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<a name="guide-active-directory-join"></a>Joining an Active Directory domain</h2></div></div></div>
<p>To join an Active Directory domain with <span class="command"><strong>realmd</strong></span>
you can use the <a class="link" href="realm.html" title="realm"><span class="command"><strong>realm</strong></span></a>
command line tool:</p>
<div class="informalexample"><pre class="screen">
$ <span class="command"><strong>realm join --verbose domain.example.com</strong></span>
</pre></div>
<p>By specifying the <code class="option">--verbose</code> it's easier
to see what went wrong if the join fails.</p>
<p>Other tools also use <span class="command"><strong>realmd</strong></span> which can
be used to perform the join operation, for example: GNOME
Control Center.</p>
<p>The join operation does the following:</p>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem"><p>Discovers information about the domain.</p></li>
<li class="listitem"><p>Installs the necessary software to join the domain, such as SSSD or Winbind.</p></li>
<li class="listitem"><p>If administrative credentials are required, a password will be prompted for.</p></li>
<li class="listitem"><p>A computer account in the domain will be created, and or updated.</p></li>
<li class="listitem"><p>A host keytab file at <code class="filename">/etc/krb5.keytab</code> is created.</p></li>
<li class="listitem"><p>Configures the SSSD or Winbind services, and restarts and enables them as appropriate.</p></li>
<li class="listitem"><p>Enables domain users in <code class="filename">/etc/nsswitch.conf</code></p></li>
</ul></div>
<p>In addition an Active Directory domain controller's host name
or IP address may be specified to join via that domain controller
directly.</p>
<p>After the join operation is complete, domain accounts should
be usable locally, although logins using domain accounts are
not necessarily enabled.</p>
<p>You verify that domain accounts are working with with a
command like this:</p>
<div class="informalexample"><pre class="screen">
$ <span class="command"><strong>getent passwd DOMAIN\Administrator</strong></span>
</pre></div>
<p>The join operation will create or update a computer account
in the domain. If you wish to specify a specific organizational unit
where this account is created, you can use the
<a class="link" href="realmd-conf.html#realmd-conf-active-directory" title="active-directory"><code class="option">computer-ou</code> setting</a>.
Additonally, you can override the default name for the computer account with the
<a class="link" href="realmd-conf.html#realmd-conf-active-directory" title="active-directory"><code class="option">computer-name</code>
setting</a>.</p>
<p>Specify the <code class="option">--user</code> to choose a different
user name than the default <code class="literal">Administrator</code> user.</p>
<p>You can use kerberos credentials to perform the join. Use the
<span class="command"><strong>kinit</strong></span> command to acquire credentials prior to
starting the join. Do not specify the <code class="option">--user</code> argument,
the user will be selected automatically from the credential cache.
The <span class="command"><strong>realm</strong></span> respects the <code class="literal">KRB5_CCACHE</code>
environment variable, but uses the default kerberos credential cache
if it's not present.</p>
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