Use Google Apps/Cloud Services as a Domain Controller Replacement

Posted by user124548 on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by user124548
Published on 2012-06-13T15:30:49Z Indexed on 2012/07/03 15:18 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 274

Filed under:

active-directory

|

domain-controller

|

google-apps

This is a Canonical Question about Cloud Services replacing Active Directory.

Is it possible to use Google Apps or another Cloud Service as a replacement for a Windows Domain Controller (replacing my whole AD infrastructure)?

Specifically, I want to remove our dependence on a local Windows Server; currently it acts as a Domain Controller with File and Print Services. I'd like to seamlessly replace this server with something based on hosted applications. I do not just want to move the server to a dedicated or collocated server.

I have yet to figure out how to piece together printer/etc sharing. If anyone has any insight into this, it would be appreciated. The goal is to eventually move all my servers to the cloud then write up a case study on the whole affair.

© Server Fault or respective owner

Related posts about active-directory

Can't join OS X Mavericks to AD Domain

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm attempting to join an OS X Mavericks (10.9) client to a Windows Server 2008 Active Directory domain, however the bind fails with this error in the OS X client's system.log: Oct 24 15:03:15 host.domain.com com.apple.preferences.users.remoteservice[5547]: -[ODCAddServerSheetController handleOtherActionError:… >>> More
Retrieve user details from Active Directory using SID

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi, How can I find a user in my AD when I have his/her SID. I don't want to rely on other attributes, since I am trying to detect changes to these. Example: I get a message about a change to user record containing: Message: User Account Changed: Target Account Name: test12 Target… >>> More
Retrieve user details from Active Directory using GUID

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi, How can I find a user in my AD when I have his/her GUID. I don't want to rely on other attributes, since I am trying to detect changes to these. >>> More
Retrieve user details from Active Directory using GUID [closed]

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Hi, How can I find a user in my AD when I have his/her GUID. I don't want to rely on other attributes, since I am trying to detect changes to these. >>> More
Office365 DirSync Active Directory Integration

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am preparing to deploy Office365 for my organization. We have an on premise Active Directory Domain Controller (Windows Server 2012 R2). We would like to leverage our Active Directory for: automatic user provisioning in Office365, and password synchronization, using the DirSync tool. Our Active… >>> More

Related posts about domain-controller

Windows Clients: Windows or Linux Domain Controller?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm planning to set up a domain controller for our small computer laboratory. I'm a little confused as to what operating system to use for our domain controller. What's in the lab: The lab has 25 units running a mix of Windows 7 and Windows XP. The domain controller will only have 2GB of RAM running… >>> More
Why does a Domain Controller have a public IP

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Just wondering why a Domain Controller has a public IP address? >>> More
Multi-Role Domain Controllers for Small Offices (< 50 clients)

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Warning: I'm a Linux/*NIX admin so this is all new to me. I understand that it's not considered a good idea to have only a single domain controller, and that it is also probably a good idea for a domain controller to only do AD/DHCP/DNS (Here). We have two offices, location A with 30 users and location… >>> More
Can't add client machine to windows server 2008 domain controller

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
A bit of background before I dive into the gritty details: I have a single server running Windows 2003 Server where I host my ASP.net website and SQL Server + Reports. I've been creating ordinary windows user accounts to authenticate my users, and I enabled integrated windows authentication with… >>> More
Windows 2003 Domain Controller Very Upset about NIC Teaming

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I set up BACS (Broadcom Teaming) to team two NIC on a Windows 2003 Active Directory Domain Controller. Networking still works okay, I can ping the gateway etc, but both DNS and Active Directory fail to start with various 40xx errors. The team that I created is Smart load Balancing with Failover… >>> More