Introduction

Setting up a new Active Directory environment can be either exciting or boring. If you have rarely built out new domain and networking environments, the process is probably new and very exciting. However, if you are constantly building out new environments for test labs or other business needs, the process can be fairly long and drawn out. Instead, you are mostly interested in automating the process to require minimal user input and maintain consistency between builds.

This chapter covers the installation and configuration of Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, and Certificate Services. This chapter should cover everything necessary to prepare an environment as a fully functioning Active Directory domain for use in labs or new domain environments.