I built a hands-on Active Directory lab to simulate a real-world enterprise environment and develop foundational skills in identity and access management, user administration, and security monitoring.
To understand how user accounts, permissions, and authentication work in a domain environment, and how these activities generate logs that can be monitored for security events.
Virtualization Platform:
- VirtualBox
Systems Configured:
- Windows Server 2022 (Domain Controller)
- Windows 10 (Client Machine)
Network Diagram:
**Steps Performed
Installed Active Directory Domain Services
Domain Controller Configuration
Installed and setup DHCP which allows windows client to get an IP address that will let them get on and browse the internet while being on this private internal network just like an office or school.
Installed and configured RAS (Remote Access Server) so windows 10 client can access the internet while on the private virtual network with DC.
Created Users, OUs (Organizational Units), and Security Groups.
Organizational Units
-IT -HR -Finance -Workstations
Security Groups
IT-ADMINS, HR-Users, Finance-Users
Joining client machine (Windows 10) to domain controller and making sure there is access to internet.
