Purpose:
The purpose of this document is to provide the steps to create one possible setup for an Active Directory Services Home Lab that can be used to practice Microsoft Active Directory Services and Information Security concepts such as Penetration testing (Pen Testing), Threat Detection, and Vulnerability Management. It can be expanded to include Incident Response and other Information Security concepts by adding additional VMs and tools to the network.
Requirements:
While most tutorials and videos use a single host machine running multiple Virtual Machines (VMs), this lab setup will consist of two physical host machines, each running a single VM. The reason for this is that I also use these hosts for other purposes but wanted to create a lab environment that could also be set up to run alongside other software currently running on the hosts. This lab environment will be using VirtualBox 7.x, Windows Server 2025, and Windows 10 Pro. Due to Windows 10 being end of life you can use Windows 11 if you choose. The steps are essentially the same. If possible, I suggest installing both to practice exploitation concepts.
- Host 1 for Windows VM with Active Directory Services along with at least 16 GBs of memory, supports Virtualization, and at least 100 GB of disk space.
- Host 2 for Windows VM with at least 16 GBs of memory, supports Virtualization, and at least 100 GB of disk space.
Software:
Latest version of VirtualBox:
Windows Server:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-server-2025
Windows 10 Pro:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Windows 11:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
Host 1 Setup:
Ensure that your host machine meets the requirements for VirtualBox and can support at least 1 VM. After downloading VirtualBox run the installer, refer to the VirtualBox documentation depending on your Host 1 machine (i.e. Windows, Mac, Linux) and select all defaults during the installation process. Note: I will be setting this lab up using the Bridged Networking option to make it easier for the hosts to communicate with each other.
Select New from the Home screen and enter Windows_Server_2025 for the VM name. I will store the VM in a folder called VMs on my Host 1 machine which is running Linux Mint as the underlying OS. For the purposes of this documentation; however, I will be using a Windows 11 system as the underlying OS as seen in the screenshots. Leave Windows Server 2022 (64-bit) next to OS Version selected, this will not change the actual installation of Windows Server 2025. Select the Windows Server 2025 ISO. Uncheck Proceed with Unattended Installation. Click Next.
Review the configuration on the Summary screen and if you don't need to make any changes click Finish.
Click the green Start arrow to start-up the VM and begin the installation of Windows Server 2025. Depending on the Host machine's specs and the virtual disk size selected, the creation of the VM may take a little while to create.
Host 2 Setup:
Ensure that your machine meets the requirements for VirtualBox and can support at least 1 VM. After downloading VirtualBox run the installer, refer to the VirtualBox documentation depending on your Host 2 machine (i.e. Windows, Mac, Linux) and select all defaults during the installation process. Note: I will be setting this lab up using the Bridged Networking option.
Select New from the Home screen and enter Windows_10Pro for the VM name. I will store the VM in a folder called VMs on my Host 2 machine which is running MacOS as the underlying OS. For the purposes of this documentation; however, I will be using a Windows 11 system as the underlying OS for both VMs, so the screenshots for the Windows 10 Pro VM will be slightly different from the previous screenshots. Leave Windows 10 (64-bit) next to OS Version selected. Select the Windows 10 Pro ISO. Uncheck Proceed with Unattended Installation.
Click Network on the Machines tab and change Adapter 1 from NAT to Bridged Adapter.
Click the green Start arrow to start-up the VM and begin the installation of Windows 10 Pro. Depending on the Host machine's specs and the virtual disk size selected, the creation of the VM may take a little while to create.
Host 1 (Windows Server 2025 Installation):
Select the appropriate settings on the Language and Keyboard settings.
Accept the default selection on the Select setup option screen, check I agree everything will be deleted including files, apps, and settings. Click Next.
On the Select Image screen, select Windows Server 2025 Standard (Desktop Experience). Click Next.
On the Applicable notices and license terms screen click Accept.
On the Select location to install Windows Server screen, click Next.
On the Ready to install screen, click Install and wait for the installation to complete.
Host 2 (Windows 10 Pro Installation):
Select the appropriate Language, Time, Currency format, and Keyboard format. Click Next.
On the Activate Windows screen enter a product key if you have one; otherwise select I don't have a product key.
Select Windows 10 Pro on the next screen, if you have an ISO with that contains multiple versions of Windows 10. Click Next.
On the Applicable notices and license terms screen, check I accept the license terms. Click Next.
Host 1 (Windows Server2025 Setup and Active Directory Services Installation):
When you start the VM you will be presented with a screen where you can enter a product key if you haven't already entered it previously and have one. If you don't have one select Do this later.
On the Customize setting screen enter a strong password for the local Administrator account. Click Finish.
Log in as the Administrator using the password supplied previously.
On the next screen that appears after logging in click Accept.
