When removing and re-joining a workstation from and to AD, are there any drawbacks from dis-joining it from AD, without deleting the AD object, and re-joining it back? Please detail.
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If you are dis-joining and re-joining the computer without changing its name it will continue to use the same computer object upon rejoining as it was using when it was disjoined. This does not cause any ill effects and is a pretty common practice.
If you rename the computer after dis-joining and then re-join a new computer object will be created and the existing "stale" computer object will remain in the AD database unused. You can clean up "stale" computer objects, in some cases, by querying all the domain controllers for the computer account's last logon date. This can be a problem, however, if a computer has not logged-on for awhile because it's simply been turned off.
Evan Anderson
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I agree, I have never had any issues dis-joining and re-joining the domain, and I have done this several times over the years. – jherlitz Jul 16 '09 at 14:27
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In this case System Center Configuration Manager creates a new client with no earlier data attached, making the first one obsolete. So you'll end up with two clients sharing the same name but different SID. You can delete the obsolete one or let the SCCM delete it after a while when running a cleaning script. – Luke99 Feb 11 '11 at 06:05
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The problem can be with the SID of the object, in the computer pulled out of the AD you are deleting everything that linked that computer with the AD Object and re-joining it will cause discrepancies with the Object in the AD...
Ariel Antigua
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