Specifying an OU when Joining Computers to the Domain

[troyprouty]

As far as I can tell, vCloud does not allow you to specify the OU when computers get joined to the domain.  In our environment, having servers created in the general "computers" OU of Active Directory is prohibited.  Does VMware have any recommendations for getting around this?  Is it in the roadmap to change?  You have the OU specification for the users, why not allow the same for computers?

[qc4vmware]

I agree that this would be an awesome feature to have.  We face the same dilema.  I plan to address this via the extensions but it sure would be nice to have it as an option.

[troyprouty]

VCD Team, any comment or update on this?

[bparlier]

This is probably not what you want to hear....and I would really like to see this as well! In the environment I am working in, we are calling post configuration scripts for OU's, domain joining, admin pwds, etc... You can do a lot of this through Orchestrator....and, of course, much more. This has been our work around so far. There may be some feature I am not aware of, but I haven't seen what you mention to date. 

[admin]

Hi Troy,

This would unfortunately be a feature request at this time.

[troyprouty]

@bparlier  Thanks for the information.  Are you actually using any of the Orchestrator vCD plug-in for this?  I'm just curious if that at least allows you to add PCs to an OU of your choosing.

[bparlier]

Right now we are experimenting with the Orchestrator plug-in for vCD. Initially we just had a script repository, and a small script to call from that repository. I will try to post an update here when we get a little more in depth with it, and I talk to the expert...I am certainly not an authority on Orchestrator.

[dconvery]

Any updates since the AD plug-in has been released?

[RParker]

You can't do this NOW with any implementation, not Windows, not Linux, so why do you expect VM Ware to do it?

The best way TO do it is pre-add the system in the OU BEFORE you join the sytem to the AD, that's the ONLY way to be sure you are adding the object to the right OU.

Otherwise this isn't a VM Ware issue, it's REALLY microsoft since the only thing SDK does it do commands that AD will recognize.. There is no command line to add a machine to any particular OU.

[admin]

Pretty sure the feature request has been put in.  Others have also done this using old Lab Manager post customization scripts as I am pretty sure LM had the same issue.  I am not 100% sure though, but this is something folks have taken under advisement.  Either using vCO to perform that task as part of the woorkflow via script or using vCD's post customization function right now is the way to go. 

I am not sure if the vCO team has an AD plugin in the works or if it has been released.  www.vcoteam.info is the place to look for that.

[dconvery]

Hey RParker -

I KNOW you're really ACTIVE in the communities. But it would be NICE if you at least posted FACTUAL information....

You can set a domain membership with sysprep using the JoinDomain attribute in the unattend.xml or sysprep.inf file (depending on your OS).

You can set a machine OUwith sysprep using the MachineObjectOU attribute in the unattend.xml or sysprep.inf file (depending on your OS).

All of the differences between sysprep.inf and unattend.xml can be found here.

Oh, and by the way, a little bit of sleuthing and I found a way to get my vCloud VMs to join a domain and move to a desired OU. You can see the post here.

So...Ummmmm...yeah...it IS a VMware issue. GAWD! I hate not being able to blame M$ here....

So, peace out everyone...

Dave

[dconvery]

Chris -

I did find an AD plugin for vCO.

Here's a link to the doc page -> http://pubs.vmware.com/orchestrator-plugins/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.using.active_directory.plugi...

Dave

[admin]

Like you mention....you "Stole it from Lab Manager", but yes that is what others have done as well as far as I know.  It is just not a "Feature" in the customization tab in vCD, but as you have noted it CAN be done with a little work.

[mcfadyenj]

if your going to attempt anything using the vco plugin make sure you get version 1.01 as 0.96 is very buggy, for some reason finding the later version is somewhat complicated.