How to Learn Microsoft Active Directory from Basics?
Posted by Prestigious-Owl1391@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 6 comments
Hello everyone,
I’m new to the Microsoft Active Directory and Windows Server administration concepts. I would like to learn Active Directory from the basics in a practical way.
Can anyone please guide me on where to start, what topics to learn first, and best learning path for beginners.
Thank you in advance for your guidance!
St0nywall@reddit
Three things to know about Active Directory.
Active Directory is a database. Its contents get copied to other domain controllers by default.
All changes made in Active Directory affect domain joined computers, users and other objects that exist in active directory, it does not affect devices or users that are no in active directory.
Group Policy is used alongside with active directory to control settings for the physical computers and users that connect to active directory. All group policy is are registry settings that get pushed to computers and users to change their local group policy to match what you set on the domain group policy.
hihcadore@reddit
Bunch of good udemy courses covering the topic. Get one and spin up a hands on lab using a hyoervisor.
Insec_Bois@reddit
Make a home (most likely virtual) lab with a server and some client machines. Make things that are useful and realistic, break them, fix them, repeat.
Tbh I didn't really feel like I "knew" active directory until I started using powershell to automate things in it and then everything clicked. I conceptualize it in a big picture sense kinda like a file structure but instead of files you have various object types with varying properties.
Vichingo455@reddit
VMs and a Windows Server virtual machine. Microsoft provides eval ISOs for free on their website. You can then convert them to remove evaluation with one command and keep using it.
takilamiyewhd@reddit
If you want to learn Active Directory from scratch, just download VirtualBox and a free Windows Server Evaluation ISO and set up a virtual lab on your computer. In this lab, learn how to promote your server to a Domain Controller, create users and groups, join a Windows 10/11 PC to the domain and implement Group Policies.
This is a working setup that you can replicate easily by looking for 'Active Directory Home Lab' tutorials on YouTube.
bc531198@reddit
If you have a decent PC - I would set up 2 virtual servers and 2 virtual desktops, figure out how to set up ADDS, DNS, and DHCP on one of the servers, create a domain, create some users/groups/OUs/etc, join the desktops to the domain.
Plenty of good hits on Google for "Active Directory tutorial" that seem fine.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/paths/active-directory-domain-services/
https://www.serveracademy.com/blog/active-directory-101-a-step-by-step-tutorial-for-beginners
https://netwrix.com/en/resources/guides/active-directory-tutorial-for-beginners/