Active Directory: Windows Client Setup

ISO Download & VM Setup

The Windows 10 Enterprise ISO can be found at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-10-enterprise

I was having issues trying to set up the Windows 11 Enterprise ISO. Morevoer, Windows 11 requires more RAM and CPU and I am going to be running multiple client VMs, so I just went with Windows 10 to preserve system usage.

Only Pro, Education, and Enterprise editions of Windows 10/11 can be joined to a domain. Active Directory is not supported in Home Editions. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1805776/how-to-join-the-active-directory-on-a-regular-comp

I gave this VM:

2 GB RAM

2 CPUs

50GB Storage

Skip unattended install: checked

If your VM keeps freezing or getting black screens, you may want to increase the RAM.

Attach adapter 1 to the cyberlab-ad network

Launch the VM

Click install now

Accept the license

Select Custom Install

Select Drive 0

Next

Wait for the installation to finish (~10 minutes)

You may see this screen when the installation finishes

Stop the VM

Remember to change the boot order (Right click the VM from VirtualBox > Settings > System > Motherboard)

The VM should boot from the hard disk

Reboot the VM

Select your region

Select your keyboard layout

Click Continue with limited setup

You can put any name; we are not going to use this account, we are going to use the AD users we created from the previous section

Just skim through these

Uncheck everything and accept

Click not now

K

IP Configuration

Once Windows boots up, log in as the temporary user

Right click on the internet icon on the bottom right of the screen

Open Network and Internet Settings > Change Adapter Options

Right click Ethernet > Properties > Double Click IPv4 Properties

I gave this VM the IP 10.10.2.10/24

Set the preferred DNS to 10.10.1.10 (Domain Controller)

and the alternate DNS to 10.10.2.1 (default gateway/ OPNsense)

Click OK

Open command prompt and try pinging the DC, the gateway, and a DNS server

All the pings should work

This VM needs to be able to communicate with the DC in order to join the domain

Joining the Domain

Go to Settings > Accounts > Access work or school

Click on connect

Click on Join this device to a local Active Directory domain

Enter the domain name (cyber.lab)

Enter the credentials of a regular user (not the admin)

I am using Bob’s credentials

If you cannot join the domain but can ping the DC, make sure the account is enabled. On the DC VM, head to AD Users and Computers and right click on the user. If you see “Disable Account” as an option, that means the account is enabled.

Set the account type to Standard User

Next

Restart now

Log in as the user

On the DC VM, head to Tools > AD Users and Computers > Computers

Notice this new desktop

You can edit the description and add the full name of the user’s desktop, but I am going to change the name of the client computer

On the Windows 10 VM, head to Settings > System > About

Click on Rename this PC

I renamed Bob’s computer to Bob-Workstation

I have repeated the same previous steps and created another Windows 10 VM for Alice, with the IP of 10.10.2.11 and the computer name Alice-Workstation

Connectivity Test

Our DC acts a DNS server and can resolve the computer name to an IP address.

Windows 10/11 hosts block pings by default, but notice that when I ping Bob-Workstation, it says it is pinging 10.10.2.10.

From the client VM, we can ping cyber.lab and it tells us that the IP is 10.10.1.10 (the DC).

Running ipconfig from Bob’s workstation

Running ipconfig from Alice’s workstation

On the DC VM, head to AD users and computers

Notice the 2 clients appear (and Alice-Workstation is changed to ALICE-WORKSTATI because of NetBIOS)

We can also ping the clients using their computer/NetBIOS name.

Next: Wazuh Setup