Before we install Active Directory Services, install the VirtualBox Guest Additions to improve your VM experience. Select Insert Guest Additions CD image from the VM's Devices menu. Open Windows Explorer, click on the CD Drive(D:) and double click on the VBoxWindowsAdditions executable to perform the installation.
Select Next, accept the defaults and then click Install. After the installation has completed click Finish to reboot the VM.
Log in as the Administrator. Click Local Server, where we will change the computer name to something more meaningful and assign the server a static IP address before we install Active Directory Services.
Let's get the current IP address that has been assigned and set it to be static. In the search bar type cmd to open a Command Prompt.
Type ipconfig to get the current IP address that has been assigned.
Note the IP and gateway addresses, because we will use them when we set a static IP address for the server, which is a best practice.
Close or minimize the Command Prompt and click the IPv4 address assigned by DHCP, IPv6 enabled link next to Ethernet.
Right-click on the Ethernet adapter and select Properties.
On the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties pop-up window select Use the following IP address. Use the values noted from running ipconfig previously. We will also set the DNS servers to be used. In my case I will use the following:
IP address: 10.0.0.38
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 10.0.0.1
Preferred DNS server: 127.0.0.1
Alternate DNS server: 8.8.8.8
Once these values have been set click OK, followed by clicking Close on the Ethernet Properties window. Close the Network Connections window.
To start installing Active Directory Services, we first must add it. Click Add roles and features from the Dashboard, followed by clicking Next.
Leave Role based or feature based installation selected and click Next.
Leave the defaults selected on the next screen and click Next.
Click Next.
Click Next.
On the Confirm installation selections screen click Install to install Active Directory Services.
Once installation has completed. Click Close.
Click the yellow triangle next to the flag on the menu bar and select Promote this server to a domain controller.
On the next screen keep the defaults and enter a strong password for the Directory Services Restore Mode. Click Next.
Click Next on the next screen.
On the next screen keep the default NetBIOS name and click Next.
On the next screen click Next.
Click Next on the Review Options screen.
On the Prerequisites Check screen if there are no errors indicated click Install. The warning regarding the delegation for the DNS server is ok.
Expand mydomain.local or whatever name you provided for your domain. Right-click on Users and select New User.
Enter the information for a user account to be created in Active Directory. Click Next.
Enter a strong password for the user account. You can elect to have the user change their password after they've successfully logged in or choose any of the other options available. Click Next.
Click Finish to create the user's account.
Host 2 (Windows 10 Pro Installation):
Confirm that your selected region is correct, if not select it and click Yes.
Confirm that your keyboard layout is correct and click Yes.
Click Skip to adding a second keyboard layout.
On the How would you like to set up? Select Set up for an organization. Click Next.
Enter a name for a user. I will use User1. This is the user I created in Active Directory. Click Next.
Create a strong password and click Next.
Confirm the password for the user and click Next.
Choose your privacy settings and click Accept.
Click Skip to customize your experience unless you want to change any of these settings.
Click Not now to skip setting up Cortana.
Let's now set DNS for the Ethernet interface. In the search bar type control panel and select it.
Click Network and Internet.
Click Ethernet.
Click Properties.
Select Internet Protocol Version (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties.
In the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties window we will only set the DNS. We will set it to the IP address of the Windows Server 2025 server and provide Google's DNS IP address as the alternate, so that we can reach the Domain Controller and get to the Internet. Below are the IP addresses for my Windows Server 2025 server and Google's DNS IP address.
Preferred DNS server: 10.0.0.38
Alternative DNS server: 8.8.8.8
Click Ok then Close to close the properties windows.
Click Close to close the Ethernet Status window.
Close the Network and Sharing Center and enter cmd in the search bar and click Command Prompt.
We will now ping the Domain Controller to make sure we can communicate with it as well as google to make sure we can get out to the Internet. Finally let's make sure that the name of our Active Directory domain can be resolved.
Let's now join our Windows 10 Pro machine to the Active Directory domain.
Type domain into the search bar and click Access work or school.
Click Connect.
Select Join this device to a local Active Directory domain.
Enter the username and password for the admin user on the Windows 2025 server in Active Directory. Click OK.
Once the desktop has completed its setup, which occurs when logging into the domain for the first time, we will install the VirtualBox Guest Additions to improve the experience.
Select Insert Guest Additions CD image from the VM's Devices menu.
Click on Windows Explorer on the Task Bar.
You should have a better experience, as the Guest Additions include an accelerated graphics driver that improves window resizing and responsiveness. The more ram you can supply to your VMs the better the performance will be.
As a final step make sure to check for and install all updates for both Windows Server 2025 and Windows 10 Pro.
You now have an Active Directory setup that you can use to get more familiar with Active Directory and its concepts. You can also practice and get familiar with InfoSec concepts such as Pen Testing, Threat Detection, Incident Response, and Vulnerability Management. Additional VMs can be setup for example, you can create a VM, install a SIEM, and include it in your network to get experience with monitoring various alerts and mitigating risks.
