Joining a FreeIPA domain

To join a FreeIPA domain with realmd you can use the realm command line tool:

$ realm join --verbose ipa.example.com

By specifying the --verbose it's easier to see what went wrong if the join fails.

Other tools also use realmd which can be used to perform the join operation, for example: GNOME Control Center.

The join operation does the following:

After the join operation is complete, domain accounts should be usable locally, although logins using domain accounts are not necessarily enabled.

You verify that domain accounts are working with with a command like this:

$ getent passwd admin@ipa.example.com

The join operation will create or update a computer account in the domain.