Member Avatar for jober

Hi Guys,

I'am curious if AD can be implemented over the network instead of joining the pc manually.

Response is much appreciated.

Thanks,

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by CimmerianX

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As phrased it, Active Directory runs over the network; the practical question is whether workstations can be joined to a domain without manually opening System Properties and typing credentials. Short answer: yes. Three common, reliable approaches are (1) scripted/online domain join, (2) offline domain join (no live DC contact during the join), and (3) full OS deployment with unattend/Sysprep (MDT/SCCM/WDS) for large rollouts. asked for clarification and pointed toward imaging — both directions are valid depending on scale.

Online (scripted) join — run on the target or via remote management:

# run on the machine being joined
Add-Computer -DomainName "corp.example.com" -Credential (Get-Credential) -OUPath "OU=Workstations,DC=corp,DC=example,DC=com" -Restart

This requires network access to a domain controller and an account with permission to create the computer account (by default authenticated users can join up to 10 machines). For many machines, use a service account or pre-create the computer accounts in the desired OU.

Offline domain join (useful for imaging or when DC is not reachable):

# on a domain-joined admin machine
djoin /provision /domain corp.example.com /machine NEWPC /savefile NEWPC-blob.txt

# on the target machine (before first logon)
djoin /requestODJ /loadfile NEWPC-blob.txt /windowspath %SystemRoot%
shutdown /r /t 0

Advantages: no domain credentials stored in the image and the machine can be prepared before connecting to the domain network.

Deployment tooling and quick checklist: MDT/SCCM/WDS + unattend.xml + Sysprep automates large rollouts; use offline join when imaging geographically distributed machines. Troubleshooting essentials: point client DNS at AD DNS, ensure time sync (Kerberos skew default ~5 minutes), verify connectivity to DCs and necessary ports (Kerberos, LDAP, SMB/RPC), confirm join credentials/quotas or pre-create computer accounts. For a handful of PCs manual join is quickest; for dozens or more, automate with the methods above.

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Member Avatar for JorgeM

You'll need to elaborate some more because your question doesnt make sense, at least not to me. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

Member Avatar for CimmerianX

I think he means can a PC be joined to a network automatically.

There are ways to automate the process through pre built images, but unless you are deploying many machines per day or have machines all over the country, it is really much easier just to pop in and id/pw to join a pc to a domain.

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