Want to Learn Windows Server with a Home Server

[Dreigo42]

I'm looking to expand my knowledge and I want to build a small but "full" featured Windows Server to play around with at home. Anyone have any suggestions as to how I can go about doing this? And before you say it, yes I know Linux is free but we use Windows Server at work so that's what I need to learn. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

So what do you want to do?

 

Id chuck 2012r2 or 2016 on it. Then enable hyper-v and fire up vms.

 

Then setup AD. its basically the base of windows server and networking. and for ease of use make it your dns and dhcp server aswell.

 

Then make wsus and setup your gps.

 

[Dreigo42]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

So what do you want to do?

 

Id chuck 2012r2 or 2016 on it. Then enable hyper-v and fire up vms.

 

Then setup AD. its basically the base of windows server and networking. and for ease of use make it your dns and dhcp server aswell.

 

Then make wsus and setup your gps.

 

That's pretty much my plan. I'm just unsure the best way to get a hold of it. I don't pirate software and I don't understand the Licencing all that well.

[desertcomputer]

Go grab a VM and ISO off the internet and play with your heart content. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Dreigo42 said:

That's pretty much my plan. I'm just unsure the best way to get a hold of it. I don't pirate software and I don't understand the Licencing all that well.

are you in school? you can often get free licences.

 

if not, they have 180 day trials.

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/search?k=&p=26,27&a=&s=&r=16&so=

[NelizMastr]

16 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

So what do you want to do?

 

Id chuck 2012r2 or 2016 on it. Then enable hyper-v and fire up vms.

 

Then setup AD. its basically the base of windows server and networking. and for ease of use make it your dns and dhcp server aswell.

 

Then make wsus and setup your gps.

 

Why Hyper-V? ESXi is free, version 6.5 has an HTML5 web client and is overall a better starting point. I'd personally create the Windows Server environment on top of that.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, NelizMastr said:

Why Hyper-V? ESXi is free, version 6.5 has an HTML5 web client and is overall a better starting point. I'd personally create the Windows Server environment on top of that.

hyper-v becuase it works better with windows licencing and is built in. You can also mess with things like remoteapp and remote fx.

 

Esxi and KVM and Xen will all also work fine.

[LAwLz]

For just learning the basics any VM software will work just fine. Hell, even VirtualBox should work fine.

I like VMware though, so just download something free from them, like Workstation Player.

 

Set up the server, and set up a client (both VMs) and then you should fairly easily get it set up and working.

[harry4742]

On 20.1.2017 at 9:11 AM, NelizMastr said:

Why Hyper-V? ESXi is free, version 6.5 has an HTML5 web client and is overall a better starting point. I'd personally create the Windows Server environment on top of that.

And before you say it, yes I know Linux is free but we use Windows Server at work so that's what I need to learn. 

[leadeater]

On 1/20/2017 at 8:59 PM, Electronics Wizardy said:

are you in school? you can often get free licences.

 

if not, they have 180 day trials.

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/search?k=&p=26,27&a=&s=&r=16&so=

 

On 1/20/2017 at 8:57 PM, Dreigo42 said:

That's pretty much my plan. I'm just unsure the best way to get a hold of it. I don't pirate software and I don't understand the Licencing all that well.

As mentioned if you have a educational email address you can go here to create an account and get access to tons of free software https://imagine.microsoft.com/en-us/catalog

 

You can get a used server from ebay rather cheaply if you don't have a spare computer, don't build something new.

 

ESXi or Hyper-V will do the job nicely. ESXi is far more common, Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V is excellent so that is an equally valid option.

[ssfdre38]

with Imagine from Microsoft it does depend on your school buying the license to use it and they would need to add you to their system.

[kevinb2001]

In my experience as long as you have an email address from almost any university/college in north america, you can get windows server through imagine. Microsoft verifies you're a student by the fact you're using a student email address from that school. The school doesn't have to do anything on a per user basis as far as my experience goes. I think it's more just that microsoft has to recognize your school as a verified college/uni, which unless it's a new school it usually is. I've seen people use university email addresses that they still have despite the fact they graduated 5 years ago and didn't take anything to do with IT, and colleges offering night classes that give students a school email address also usually work.

[Dreigo42]

Thanks for all the info guys. I've decided to use their eval copy to tinker around with. This is actually what Microsoft recommended outside of taking one of their formal courses. Since I already have VirtualBox on my machine, I've set up 1 server VM and 4 host vms with windows 7-10 in a host only network to play with. when the eval or one of the clients freak out that they aren't "genuine", I'll just rebuild the VMs. This setup is what a rep from Microsoft and I came up with and he said it was perfectly OK to do. He said as long as I'm just playing around with it and not making a "permanent" setup, I can keep rebuilding these VMs for as long as I like.

[leadeater]

2 hours ago, Dreigo42 said:

This setup is what a rep from Microsoft and I came up with and he said it was perfectly OK to do. He said as long as I'm just playing around with it and not making a "permanent" setup, I can keep rebuilding these VMs for as long as I like.

This is what I do but I didn't exactly clear it with anyone like you did, which is why i didn't suggest it. Microsoft is fairly ok with people using their products in labs as it increases product exposure and leads to more profitable sales. Just have to be really careful to never make a profit tied to the use of the software else Microsoft will care, a lot.

[ssfdre38]

9 hours ago, kevinb2001 said:

In my experience as long as you have an email address from almost any university/college in north america, you can get windows server through imagine. Microsoft verifies you're a student by the fact you're using a student email address from that school. The school doesn't have to do anything on a per user basis as far as my experience goes. I think it's more just that microsoft has to recognize your school as a verified college/uni, which unless it's a new school it usually is. I've seen people use university email addresses that they still have despite the fact they graduated 5 years ago and didn't take anything to do with IT, and colleges offering night classes that give students a school email address also usually work.

From what i have seen Microsoft Image website itself is just a limited library and you will need your school to purchase more extensive Microsoft Image Library and trust me i have more access to more software then from image.microsoft.com

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, ssfdre38 said:

From what i have seen Microsoft Image website itself is just a limited library and you will need your school to purchase more extensive Microsoft Image Library and trust me i have more access to more software then from image.microsoft.com

Nothing beats a VLSC login though 

[samiscool51]

windows sever is basically windows striped to the bare and stuffed with server stuff

it will work on any system that meets the min requirements

http://www.pearsonitcertification.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2248808&seqNum=2

i would suggest to use windows server 2012 R2 as many business still use it

but if you want a more friendly desktop interface, windows server 2016 is the best as it has the windows 10 anniversary interface for a server operating system

also you don't have to run the driver installers in compatibility mode, if it's not working put it into windows 8 or 7 mode, that should do it

[Dreigo42]

On 1/23/2017 at 4:18 PM, kevinb2001 said:

In my experience as long as you have an email address from almost any university/college in north america, you can get windows server through imagine. Microsoft verifies you're a student by the fact you're using a student email address from that school. The school doesn't have to do anything on a per user basis as far as my experience goes. I think it's more just that microsoft has to recognize your school as a verified college/uni, which unless it's a new school it usually is. I've seen people use university email addresses that they still have despite the fact they graduated 5 years ago and didn't take anything to do with IT, and colleges offering night classes that give students a school email address also usually work.

Well my wife is in a masters program. Maybe I'll try using hers....