Active Directory Cookbook

8.1. Creating a Computer

Problem

You want to create a computer account.

Solution

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.

Using a command-line interface

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

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"

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 ...