Pulling a computer into a domain?

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What is the purpose of creating computer accounts on a domain (as in adding a computer's user account by using adding a new computer account while sitting at the domain controller), if you still have to go to that local computer (workstation) and join the domain anyway? Am I missing some magic way to 'Pull' a computer into a domain remotely?
 
You don't have to precreate computer accounts in the domain when adding a
new PC although some people prefer to do that. When you join a PC to the
domain it will automatically create a computer account in AD if one does not
already exist.
If you're using Windows 2003 you have a new command tool called redircomp
that will allow this account to be created in any OU you want instead of the
default container.

You can join a remote PC to the domain using a combination of Netdom and
psexec (or any remote command line tool).
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=150493
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/psexec.shtml

AdminKen said:
What is the purpose of creating computer accounts on a domain (as in
Click to expand...
adding a computer's user account by using adding a new computer account
while sitting at the domain controller), if you still have to go to that
local computer (workstation) and join the domain anyway? Am I missing some
magic way to 'Pull' a computer into a domain remotely?
 
AdminKen said:
What is the purpose of creating computer accounts on a domain (as in adding a computer's user account by using adding a new computer account while sitting at the domain controller), if you still have to go to that local computer (workstation) and join the domain anyway? Am I missing some magic way to 'Pull' a computer into a domain remotely?
Click to expand...

hmm, this is not a magic - I do this via netdom.exe :)

http://www.winnetmag.com/Article/ArticleID/13524/13524.html
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;329721
 
AdminKen said:
What is the purpose of creating computer accounts on a domain (as in
Click to expand...
adding a computer's user account by using adding a new computer account
while sitting at the domain controller), if you still have to go to that
local computer (workstation) and join the domain anyway? Am I missing some
magic way to 'Pull' a computer into a domain remotely?

You get the flexibilty of creating the account at the correct point in your
OU structure, rather than having to move it later. Personally I always do it
that way.

You can use netdom to remotely join a computer to the domain.

AndyC
 
FYI, I was able to pull a remote computer (in another site connected by a hardware VPN) to join the domain by using only netdom and the IP address of the remote computer(Netdom 2.0). It took some time for it to show up but it actually y worked.

for /UserD: I used the domain administrator account
/UserO: I used the local administrator account on the remote PC that I wanted to join. (obviously you need to know that password or it wont work)

from my local PC:
netdom join 192.168.5.65 /Domain:some_domain /Userd:some_domain\administrator /PasswordD:* /UserO:administrator /PasswordO:* /reboot:30

also http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;266651
 
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