Now my understanding was the prestaging process was to allow for preassigning machine names and having them managed by the RIS server.

My network is configured in such a way that the machine name has to be created before it is joined to the domain, which is where I would like prestaging to come into play.

What do i need to add to my SIF file to have it make the computer name based on it's counterpart in AD?

%MACHINENAME% is the variable...the question I have is have you entered in the clients GUID when you made the computer account? As far as I know that is the only way to utilize that variable, so make sure you have that field populated.

And if the GUID isn't readily available you can use the MAC address preceeded with twenty zeros (0). In fact I find this preferrable in some circumstances. If you have any computers that are around 5 years old or so, take note as there were some vendors (Toshiba cough cough) that made a major boo boo by hardcoding the same GUID into a BIOS update. So when you install your second computer, it disjoins the first one from the domain and if you're like me, you disable the local admin account, which makes for a neutered computer.

Also try to prestage your computers into the appropriate OU so that any GPO based application deployments take place automatically after setup has completed.

%MACHINENAME% is the variable...the question I have is have you entered in the clients GUID when you made the computer account? As far as I know that is the only way to utilize that variable, so make sure you have that field populated.

Yes, I entered the approporiate GUID when adding the computer account, but it still tries to add it as the default for RIS (USERNAME# i believe) which is unallowed in our AD structure.

And if the GUID isn't readily available you can use the MAC address preceeded with twenty zeros (0). In fact I find this preferrable in some circumstances. If you have any computers that are around 5 years old or so, take note as there were some vendors (Toshiba cough cough) that made a major boo boo by hardcoding the same GUID into a BIOS update. So when you install your second computer, it disjoins the first one from the domain and if you're like me, you disable the local admin account, which makes for a neutered computer.

Also try to prestage your computers into the appropriate OU so that any GPO based application deployments take place automatically after setup has completed.

This is very good to know. Maybe the script I ran to uncover the GUID for that machine messed up. I'll try that as the GUID and see if this solves the problem. Thanks guys.

Any other hints would be much appreciated, the %MACHINENAME% attrib is being used currently (no adjustments have been made to the stock sif file yet... just trying to get the basics before everything else gets done).