This is a guide for setting up a home lab to practice configuration and management with Windows Server and Active Directory. Today Ill show you how to setup and install a virtual Windows Server and 2 separate virtual Windows 10 Desktop machines, so we can practice our networking and Active Directory skills. Active Directory is a very helpful tool for business management, giving us control over user access to files and services on our network.

Ill try to provide links to all the tools I used in this setup guide so you can replicate the same environment at home! All software used in this guide is completely free, so all you’ll need is a working laptop/desktop with a good processor to run everything quickly. Lets get started!

Installing VirtualBox

Our first step will be installing VirtualBox, a VM software that will host all our different virtual machines and connect them together. VirtualBox is a completely free program and will help make this setup very easy! Here is a link to download & install the program: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Installing Windows Server & Active Directory

Now, well begin setting up our windows server in VirtualBox. We can find a download of the ISO for Windows Server 2022 at this link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-server-2022

Next, we can open up our VirtualBox program and configure a new Virtual Machine. Well make sure to select the version drop down and select the correct option: Windows Server (I believe it will say 2019, but this is fine.). After that we can configure our storage, memory and CPU allocations for the VM. I recommend at least 2 cores and adding extra storage, as this will allow us to run things smoothly and gives us space to install AD and some other features if needed. Select the installed ISO file from your downloads folder, and we should boot up to the installation screen. When following the installation on screen, select the option WITH Desktop Experience, as this will give us a GUI to use instead of only commands.

After the server has finished installing, we are prompted to setup an administrator password for the server. Now we should be taken to the login page and can open up to the desktop of the server! (Tip: keyboard inputs for certain functions are disabled on VirtualBox, this can be changed in the settings, or you can use the top toolbar and select keyboard -> inputs -> ctrl + alt + del ) Now we can move on to the setup of our Windows 11 Desktops.

Windows Desktop Installation

To connect our devices to a domain well need to ensure we install the Enterprise version of Win 11, as the home version will not allow domain connection. I have a link for the enterprise version ISO here: https://info.microsoft.com/ww-landing-windows-11-enterprise.html

Next we can open up VirtualBox and create a new machine, this time selecting Windows 11 from the version list. Select the enterprise ISO and allocate your memory, storage, and CPU usage. As with last time I recommend adding a little extra storage, however be cautious using all your CPU Cores as this can make your machine have some issues.

Continue on to the installation of Windows, and after the install is done the device will Boot up to our Windows desktop screen. We can setup a local user for this device, as well connect to our directory with a user account later on. Simply repeat the process for the second desktop if desired, and be sure to make note of all the login passwords set.

Virtual Connection & Active Directory Setup

Now for our most crucial part, we can begin connecting together our virtual machines and setup an Active Directory environment. Lets start by creating a virtual network for our machines. On each machine running, we can open up the machine settings in VirtualBox. We can scroll down to the network section and we should see that Network 1 is connected and running NAT. Well need to power off the device and setup a second network on each device. We need to select a Host-Only Adapter, and connect the cable using the option at the bottom. Some may have issues allowing VMs to connect to each other, and to fix this we can navigate to this adapter and allow VMs in Promiscuous Mode.

Now, we can configure our Windows Server with a static IP Address. We can open up our Network Devices and select Ethernet 2, and then under Network find the IPv4 option. Configure the server with a static IP and remember to make a note of the address you use.

After we have setup our second adapter on each device and our IP Address configured, we can begin setting up Active Directory on our Windows Server. Open the Windows Server and login as Administrator, and then open up the Server Manager Dashboard. Select Add Roles and Features and continue by clicking next on the popup menu. On the server selection screen select your server. When the server roles page appears, find and select the the Active Directory Domain Services from the list. Once selected hit next, and agree to all necessary downloads. After continuing the rest of the process, the installation will begin, and after a wait the device will Restart.

Now we can finally make our server the domain controller. We should have a notification in the top righthand corner of the Server Manager program. Once clicked, we should see an option to Promote this server to the Domain Controller. Once selected a deployment window will appear. Well select to add a new forest, and create a .local name for our server, mine will appear as homelab.local.

After hitting next, we should see controller options and a password field. Ensure you make note of the password used, and we can continue using windows server 2016 which is the most recent. We can continue hitting next to the end of the process and hit install if we have any prerequisites. After the installation is done, we should have our server restart and now we can login to the server as our administrator. (Username: HOMELAB\Administrator). This shows us our server is up and running as expected!

For this project, Ill be connecting one of the desktops to a user I’ve created in directory users manager, but this might not be necessary if you’d just like to login to the administrator account. Well cover how to add users and domains in the next project with active directory.

Adding Desktops to Domain

Now we can begin by adding our virtual desktops to our domain. With the Windows Server running and our Virtual Adapter 2 connected, open up the Windows Desktop and navigate to our settings. Under network and internet, we want to select DNS settings and set a manual DNS Server. This DNS Server should point directly to our Domains IP Address, and we can use 8.8.8.8 as a backup DNS. Adding the desktops under this DNS server is a crucial step in connecting the desktops to our domain. After this is configured, we can test the connections to our server by using commands like nslookup and ping. EX: nslookup homelab.local ping homelab.local If we receive results from these pings its a great sign our connections are working properly!

Next we can connect our desktop to the domain. Start by using windows search to look up Access Work or School. Once the prompt opens, we can select the very bottom option in small blue text to Join this device to a local Active Directory domain. We do NOT need to use a Microsoft account for this setup. Next, we enter in the name of our domain, in this case: homelab.local, and well be prompted with a username and password section. Either type in a username you’ve already configured, or just login to the administrator account if you choose.

Once login is complete, our computer will restart and our domain login should appear on the login screen! Well have an option to login to the domain account or the local account we created earlier. Now, our homelab Active Directory setup is complete!

Summary

This was a great project that gave me some hands on experience working with Active Directory setup and virtual machine networking. While setting up a new Active Directory server and Domain Controller is not the most common task in IT, it is crucial to understand the fundamentals of AD and its uses, and I cant wait to start some more challenging projects using this homelab that will give me more experience. Working through this setup gave me some difficult issues at times, however that’s what these projects are all about, overcoming issues and learning from them. If you have any questions or need help setting up your own homelab, feel free to reach out by leaving a comment or sending me a message using my contact. Thank you for reading!