Installing Windows Server 2022 and configuring Active Directory and Domain Services

Written By Stephen Dick

This will be a guide demonstrating how to install and configure Windows Server 2022 Desktop Edition for Active Directory and Domain Services

What will be configured in this guide is below

  • Installing Windows Server 2022

  • Statically (manually) assigning an IP address for the virtual machine

  • Adding a new Administrator user

  • Disabling the built in Administrator user

  • Adding the Active Directory Domain Services Role

Using my XCP-NG virtualization software, do the following

Input the following

1. Pool – aaa_0004

2. Template – Windows Server 2022 (64-bit)

3. Name – Windows Server 2022

4. Active Directory Domain Services

5. vCPUs – 2

6. RAM – 2 GiB

7. Topology – 1 socket with 2 cores per socket

8. ISO/DVD – windows_server_2022.iso

9. Network – Pool-wide network associate (eth0)

10. SR – Local Storage 1.78 TiB

11. Name – Windows Server 2022 (64-Bit) ADDS

12. Description – ADDS

13. Size – 32 GiB

Power on the Windows Server 2022 Virtual Machine and navigate to the Console tab.

Select Next upon boot u

Select Install Now

Select Windows Server 2022 Standard Evaluation (Desktop Experience)

Agree to the terms and select next

Select Custom: Install Microsoft Server Operating System only (advanced)

Select Drive 0 and select Next and it will begin the install

Input the Administrator passwords and select Finish

We will be disabling this account throughout this guide for best practices of both security and system logging/administrating

Log into the server by pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL key combination and type your password

Within XCP-NG, this is located above your virtual machine within the Console tab

Press the windows start menu

Search and select computer management

Select the Users group

Right click in an open space in the menu and select New User...

Create a user with the following configuration

1. User name – sdick

2. Full name – Stephen Dick

3. Description – Linuxmint-AAA_007

4. Password/Confirm password – Enter a strong password with special characters, capital/lower case and numbers

5. Uncheck User must change password at next login

Right click the new user sdick and choose Properties

Choose the Members Of tab

Select Add...

In the Enter the object names to select text box, enter Administrators and select the Check Names button to auto complete the Group name and select Ok.

The highest privileged user role, is the Administrator, NOT the Owner role

Remove the sdick user from the users group and select Ok

Logout out of the Administrator user and log into the sdick user

Select the windows start menu

Search and select for Computer Management

Expand the Local Users and Groups directory > Select the Users directory

Right click the Administrator user and select Properties

Within the General tab, select Account is disabled to fully disable the default Administrator account for Common Security practice

Select Apply and Ok

Navigate to the bottom right corner and right click the Network icon (computer icon) and select Open Network & Internet settings

Select Change adapter options

Right click the Ethernet adapter and select the Properties

Select the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) option and select Properties

Configure the network adapter in accordance to your network configuration

Select Ok and close the network adapter window to take full effect for the virtual machine

Now that we have our Administrator user created, disabled the built in administrator account and statically assigned the IP address to our Active Directory virtual machine, we can now configure Active Directory Domain Services within Windows Server 2022

Navigate to the Server Manager application

Select the Manage option at the top right corner

Select Add Roles and Features

Select Next to begin Adding Roles and Features for Windows Server 2022

Select Role-based or feature-based installation

Choose the option Select a server form the server pool and select Next

Select the checkbox for Active Directory and Domain Services

Select Add Features to add the prerequisites to run Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS)

Select next to move to the Features section

Add any additional features you would like for Active Directory and then select next (ADDS has no other prerequisites as it was added when adding ADDS initially)

Select Next when prompted regarding requirements of a DNS (Domain Name Services) server

This will be added separately and pointed directly from our Active Directory to the DNS server on a separate virtual machine

Select Install to confirm the Active Directory Domain Services Installation (ADDS)

Congratulations! You have installed and configured the basics of Active Directory Domain Services with some basic security principles in mind!

Stephen Dick