One of the many advantages DirectAccess has over traditional client-based VPN is the ease with which DirectAccess clients can be provisioned. DirectAccess does not require any special software to be installed on the client. Everything that DirectAccess needs is included as part of the operating system. This makes onboarding a client for DirectAccess is as simple as adding a computer account to the DirectAccess client security group in Active Directory. That’s it! As soon as the client restarts it will be configured for DirectAccess.

This process works great if the client computer is already joined to the domain and has access to the LAN (either directly connected or via client-based VPN). But what if the client is in a remote location and isn’t yet joined to the domain? Offline Domain Join (ODJ) can help. ODJ is a feature of the Windows operating system introduced with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 that allows an administrator to join a host to the domain without requiring the host to contact a domain controller. Beginning with Windows 8 and Server 2012, ODJ supports new command-line parameters that allow the administrator to configure the client machine to include DirectAccess certificates and policies.

Note: ODJ will only provision DirectAccess certificates and policies for Windows 8.x and later clients. ODJ with Windows 7 clients is limited to joining the domain only. ODJ cannot provision Windows 7 clients for DirectAccess.

To use ODJ to provision a DirectAccess client, first create a computer account in Active Directory and then add the account to the DirectAccess client security group. Next, open an elevated Command Prompt window on the DirectAccess server and execute the following command.

djoin.exe /provision /machine <client_machine_name>
/domain <domain_name> /policynames
<DirectAccess_client_settings_ GPO_name>
/certtemplate <DirectAccess_certificate_template_name>
/savefile <filename> /reuse

For example:

djoin.exe /provision /machine client5
/domain lab.richardhicks.net
/policynames "DirectAccess Client Settings"
/certtemplate machine
/savefile c:\users\rhicks\desktop\provision.txt /reuse

On the DirectAccess client, copy the ODJ provisioning file locally. Open an elevated Command Prompt window and execute the following command.

djoin.exe /requestodj /loadfile <filename>
/windowspath <Windows_directory> /localos

For example:

djoin.exe /requestodj /loadfile c:\users\setup\provision.txt
/windowspath C:\Windows /localos

After a restart, the client will be joined to the domain and now be able to establish a DirectAccess connection to the corporate network. Users can now log on with their domain credentials.