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Hi All

I have set up my own Virtual Home Lab 1 x DC Server 2012R2 and 1 x File Server 2012R2.

I am going to start of with creating user accounts, computers & Security Groups. I will first start playing around with GPO’s and Powershell.

I’d like to know if anyone has any other good ideas for small weekend projects, so i can learn more about servers and get a better understanding.

Thanks

Mrunal

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Pick up the MCSA 70-410 book, has everything you need to know plus exercises that will be similar to what you would encounter in IRL.

Before you start playing with GPO’s and such, spin up a Windows 7 or Windows 10 (or both) VM to have as clients you can apply policies too and manage your servers from using RSAT and PowerShell remoting.

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Folder redirection for users

DFS

DHCP Server

Backup and restore processes

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Certificate services

Really, pull up the Server Manager on the DC VM and take a look at the available roles and features. Then work your way down the list. If one role looks too complicated for now, skip it. Of course, Google the role while you work on it to figure out what it does and how to configure it. Also, MS has Test Lab Guides meant to help you properly set up a lab. These guides can be general or focused on a specific technology.

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The best way to learn is to use all of the features windows has, install one at a time and learn it

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Plan out your thoughts. Don’t just start and figure out things on the go you will never get anywhere. Pick something to learn then fully understand it and move on. But build off what you know. Keep adding to your design so that things are combined and not siloed. Sometime the problems we find in the real world are from a combo of services or features that when looked at alone work fine.

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Assuming you’re already employed, what about researching something you think the business will have a need for soon, or maybe already has…? For instance, I setup OpenVPN on our Untangle Firewall recently. Even though we don’t have much use for it currently (mobile users just use RDS), it could definitely come in handy.

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…and if you are not already doing so: absolutely, emphatically, no question, setup this Software Restriction Policy GPO (excellent how-to by @bryandoe ): https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/57422-deploying-a-whitelist-software-restriction-policy-to-prevent-cryptolocker-and-more

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