Domain Join during Instance Deployment with Windows Server issue

[jamgwert81]

I have configured the follwoing in Network -> Domains for my Active Directory domain

I've entered the Domain Name, Checked the box for Join Domain Controller, entered a domain user that has join rights, and the correct password.

When I Provision a new Instance, I'm setting the name of the instance to the name of the new server (server2 in this example):

On the Advanced Options dropdown under Domain I am selecting the correct Domain I configured above during my instance deployment which is a deployment from a sysprepped Windows Server 2022 template, that works just fine without the domain join function.

During the deployment it's supposed to rename the server to the same name I entered during the Instance deployment, but it appears that it's doing the domain join step BEFORE it renames the server.  This then creates an issue after it finally boots, as the server is renamed to the Instance name (server2 in this example), however it's already been joined to the domain under the random name Windows picks on new installs.

Because of this I'm unable to even login as there is not a record for the correct computer account name in AD.  The new server appears to be joined to the domain based on the default login location, and it does in fact have the name of SERVER2.

To me it seems the domain join part of whatever is in the coding is doing it in the wrong spot.

Is this a bug?  I feel like I've configured this correctly based on the documentation in the manual.

If I've done something incorrectly with the setup of this fuction, can someone please clue me in to what I need to change or do differently?

Renaming the newly deployed servers to the name you chose during deployment, and then also doing a Domain Join seems like a pretty basic VM deployment process that should be able to work out of box.

Thanks in advance.

[bishop513]

Hi, for your virtual image do you have "SYSPREPPED / GENERALIZED IMAGE ?' checked. If so is you source image sysprepped. I am able to get the machine to rename but it will not join the domain. When the machine builds it should mount a cd-rom with a unattend.xml file that contains the details of the server name. 

[jamgwert81]

I'll have to check that setting on the template, I want to say yes it is.  The image is syspreped with the Generalize option before it's powered off and turned into a template. 

Again the rename part works fine if it's done without the Domain Join stuff.  The problem is doing the rename AND the domain join.  To me it seems like it's doing the Add-Computer domain powershell first, not rebooting, then doing a Rename-Computer -NewName which then makes AD not be aware of the new name as you renamed the local computer name AFTER you joined it to the domain.   

My understanding if you are going to do a Rename and Domain Join at the same time the powershell behind it needs to be something like the following.

Add-Computer (Microsoft.PowerShell.Management) - PowerShell | Microsoft Learn