diff --git a/xCAT-server/lib/perl/xCAT/ADUtils.pm b/xCAT-server/lib/perl/xCAT/ADUtils.pm
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..718d69a58
--- /dev/null
+++ b/xCAT-server/lib/perl/xCAT/ADUtils.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,109 @@
+# IBM(c) 2010 EPL license http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
+
+#This module provides simplified methods for adding machine/user accounts to active directory,
+#as well as setting passwords for aforementioned accounts.
+
+#there exists direct perl ldap module, but too rare to bank on, going to use ldapmodify from
+#system calls
+
+use strict;
+use MIME::Base64;
+use Encode;
+use xCAT::Utils qw/genpassword/;
+
+
+my $machineldiftemplate = 'dn: CN=##UPCASENODENAME##,##OU##
+changetype: add
+objectClass: top
+objectClass: person
+objectClass: organizationalPerson
+objectClass: user
+objectClass: computer
+cn: ##UPCASENODENAME## 
+distinguishedName: CN=##UPCASENODENAME##,##OU##
+objectCategory: CN=Computer,CN=Schema,CN=Configuration##REALMDCS##
+instanceType: 4
+displayName: ##UPCASENODENAME##$
+name: ##UPCASENODENAME##
+userAccountControl: 4096
+codePage: 0
+countryCode: 0
+accountExpires: 0
+sAMAccountName: ##UPCASENODENAME##$
+dNSHostName: ##UPCASENODENAME####DNSDOMAIN##
+servicePrincipalName: HOST/##UPCASENODENAME##
+servicePrincipalName: HOST/##UPCASENODENAME####DNSDOMAIN##
+
+dn: CN=##UPCASENODENAME##,##OU##
+changetype: modify
+replace: unicodePwd
+unicodePwd::##B64PASSWORD##';
+
+
+=cut
+add_machine_account
+Arguments are in a hash:
+    node=>name of machine to add
+=cut
+sub add_machine_account {
+    my %args = @_;
+    my $nodename = $args{node};
+    my $ou = $args{ou};
+    my $dnsdomain = $args{dnsdomain};
+    if (not $dnsdomain and $nodename =~ /\./) { #if no domain provided, guess from nodename
+        $dnsdomain = $nodename;
+        $dnsdomain =~ s/^[^\.]*//;
+    }
+    unless ($dnsdomain =~ /^\./) {
+        $dnsdomain = '.'.$dnsdomain;
+    }
+    $nodename =~ s/\..*//; #strip dns domain if part of nodename
+    my $upnodename = uc($nodename);
+    my $domain_components = $dnsdomain;
+    $domain_components =~ s/\./,dc=/g;
+    unless ($domain_components =~ /^,dc=/) {
+        $domain_components = ",dc=".$domain_components;
+    }
+    if ($ou) { 
+        unless ($ou =~ /$domain_components\z/) {
+            $ou .= $domain_components;
+        }
+    } else {
+        $ou = "CN=Computers".$domain_components;
+    }
+    my $directoryserver = $args{directoryserver};
+    unless ($domain_components and $dnsdomain and $ou and $upnodename and $directoryserver) {
+        return {error=>"Unable to determine all required parameters"};
+    }
+    my $newpassword = $args{password};
+    unless ($newpassword) {
+        $newpassword = '"'.genpassword(8).'"';
+    }
+    Encode::from_to($newpassword,"utf8","utf16le"); #ms uses utf16le, we use utf8
+    my $b64password = encode_base64($newpassword);
+    my $ldif = $machineldiftemplate;
+    $ldif =~ s/##B64PASSWORD##/$b64password/g;
+    $ldif =~ s/##OU##/$ou/g;
+    $ldif =~ s/##REALMDCS##/$domain_components/g;
+    $ldif =~ s/##DNSDOMAIN##/$dnsdomain/g;
+    $ldif =~ s/##UPCASENODENAME##/$upnodename/g;
+    my $dn = "CN=$upnodename,$ou";
+    my $rc = system("ldapsearch -H ldaps://$directoryserver -b $dn");
+    if ($rc == 0) { 
+        return {error=>"System already exists"};
+    } elsif (not $rc==8192) {
+        return {error=>"Unknown error $rc"};
+    }
+    $rc = system("echo '$ldif'|ldapmodify  -H ldaps://$directoryserver"); 
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    
+    return {password=>$newpassword};
+}
+use Data::Dumper;
+print Dumper(add_machine_account(node=>'v6.xcat.e1350',directoryserver=>'v4.xcat.e1350'));