Deploying Unattended Windows 7 clients using server 2008r2

Question

Hi,
First time posting in here. I'm a bit stuck on a project that I'm currently working on and was hoping someone here with some more WDS experience might be able to spot something I'm missing. I'm currently using server 2008r2 to facilitate an unattended deployment
of some client Windows 7 desktops. The annoying part is that the site I'm deploying to is a support office with no IT staff there - just me doing this remotely.
I've managed to get the networking and DHCP (on a separate linux system) running great. The computers are picking up the boot file and installing windows fine (drivers, partitioning, etc). Client_unattend.xml is installing the software as commanded. Where
I'm hitting my snag is that the computer is then trying to boot to the local admin account instead of joining the domain. This confused me because I used the exact same (barring a few minor tweaks for time zone and languages) image_unattend.xml file in my
test setup at my main office and it worked fine. Below is the XML file in use. Is there something here that jumps out at anyone? Any hints would be very very welcomed, and thanks to anyone who can have a look.
P.s. My next step is to talk the staff through getting the /panther/setup log files off the computers C: drive.
Users,tokens, domains and passwords have been changed to protect the innocent.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="specialize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-UnattendedJoin" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="<PUBLIC TOKEN>" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <Identification>
                <JoinDomain>DOMAIN.net.au</JoinDomain>
                <UnsecureJoin>false</UnsecureJoin>
                <DebugJoin>true</DebugJoin>
                <MachineObjectOU>OU= OUR SITE,OU= SITE COMPUTERS,DC=COMPANY,DC=net,DC=au</MachineObjectOU>
                <DebugJoinOnlyOnThisError>0</DebugJoinOnlyOnThisError>
                <Credentials>
                    <Domain>OURDOMAIN.net.au</Domain>
                    <Password>PASSWORD</Password>
                    <Username>USER</Username>
                </Credentials>
            </Identification>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="PUBLIC TOKEN" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <ComputerName>%MACHINENAME%</ComputerName>
            <TimeZone>Singapore Standard Time</TimeZone>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="oobeSystem">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="PUBLIC TOKEN" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <OOBE>
                <NetworkLocation>Work</NetworkLocation>
                <HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>true</HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>
                <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
                <ProtectYourPC>3</ProtectYourPC>
            </OOBE>
            <UserAccounts>
                <LocalAccounts>
                    <LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
                        <Password>
                            <Value>PASSWORD</Value>
                            <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                        </Password>
                        <Description>Vagrant User</Description>
                        <DisplayName>vagrant</DisplayName>
                        <Group>Administrators</Group>
                        <Name>vagrant</Name>
                    </LocalAccount>
                </LocalAccounts>
            </UserAccounts>
            <TimeZone>Singapore Standard Time</TimeZone>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="windowsPE">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-DNS-Client" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="PUBLIC TOKEN" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <DNSSuffixSearchOrder>
                <DomainName wcm:action="add" wcm:keyValue="DOMAIN">1</DomainName>
            </DNSSuffixSearchOrder>
            <DNSDomain>DOMAIN.net.au</DNSDomain>
            <UseDomainNameDevolution>true</UseDomainNameDevolution>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim://DOMAIN/software/msi%20and%20mst%20stuff/win7%20wim%20files/sources/install.wim#Windows 7 PROFESSIONAL" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

Answer 1

To add to this, the errors I am receiving indicate an FQDN or DNS error but I've played with this file to address these with no change. I can however manually join this computer once it has finished installing.
I thought that maybe there are driver issues but I assigned the driver packages to the install image in WDS...
Any suggestions would be immensely appreciated.
Errors encountered:
2015-02-13 09:21:50, Info                         [DJOIN.EXE] Unattended Join: Joining domain [MYDOMAIN.net.au]...
2015-02-13 09:21:50, Info                         [DJOIN.EXE] Unattended Join: Calling DsGetDcName for MYDOMAIN.net.au...
2015-02-13 09:21:52, Warning                      [DJOIN.EXE] Unattended Join: DsGetDcName failed: 0x54b, last error is 0x0, will retry in 5 seconds...
2015-02-13 09:28:53, Error                        [DJOIN.EXE] Unattended Join: NetJoinDomain failed error code is [1355]
2015-02-13 09:28:53, Info                         [DJOIN.EXE] Debug mode: Breaking to debugger on error: 1355
2015-02-13 09:28:53, Info                         [DJOIN.EXE] Unattended Join: DebugJoin invoked...
2015-02-13 09:28:55, Error                        [DJOIN.EXE] Unattended Join: DsGetDcName test failed: 0x54b, last error is 0x0, breaking if
debugger attached...
2015-02-13 09:28:55, Error                        [DJOIN.EXE] Unattended Join: Unable to join; gdwError = 0x54b
2015-02-13 09:28:55, Info                         [DJOIN.EXE] Unattended Join: Exit, returning 0x0