How to troubleshoot errors that occur when you join Windows-based computers to a domain

Problem: Unable to join Windows-based computers to a domain

Reasons: There are quite a few reasons why IT administrators face issues while joining a Windows device to an Active Directory domain.

Here are some common troubleshooting tips to look out for:

• The credentials of the account used to join the domain are incorrect.
• The name of the domain, OU, or local hostname is invalid or misspelled.
• Firewall is configured in the target Domain Controllers (DCs).
• Confirm if the DCs are registered by using correct IP addresses on the DNS server.
• If the RID master is down, then the DC will not be assigned SIDs and in turn the computer object cannot be created.
• While entering the domain name, ensure that it is DNS name and not the NetBIOS name.
• Ensure that latest drivers are installed for the client computer's network adapter.
• Ensure that the user account must have necessary permissions to add computers to the domain, i.e, the user account should be granted 'create computer object' permission in Active Directory.

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