We currently have about 15 users on a Windows SBS 2011 Essentials Server. I've just been informed that we plan to bring aboard about 15 more users that will be using Macs. We'll be using a Mac Server to manage the 15 new Macs, however, I'm looking for advice on how to best set this all up.

Ideally I would just add the 15 new Mac users to Active Directory and setup the Mac Server to authenticate against AD, unfortunately the SBS 2011 Essentials Server has a limit of 25 users, so adding these new users to AD won't work unless we upgrade the Windows server (which I'd rather avoid since it's a lot of work and a lot of money).

That leaves the option of creating user accounts for these 15 Mac users on the Mac Server only. The problem that this creates though is how do I share files been Mac users and Windows users since they are now using different systems for network authentication.

Any advice (short of upgrade to SBS Standard) is highly appreciated.

Thanks, Harry

P.S. We don't run Exchange or anything else on our server ... it's mainly used for file sharing and enforcing security via group policies.