Join your Windows Server to a domain

Introduction

This tutorial descibes the required steps on how to join an existing Windows Server to a domain via Run command.

Prerequisites

• Windows Server VM (For more information please follow this guide: Step 1: Create a new instance -Windows-)
• Run command enabled (For more information please follow this guide: Run Command (BETA version))
• You have a running Active Directory (Your domain controller should be placed on the same local network as the domain-join-candidate!)

Join your Windows Server to a domain by using command template JoinDomain

The command template can be found in the Server pane under Commands:

Required input arguments of the command template:

DNS: Provide at least one IP of a DNS Server to access your domain. If you want to add more than one, please separate them with a comma: dns1,dns2,dns3.

DomainName: Domain name

DomainPassword: Password of the domain user

DomainUser: Domain username of a user who has permissions to join a computer into your domain (Provide UPN or sAMAccountName)

OuPath: Domain Organizational Unit (OU) path (Provide the value in ")

It is recommended to use the least privileged user for the domain join, preferably one with delegation rights limited to joining computers to the domain and no additional permissions.

Please keep in mind that the server will automatically restart after joining the domain to complete the process!

Troubleshooting

If you get an error message that the domain join failed, verify the following:

• The user is preceded by the domain as in the example above and is correct
• The password is correct
• The DNS is correct.
• The domain name is correct.
• The domain controller can be reached by the domain-join-candidate on the local network.

If the domain-join is successful, but the computer is not renamed afterwards, please verify the following:

• There is no already existing computer account in the AD.