How do I set up a Windows image (not part of the domain) to sync time with the domain controller?

Question

I'm creating a Windows image to distribute to computers, and I want to set it up so that it will sync time to the domain. The problem is that the image is not joined to the domain, so w32tm /config /syncfromflags:domhier /update should not work. I could of course use w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:<ip> /syncfromflags:manual /update where <ip> is the ip of the primary dc, but that would cause trouble if I change the pdc. Alternatively, /syncfromflags:all might also cause trouble when changing the pdc. How to set it up so that it will start syncing now to the pdc, but as soon as it's joined to the domain, it will 'forget' the manualpeerlist?

Answer 1

Not a tested solution but:

• for the time your machine is not in the domain, you could set a dns alias like "internal-ntp" for your pdc, and set /manualpeerlist:internal-ntp.yourdomain.local, so in case the NTP-server role will move to a different machine, you would just have to change the dns entry.
• as far as i know, as soon as the machine will enter the domain, the ntp-settings will be changed automaticaly to /syncfromflags:domhier.