Domain join

You can also join Nano Server to a domain using the djoin.exe command line.

We have two ways of doing that:

• The first option is a blob-based domain join. It means that you should generate a blob from a domain joined machine located in the same domain, and then copy that blob over to Nano Server. Then, apply that blob to the image in offline or online mode.
  • To harvest a data blob from a domain machine that is already running Windows Server 2016, from an elevated command prompt, run the following command:

djoin.exe /provision /domain <domain-name> /machine <machine-name> /savefile .\odjblob 

• Next, we need to copy that harvest data blob <odjblob> into the Nano Server machine using PowerShell remoting, and then join it to the domain by running the following command:

$Session = New-PSSession -ComputerName <NanoServer> -Credential ~\Administrator

Copy-Item -ToSession $Session -Path 'C:\odjblob' -Destination C:\ -Recurse -Verbose

$Session | Enter-PSSession 
djoin /requestodj /loadfile C:\odjblob /windowspath c:\windows /localos
 shutdown /r /t 5 
Exit-PSSession  

• The second option is to generate a blob on a machine that is joined to the same domain as well, and then open that blob file <odjblob> that you generated and copy its content inside the unattend.xml file under the <AccountData> section, as shown in Figure 13. Then, use that unattend.xml file to apply the domain join on boot in the Nano Server image.
  • To harvest a data blob from a domain machine that is already running Windows Server 2016, we need to use the same step as described previously with djoin.exe command:

• Add the contents of the odjblob file to the unattend.xml file
• Inject the unattend.xml file into the Nano Server image as discussed earlier