Implementing offline domain joins

Windows Server 2008 R2 introduced offline domain joins. This is a feature that allows you to join a computer to a domain without communicating directly with the domain controller. This works with client computers running Windows 7 or later or Windows Server 2008 R2 or later. To perform offline domain joins, you need to use the djoin command-line tool, which generates a domain-join file that will then be imported to the client computer. Offline domain join is useful, and mainly used, in scenarios where the machine that needs to be joined to the domain doesn't have network connectivity with domain controller or when you need to perform unattended installation of the Windows operating system.

To generate a djoin file, you need to run the following command and define parameters, such as a domain name, a computer name, and a location to save the offline domain join file to:

djoin.exe /provision /domain mcsacertguide.local /machine server01 /savefile c:\server01odj.txt

Once you create the offline domain join file, you need to copy the file to the desired computer and run the following command:

djoin.exe /requestODJ /loadfile c:\server01odj.txt /windowspath %systemroot% /localos

Like a standard join to a domain, the computer needs to be restarted to complete the joining operation.