How can i set up a Domain at home for practice?

[OCD-FREAK]

hello everyone,

 

any ideas of how can i set a domain at home so i can practice system administration and system engineering ?

 

what are your thoughts and ideas ?

 

i have 2 servers- 10 computers - 2 imacs - 2 mac pro - 5 laptops - 4 printers - Cisco L2 - L3 switches and routers as well as Fire wall .

 

any and all opinions are more than appreciated.

 

Thank you all  

[tmaguire42]

If you have a license for Windows Server (preferably Server 2012 R2 or higher) you can set up a Windows Active Directory Domain.

If you don't have a license, you can set it up on linux with SAMBA (tutorial for that here: https://www.tecmint.com/install-samba4-active-directory-ubuntu/)

First you need to make sure that you have a valid FQDN (e.g. yourname.com) and set the AD domain name to something like ad.yourname.com.

Another bit to consider if you go down the linux route of setting up AD is that you'll need a Windows PC with the RSAT (Remote Administration Tools) installed on it for easier management of AD objects and GPOs.

[OCD-FREAK]

1 minute ago, tmaguire42 said:

If you have a license for Windows Server (preferably Server 2012 R2 or higher) you can set up a Windows Active Directory Domain.

If you don't have a license, you can set it up on linux with SAMBA (tutorial for that here: https://www.tecmint.com/install-samba4-active-directory-ubuntu/)

First you need to make sure that you have a valid FQDN (e.g. yourname.com) and set the AD domain name to something like ad.yourname.com.

Another bit to consider if you go down the linux route of setting up AD is that you'll need a Windows PC with the RSAT (Remote Administration Tools) installed on it for easier management of AD objects and GPOs.

many thanks. what do you think of my idea of :

 

using one server for windows server 2016 

using the other server for linux Cent OS ( as it is the one used in enterprises - correct me if iam wrong) 

install win 10 - win 7 - win 8 on five PCs 

use different OS on the laptops i have and connect them to WIFI 

hook up the printers to each PC 

use the Cisco swtitches and routers to hook up those two servers and computers 

[tmaguire42]

5 hours ago, OCD-FREAK said:

many thanks. what do you think of my idea of :

 

using one server for windows server 2016 

using the other server for linux Cent OS ( as it is the one used in enterprises - correct me if iam wrong) 

install win 10 - win 7 - win 8 on five PCs 

use different OS on the laptops i have and connect them to WIFI 

hook up the printers to each PC 

use the Cisco swtitches and routers to hook up those two servers and computers 

I would definitely look at using a hypervisor of some form on the two servers (I would look at Hyper-V Server or XCP-NG as they would allow you to move virtual machines between the two servers during updates or configuration) and then create virtual machines for the Windows and Linux boxes.

 

Also, if you want the printers to be shared, I would connect them to the network and use the Print Services feature on the Windows 2016 box to manage deployment of those printers and drivers.

 

As far as I'm aware CentOS is used in the enterprise (XCP-NG is based off of it) but from my experience as a sysadmin, most of our servers are Windows based (mainly because of specific application requirements) and we have about 4-5 linux boxes running Ubuntu or some heavily customised version of linux (usually found in appliances such as NetBotz or MobileIron).

 

Hope that helps!  

[beersykins]

Yep plus one for a hypervisor.  You can then install multiple servers into one physical one.  ESXi has a free license and you can run a mix of windows and Linux (along with whatever else) on the same box.

[OCD-FREAK]

1 minute ago, beersykins said:

Yep plus one for a hypervisor.  You can then install multiple servers into one physical one.  ESXi has a free license and you can run a mix of windows and Linux (along with whatever else) on the same box.

i would like to make use of both servers. like one for linux and one for windows server 2016. i would install all the utilities used by enterprises on both linux server and windows server.

[beersykins]

You can do that too, just trying to give you some more flexibility by being able to run like 10 segregated Linux servers on the same single physical server.

[OCD-FREAK]

1 minute ago, beersykins said:

You can do that too, just trying to give you some more flexibility by being able to run like 10 segregated Linux servers on the same single physical server.

yes i would do that. i have more questions for you . would be able to list me all the software that enterprises use on their servers both on linux and windows based servers please ? like i heard that they use alot of hyper-V ... but i want to know all the software they use so i can practice real life scenarios.