hey peeps,

I need to learn how to set up a subdomain on our company's network. the situation is that I have recently been asked to install and manage antivirus software (Symantec Antivirus) on some computers. Installing is fine as I can go to each client and install from the cdrom, but to be able to manage them from my own computer, I need administrative rights on the domain that all our computers are on.

now, i CANT get administrative rights because they dont trust us with such 'power', and they dont know how to set up a subdomain, so im left stranded.

Since we are all lumped under our parent company's main domain, i thought what might work out is if I am admin of our little corner of the world by creating a subdomain. how do i go about doing this?

You want to subnet the network ?

go to learntosubnet.com its all explained easy there.

The trick is to find a calcuation that your happy with as there are many ways of learning to subnet.

well, not really sure about my terminology... but all i know is that i need to be an admin of my own network/domain/subnet or whatever so that i can do whatever i want to the computers in my own network/domain/subnet. im having a look thru that website now... was also looking at windows2000 homepage walkthrus...

think i found what im looking for... but ffs... why does microsoft always insist on restarting the computer when ANYTHING is installed? i cant just randomly restart the server when people are working on it....

Was it that you wanted to subnet your network ?

hahahah still not sure.... but the subnet stuff doesnt really seem like what im looking for, considering i even know what i am looking for.

Step-by-Step Guide to a Common Infrastructure for Windows 2000 Server Deployment - Part 1: Installing a Windows 2000 Server as a Domain Controller
Step-by-Step Guide to Setting up Additional Domain Controllers

im looking at these links above...

Well what about a workgroup?

You have all the people in your little group under the workgroup and you are the admin.

Would that work?

Under the parent domain, you must be given domain admin rights to manage the domain. With Win2K, XP, and 2003, you can setup a seperate forest under Active Directory for your comps, and only give certain people rights to those comps under that sub, without comprimising the master.

So you think you can be "Master of your own domain"? (it was a funny episode on Seinfeld)


How many machince are you talking about? The reboot thing is why SYSadmins end up working nights and weekends installing, configuring, and troubleshooting without getting in anyones way
Is this an offical position? if so you should talk to have training/ setup help by the IT folks (you'll need their cooperation, to setup a subdomain, anyway) If not, be careful, as you'll be blamed for anything that goes wrong, even if you had nothing to do with it.

Or setup a new OU (Organisational Unit) and delegate control.

actually, its about 8-10 pcs.... and t-shirt is probably right, i think id better be careful, dont want anything to go wrong. this isnt my official position although there is a technical support under one of my role descriptions.... so we will see....

what ive done is gone n got myself a copy of VMWare, and im going to run a 2 windows 2k servers, 2 or 3 clients (i havnt got that much ram to spread around ) and try to get a subdomain set up... if that works then ill consider whether its worth doing the real thing...

they could create a group account that you could have specific permissions to install and manage that software.

maybe your IT guys need some training.

its not that i cant install software, it just makes it a bit of a hassle to have to go to each persons pc to install via cdrom if there is an option to deploy over the network, i just need admin privileges to the domain.

i think the IT guys can do it, just that they cant be bothered or dont want to give us any power

ok, so now im trying it at work and it aint workin.... so im thinking that either:
a) i am unable to set up a subdomain without proper admin rights from the parent domain, or
b) i am unable to set up a subdomain since the parent domain is non-win2ksvr based??? dont know...

it says - "The domain <domainNameGoesHere> is not an Active Directory domain, or an Active Directory domain controller for the domain could not be contacted."

go figure.... im using the same domain name as the one im currently connected to.

You want to use a Group Policy to remotely install the software, you can schedule it to install automatically, obviously you need AD running for this.

Where I work we just rolled out Office XP to all Windows 2000 users automatically, the users boot their PC's, Office upgrades the previous copy to Office XP and no interaction is needed. The users just get Office XP on their systems.

ahh... no can do... stuff that, i dont think my job description extends into setting up subdomains etc., im no sysadmin, just give me some code to write

i will just have to bear with going to each pc using the cdrom to install, after all, i dont expect to have to do this too often... should be once every time someone reinstalls their os....

If it goes on every PC ask the Admins to include the install as a conditional check in the login script. That way, if it's already there it won't get installed. If it's not there, it will get installed.