Enterprise Windows Server 2022 Active Directory Homelab

A Windows Server 2022 Active Directory homelab built in VMware Workstation Pro with an enterprise-style Organizational Unit (OU) structure, PowerShell automation, Group Policy, and file sharing.

Network Topology

Environment

Component	Details

| Hypervisor | VMware Workstation Pro |

| Server | Windows Server 2022 |

| Domain Controller | DC01 |

| Client | Windows 11 |

| Domain | thousiflab.com |

| Network | VMnet0 (Bridged) |

Project Structure


Enterprise-Windows-Server-Homelab/

│

├── Documentation/

├── Network Diagram/

├── PowerShell/

├── Screenshots/

└── README.md

Features

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
DNS
Organizational Units
Security Groups
Distribution Groups
Bulk user provisioning
Group Policy
File sharing
NTFS permissions
Drive mapping
Windows 11 domain join

Documentation

PowerShell

Scripts used to build out the environment:

Script	Description
`Create-OUs.ps1`	Creates the OU structure.
`Create-SecurityGroups.ps1`	Creates department security groups.
`Import-EnterpriseUsers-XLSX.ps1`	Imports users from Excel into AD. Supports `-WhatIf` for testing, generates random passwords, and saves a CSV report after each run.

Note: the import script used to use one fixed password if a row was missing one. Changed it to generate a random password per user instead, since reusing the same password isn't good practice. Also added -WhatIf so you can preview what the script will do before it makes any changes.

Screenshots

Server Manager

Active Directory

Group Policy

Windows 11 Client

Technologies

VMware Workstation Pro
Windows Server 2022
Windows 11
Active Directory Domain Services
DNS
Group Policy
PowerShell

Notes

The Documentation folder contains the complete setup and validation for the project.

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