Recipe 8.1 Creating a Computer

8.1.1 Problem

You want to create a computer account.

8.1.2 Solution

8.1.2.1 Using a graphical user interface

1. Open the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in.

2. If you need to change domains, right-click on Active Directory Users and Computers in the left pane, select Connect to Domain, enter the domain name and click OK.

3. In the left pane, browse to the parent container for the computer, right-click on it, and select New Computer.

4. Enter the name of the computer and click OK.

8.1.2.2 Using a command-line interface

> dsadd computer "<ComputerDN>" -desc "<Description>"

8.1.2.3 Using VBScript

' This code creates a computer object. ' ------ SCRIPT CONFIGURATION ------ strBase = "<ParentComputerDN>"  ' e.g. cn=Computers,dc=rallencorp,dc=com strComp = "<ComputerName>"      ' e.g. joe-xp strDescr = "<Description>"      ' e.g. Joe's Windows XP workstation ' ------ END CONFIGURATION --------- ' ADS_USER_FLAG_ENUM Const ADS_UF_WORKSTATION_TRUST_ACCOUNT = &h1000 set objCont = GetObject("LDAP://" & strBase) set objComp = objCont.Create("computer", "cn=" & strComp) objComp.Put "sAMAccountName", strComp & "$" objComp.Put "description", strDesc objComp.Put "userAccountControl", ADS_UF_WORKSTATION_TRUST_ACCOUNT objComp.SetInfo Wscript.Echo "Computer account for " & strComp & " created"

8.1.3 Discussion

Creating a computer object in Active Directory is not much different from creating a user object. I set the description attribute in the CLI and API solutions, but it is not a mandatory attribute. The only mandatory attribute is sAMAccountName which should be set to the name of the computer with $ appended. Also note that these solutions simply create a computer object. This does not mean any user can join a computer to the domain with that computer account. For more information creating a computer object and allowing a specific user or group to join the computer to the domain, see Recipe 8.2.

8.1.4 See Also

Recipe 8.2 for creating a computer for a user, MS KB 222525 (Automating the Creation of Computer Accounts), MS KB 283771 (HOW TO: Pre-stage Windows 2000 Computers in Active Directory), MS KB 315273 (Automating the Creation of Computer Accounts), MS KB 320187 (HOW TO: Manage Computer Accounts in Active Directory in Windows 2000), and MSDN: ADS_USER_FLAG_ENUM