL) ALL
    
    This line will add Windows “Domain Admins” security group to the local “root” group
27. Then press “Ctrl” and “X” on the keyboard to exit from the configuration file
28. Once prompted to save the file press “Y” on the keyboard to confirm
29. Once prompted press “Enter” on the keyboard to save and exit
30. Restart the computer
31. Once the computer has restarted, enter the domain user account credentialsNote: It is preferable of you enter username that is a part of the “Domain Admin” group in the domain, just to verify that the users have root privileges on the computer.
32. To verify that the user has the root privileges, open the “System Settings” and verify if you can access “System Section” at the bottom of the window.

If you have followed the steps mentioned above and have not received any error messages you should be able to use any domain user credentials to log into the system. If you would like to add more users to the “admin” or “root” security groups on the local computer please follow steps 23-29 that are mentioned above.