I currently don't have a test Active Directory setup. What are some effective ways you all deploy labs for testing purposes? Would love to hear your experiences and setups!
7 Answers
What exactly are you looking to test? A single test OU might be sufficient for many scenarios. Are you looking at schema changes or possibly setting up Active Directory Certificate Services? There's a lot that can’t be addressed by just working within a single OU.
You’ve got a couple of options:
1) If you have a desktop with enough hardware, you can deploy 6-8 VMs. Check out automatedlab.org for great automation tools.
2) Consider using an Azure tenant, but keep in mind it’s a more expensive route. You can automate deployments with PowerShell, Bicep, or Terraform, but it can take a lot of time to set up. For home labs, I’d recommend option 1. If you've got a few spare servers and a separate network on-premises, that's perfect for creating an AD lab. Azure, on the other hand, is best for enterprise environments since it gives better control over networking and VM resources.
It depends on what exactly you’re looking to test. We don’t have a specific testing environment; usually, I create a test user. If I'm running a domain-wide PowerShell script, I’ll just test it on a handful of users before a full rollout.
Our setup includes some old desktops, a Layer 3 switch, and a firewall. It’s completely isolated, so there's no risk of impacting production, which is essential for testing.
A solid approach is to set up a single Domain Controller (DC) along with one member server and two workstations running Windows 10 or 11—all of this can be done using virtual machines on a test domain. It's straightforward and lets you test configurations without impacting production.
We usually run everything on a single host, which is an end-of-life server. It’s manageable and keeps costs down!
We opted for cloning our existing DCs and restoring them into a sandbox environment. It’s a bit messy—lots of adjusting with private VLANs and clean-up—but it gets the job done.
I was fortunate to get a server through work that lets me run a lab at home. I use Hyper-V with Active Directory and other tools to play around with Infrastructure changes, such as MFA plugins and schema extensions. For work, though, we typically just create test Organizational Units (OUs), which has sufficed. Maybe we aren’t doing it 'right,' but it works!
Exactly! Things like schema changes or Domain Controller hardening require a more robust testing environment.