Overview
Seasoned Active Directory (“AD”) professionals and students alike can benefit from a safe environment for testing their skills and processes. However, implementing a lab is a time-consuming process (especially if things go wrong and the lab must be re-created from scratch!) This series helps you automate the process so you may quickly deploy [and re-deploy] an AD Lab.
The first part of this series introduces the goals and outcomes and describes the AD Lab architecture; the second part shows how to customize the AlmaLinux and Windows installer media for automated installation; and the third part illustrates how to use the resources created in part two to deploy the AD Lab.
This lab leverages AlmaLinux 9.x, Microsoft Hyper-V, the Microsoft Windows Server 2022 evaluation edition, and the Microsoft Windows 11 Enterprise evaluation edition. The lab requires no licensing, but the Microsoft installations function for only 180 days (servers) and 90 days (desktops) from the date of installation. However, this is of little concern since the lab can be easily destroyed and re-created as needed.
If you have comments or feedback on this series, you may submit them on the Conclusion page.
Part I – Introduction
- Introduction
- Architecture