Computer account?

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Hi all, studying for the 270 this might be a stupid question but it says when joining a domain you need a computer account, but what are they reffering too. Is it the users account on the local pc? Or a domain account?

Thanks in advance

 

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You need an Active Directory (Domain) account with permissions to join a computer to a domain (usualy an admin account).

 

Yeah mate, an account with add workstation to rights? Its just it says to add a computer to a domain you need a dns server online with a domain controller and you need a computer account. Does computer account refer to an account within AD with add workstation rights?

Thanks mate

 

The recommended practice is to prepare computer account before joining it to a domain. To do so you have to login to Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in and create new computer object. Give it same name as you will give to the computer and join it then.

Get used to it because according to 70-640 MS Press book ability to join computer to a domain without prestaging first is there only for backward compatibility reasons and is considered legacy.

 

ok mate that makes sence, why is it important too add the computer to AD before joining the computer to the domain? Is it just easier to manage?

Thanks for the help!

 

Check here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770832(WS.10).aspx

 

You have to get used to the way MS does things for the exam but to be honest in practice you don't add the computer to the domain manually (or at least me and everyone I've worked with hasn't done this). When joining the PC to the domain the PC is automatically added to AD. Your DNS has to be setup correctly in order for this to work.

 

That's not recommended practice. It puts your computer object into default computer container which might not have group policy object assigned to it hence being a security issue.
Also big organisations usually prestage accounts as then they are able to use junior techs in deployment process with full control over what's happening on the network.

 

^this^ we prestage all our machines and we've only got 50 users, its just good practice.

 

Yep that is correct but to be honest that is the way everyone done it for all the companies I've worked for. Yes we do move the Computers into the correct OU afterwards. I personally think it's faster as you don't have to manually create the accounts (unless you do it by a script or 3rd party software). It's a while ago I did 70-270 so yeah check with what MS recommend and stick to that for the exam. Sorry if I've caused any confusion.

 

Best practice or not, this is how I've always done it and seen it done by techs I've worked with. Let Windows automatically create the computer account, then move it to the correct OU. It seems to minimize user error and computer account corruptions/disassociations.

 

Thanks everyone for the replies, when you say prestage what do you mean by this? Also does OU mean Organisation Unit? Sorry but I am still learning all this gradually Thanks again!

Dave

 

Have you done any server administration before? 70-270 might be a client exam, but it's for people who administer those clients in a domain environment. Thus, 70-270 is an MCSA-level exam.

 

I have done brief server admin such as creating a user in AD but I have learnt half of the 270 MS press book and it most of it comes back to XP I understand most of it fully and most the information overlaps the MCDST I have server 2003 setup virtually and each part I dont know or dont understand I research and experiment on server 2003. After all I am not going for the MCSA until I have a job that involves using servers on a day to day basis.

 

Prestaging computer accounts means that you create computer accounts in AD before you join them to a domain. You create computer object in AD in OU (Organizational Unit) you want it to be in so from the first time it's started all group policies are applied to it.

 

The exams are more different than you might think.

But... you are going after the MCSA... 70-270 is an MCSA exam.

 

To be honest I might not even be taking the exam I just want to learn a small amount about servers as I am interested in how it all works, just because im learning towards the 270 doesn't mean I am taking the exam right now, correct me if I am wrong but you can learn towards an exam without taking the exam or without real world experience in the exam area.

 

Absolutely. But without the real-world experience, studying these concepts is likely to be an uphill battle for you. For example, you would know what a computer account is if you had that experience. That's not meant to be an insult - the same is true for everyone, including me. For example, I had an uphill battle learning Oracle because I didn't have any real-world experience with it.