As the title indicates, this is part 2 in a series about building out a Window’s Active Directory lab. The purpose of this lab on my end was to test out a PowerShell script I have been working on. Even though this is why I built the environment, you can use it for any purpose you want! Most of you would be interested in using this environment to practice hacking AD or your own possibly malicious scripts! The previous post just dealt with using VirtualBox to build and setup all of the Virtual Machines that we would need. I also showed you were to get the Microsoft image files FOR FREE. This post will be dealing with the actual server and workstation installation on our VirtualBox Hypervisor. So lets begin!
Open up your VirtualBox Manager, select the WinHackEnv-DC and click the “Start” green arrow on the top bar.
NOTE: As a preference, I like my VMs to run in Scaled View.
A window should appear and the Windows Server 2019 Install screen should display. Since I am in the “US” and speak “English” (not well, even though its my only language LOL) I will select both of these options and click “Next”.
This brings us to the “Install Now” screen which, of course, we will select.
Once the installation begins, It will ask us which Operating System we would like to install. To make this venture as simple as possible, select “Windows Server Standard Evaluation (Desktop Experience)”. Then select “Next”.
Click through the License Agreement trash and onto the next screen. It will give you two options, to Upgrade or for the Custom option. We will be selecting the “Custom Option”.
On the next screen you will see Drive 0: Unallocated Space. Click the “New” option at the bottom and then apply. A pop up box will tell you it is going to create additional partitions, just click “OK”.
Unformatted Drive:
Un
Formatted Drive:
Click “Next” after the drives have been formatted and the installation will begin. This may take awhile so please be patient.
You will eventually reach a screen asking you to input the administrator’s password, enter the password field and the confirmation. Now click “Finish”.
Once your admin password is set, the machine should reboot after a time. You should now be at Windows Ctrl + Alt + Delete screen. Don’t try and press these keys cause it will just trigger this command on your host system. Instead press the “right Ctrl key + Delete key”. This will allow you to access the login screen for you new VM. Input your credentials and verify the system logs in and you have a fresh clean install of Windows Server 2019. We can verify this by opening “Server Manager” and checking the only service listed on the Roles and Server Group categories are “Local Server” and “File and Storage Services”.
Windows Login (Confirmation of Successful Install):
Clean Install Server Manager :
Now that I walked you through the first server setup, you can repeat the same process for the File Server. As I stated in the previous post, the File Server install is completely optional. This is due to RAM usage since these server installs can get a little lofty on your PC.
That being said, lets move onto the Win 10 workstation! It is essentially the same setup we did for the servers. There are a few differences, however, which I will highlight right now. First off, you will be asked for your region, keyboard layout, and if you wish to add a second. Select your region, keyboard layout, and if you want a second layout enabled.
After your machine goes through its setup. Be warned it may take a while. It will continuously give you updates to not turn off the machine and that it is working. You will eventually be presented with the below screen in which it asks you to sign into your Microsoft account. We will be selecting the bottom left button “Domain Join Instead”.
Once this is complete you will be asked who will be using the computer. I just input the name “Bob”, clicked “Next” and put in all easy to remember BS password and security questions.
After another setup screen, you will be asked to setup privacy settings. I deselected it all. You mine as well too. Also, in the next screen it will ask you to do some shit with Cortona, select “Not Now”. You should go into another waiting screen where it will tell you to not power down your machine. Shortly after this you should be logged onto your desktop.
Well now we should have two servers built and one workstation! Obviously only a example of a very small domain but for our intents and purposes it doesn’t matter. Unless you have an actual server, your laptop or PC won’t be able to handle running much more than that. Honestly that is why I have the File Server listed as optional in post 1. My PC has 16 GBs of RAM and occasionally struggles when running a few instances of Windows Server.
In the next post in our series the real work will begin. This post and the previous have essentially been groundwork. Part 3 needs to be all its own since it is where we will setup our Domain Controller, File Server, and Work Station. This will involve installing the proper services VIA server manager, verifying our network settings, and joining all the VMs to a single domain. See you then everyone! Bye.