Join a Golden Image to the Domain or not?

[axshun]

Should you join your Golden Image to the domain and leave it on the domain? OR only join it to the domain when necessary (for software installs, etc.)?

Why or why not?

Any document links are welcomed!

[mchadwick19]

From my personal experience - it depends. In practice I try to leave the system off the domain as much as possible unless a software component absolutely requires it.

I tend to use a group policy automation tool like LGPO or PolicyFileEditor (PowerShell) to export/import policy files for the gold images and have as much of GP as possible live on the machine itself and disable inheritence on the View Desktop OU's.

It also helps a ton leaving it off the domain if you tend to revert snapshots frequently.

[axshun]

Thanks for the info! I do revert snapshots frequently, so it sounds like I'll be leaving it off of the domain. I'll check out those tools too, LGPO and PolicyFileEditor. I've been wanting to move the GPOs to the golden image to make logon time faster. Thanks again!