Naming Multiple New Machines.
Hello,
We are looking into getting new computers for our labs and smart classrooms. I am looking to see if there is a way to name the machines without us having to go around and type the names in on each machine. They will be Dell computers so we will have access to Service Tags or we can get the mac addresses from Dell when they ship. I am no way a script writer but will learn if someone has ideas on how to do this. Thank you.
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Posted by:
feeldamped
6 years ago
Hi,
Will the computers have a Kace agent installed on them? If so, you would easily be able to push a script through Kace to accomplish this - here is an example:
Let me know if you need help actually setting up the script in the K1000.
Comments:
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These will be computers right out of the box, unless Dell will put the agent on them before they are shipped. - yonatacj 6 years ago
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That might be tough, then. Another thing you could do is if they will be on your domain, is renaming them from your AD server.
I've used this guide in the past:
https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/28272-is-there-a-way-to-change-workstation-pc-names-from-active-directory?page=1
You would need to know the current computer name, though.
When we do scripted installs from our K2000 - we use a .vbs script that prompts for our asset number, and that is all. Then it sets the computer name to match out naming convention.
L001212-[ServiceTag] for example. The only thing I would enter is the "001212" and the script would take care of the rest
Not sure if that would help you either, but I could always share that if needed. - feeldamped 6 years ago -
Hard one.... if it was from automatically during an Imaging phase it would be easy...
But OEM and out of the box... interesting, let's see the community's ideas - Channeler 6 years ago -
That is what I am afraid of, it will only be about 100 computers, but did not want to send students around to name them. Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into them. - yonatacj 6 years ago
Posted by:
five.
6 years ago
If you have K2 and PXE boot setup, it's an option. Otherwise the cleanest method I can think of is identical flash drives to automate the process using wsnames or setcomputername or powershell. You could automate joining the domain as well. Both wsnames and setcomputername allows asset tag naming (powershell could probably do that too) or using the mac address along with a text file. Just note that sending the mac address is no longer standard procedure with Dell and you have to pay extra for it and request it. I would automate as much as possible, especially if using interns. Installing the kace agent, cleanup of the OS, any extra applications that you need installed. I suppose if you have K1 but not K2, then you just need to automate the naming and K1 agent install. Once you've gotten that far, you can let the K1 handle the rest.
