Categories
IT and Networking

Home Lab for Active Directory

To develop my Windows Server and Active Directory beyond what I have done in the workplace, I set up a home lab with multiple servers and clients. I used Hyper-V to expand my capabilities without needing more physical machines, and have gone through several iterations with different setups based on the end result desired, or to match an MCSA test objective I was focusing on. My current setup has two virtual domain controllers, serves DNS, runs networked backup jobs to a separate server, and is setup to use Microsoft System Center for configuration and endpoint security.

Networking Diagram, IP Scheme, and VMs
Physical Topology Diagram

To expand my knowledge in networking administration, I tried several different open-source firewalls until settling on pfSense for my main router on my production network. Further, I delved into the Microsoft networking protocols, like DNS and DHCP, and how they work with other networking systems, like pfSense and dd-wrt, and coupled that with several iterations of Linux web servers running virtually and on a Raspberry Pi.

This physical topology diagram shows the layout of the hardware devices (left) and virtual devices (right) of my most recent home lab design: