The Reference Setup

The reference setup starts off as a simple network which you would most likely find in a typical home. It consists of;

• A single subnet (such as 192.168.1.0/24)
• A router that provides DHCP, DNS, NAT and firewall services
• Internet access

The typical home network may also have various network devices such as PCs, Macs, mobile phones, tablets, printers, game consoles and servers connected via wire or wireless.

This blog takes this reference setup and evolves it into a sophisticated Windows domain. We've called this Windows domain Unit34.co. To help you create this domain in your own home, we've written a bunch of useful articles grouped into the common topics.

Getting started

In this series of articles, we discuss some of the things you will require and need to consider in order to build your own Windows domain. There are two main things we look at and they are; 1. Selecting the right server and 2. Planning your network. The objective is to make clear what the end result will look like.

1. Selecting a server for Unit34.co
2. Understand the network design for Unit34.co

Setting up Unit34.co

Once you are clear on what your Windows domain Unit34.co will look like, in this series of articles we are going to take the first steps in deploying your first domain controller and the domain Unit34.co.

1. Deploying the first server: CARBON.Unit34.co
2. Deploying the first virtual server: Hydrogen.Unit34.co
3. Installing and configuring Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
4. Installing and configuring DHCP
5. Configuring DNS
6. Performing the first domain join: CARBON to Hydrogen