Environment
Situation
Resolution
Answer:
There is no direct way to get this done through DRA. RIS supports something called pre-staging wherein the computer account can be created first (using DRA or ADUC) and then linking the physical computer to that. It is also possible to implement a naming convention for the computer names as well. However, the catch is that they'd still have to use the Guids when creating the account. Here is a relevant article with some information
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/distrib/dsed_dpl_rutr.mspx?mfr=true
The summary is that DRA in its current form cannot support RIS unless the customer is willing to use the guids for prestaging.
Question:
Our current RIS process creates automatically joins to the domain and creates a random name called CHANGE-ME-##. We also own DRA and one of the things our techs are frustrated by is having to wait until the RIS is over, and then 30 min after that until it shows up in DRA, then they have to reboot after adding all the groups and wait for the machine to install all the software from the group adds. However, if we create the computer account in DRA, then try to rename the computer to the correct computer name from the 'change-me-##' one, we cannot, as it says the object already exists.
So...What needs to change so that we can use DRA to create the computer accounts? Do we need to use the RIS functionality inside of DRA since we are doing RIS'ing to create the computer? Do we need to change our RIS process in some way to accomodate for this? Right now, as things are, we cannot use this functionality of DRA to create computer accounts at all. The GUID/UUID is so long, and since it has to be typed by hand, that could cause problems. Can you give us any suggestions?
An Enhancement Request has been opened with Development to include this functionality in a future version of Directory and Resource Administrator.