Adding a computer to a windows small business server network

[jbourne84]

At my office we have a dell server running windows small business server 2003, there are around 15 computers on our network running mostly windows 7 (a few with XP). I am wondering how difficult it is to add a computer to the network so it can log into our domain and all that.
I just had to reformat one of the computers and would normally wait for our network guy to do it remotely but If i could do it myself it would save time (and money). I am already an administrator and basically i just need to make it so the log in prompt when windows starts has our office network listed as the domain instead of jus the local log in. It is a dell running windows 7 64 bit.

thanks

 

[eibgrad]

Joining the domain is relatively easy.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Connect-your-computer-to-a-domain

What *might* get more complicated, or require more knowledge, is creating the user account on the domain controller. At a minimum, you need administrative access to the domain controller. Assuming you do, you'd create a user account of the right type and assign it to one or more groups. Those groups are associated w/ certain privileges.

Problem is, I have no idea how complex your domain configuration is, what groups you may have add/created, what group(s) should apply to a given type of user, etc. That's something only the administrator of your network would know.

 

[jbourne84]

thanks for the info
For this particular instance where i just reformatted the PC for one of the guys here, is his user account still saved on the server?

I guess my question is if for an existing user, do i need to just get his PC to join the domain or do I also need to create the user account on the domain controller, as you say.

 

[eibgrad]

If you only reinstalled the OS on the client, that has no effect on his user account on the domain controller. It's still there, waiting to be used. So just install your OS and join the domain again.

 

[sturm]

You will/should have to have a domain admin account and password to add the computer. Most normal user accounts will not be able to do this.
It is also possible you will have to remove the old computer name from the domain before adding the reinstalled computer back in, if it has the same name. If different than no problem, but you should still remove the old one from the list of domain computers.

 

[skvegeta]

I AM UNABLE TO SEE THE CLIENT-PCs IN THE "MY NETWORK PLACES" OF WINDOWS SERVER 2003 R2.IT SHOWS "ADD NETWORK PLACE".
GOING THROUGH THE SETUP I AM UNABLE TO LOCATE THE CLIENTS.....PLZ HELP........