Phase 1: On-Premises Windows Support Foundation

Foundation labs covering Active Directory, DNS, domain join, users, groups, file shares and Group Policy.

Phase Summary

This phase proves the basic Windows support environment behind the later Microsoft 365 work. It covers the tasks a helpdesk or MSP engineer needs to understand when troubleshooting logon, DNS, access and mapped-drive problems.

Lab 01: Domain Controller Foundation

Built DC1 as the first domain controller for corp.nietz.co.uk .

  • AD DS and DNS
  • Forest/domain creation
  • Domain controller discovery
  • nslookup , nltest and dcdiag validation
Open Lab

Lab 02: Domain Join and Authentication

Joined CL1 to the domain and validated client-side authentication.

  • Client DNS to DC1
  • Domain join workflow
  • Domain sign-in
  • AD computer object and GPO baseline
Open Lab

Lab 03: AD Users, Groups and Passwords

Created the user and group model used by later labs.

  • OUs and user accounts
  • Alternative UPN suffix: nietz.co.uk
  • Security groups
  • Password and account basics
Open Lab

Lab 04: File Shares and GPO

Configured file access and drive mapping for departmental users.

  • FS1 file shares
  • NTFS and share permissions
  • Group-based access
  • GPO drive mapping validation
Open Lab

Microsoft Infrastructure Next Phase →