Can MS AD Users Look Special During Boot?

[Martin McCormick]

	Is there any parameter a Microsoft Windows user can
configure in to their P.C. that will show up during bootting and
make it easy for dhcpd to place them in a class?

	We are exploring the possibility of using bind to
administer the DNS part of one of our Microsoft Active Directory
domains and it would be helpful if those who want to join that
domain but who are using dynamic lease pools could cause the
DHCP registration process to give them a unique domain name that
agrees with the Microsoft AD domain they are trying to join.

	From the dhcp perspective, it would be like using the
vendor-class-identifier option to boot a VOIP telephone.

	Our problem is that we presently have default domain
names such as su.okstate.edu that apply to our Student Union,
etc. These default domain names differ from one building to
another and some even correspond to AD domains used by various
departments. The AD domain in question could show up anywhere on
our network and belong to a client who is sitting along side
another client who is part of a different AD domain or not part
of any AD domain which is why he/she needs to be spotted early
on.

	This kind of ability would mean that we would not have
to manually register clients who want to use the AD domain. They
would already show up on the network with the correct domain
name and then finish registering with the MS AD controllers
which is what many bootP clients presently do.

Small Example.

	A Windows system boots. He uses some special parameter
that we can detect while booting. The class we put him in has
the default domain name of msdomain.okstate.edu no matter which
dynamic lease pool he appears in. After that, it's between him
and the AD controllers whether or not he actually registers, but
he gets the right DNS domain name to start with.

	This has to be something the client can set because we
have zillions of MSFTx.x vendor-class-identifiers that aren't
part of any Active Directory domain so we only want certain ones.

	My thanks to anyone who can answer this somewhat
rambling question.

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK 
Systems Engineer
OSU Information Technology Department Network Operations Group