Windows Server for beginners
A series for those who want to understand how Windows Server and Active Directory work inside: what happens between pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del and the desktop appearing, how domain controllers agree with each other, what lies in the directory and how to read it.
The series has two principles.
First: for every component, not only why it is needed but how it works. Which objects appear in the directory, which packets go over the network, what breaks and why. That is why almost every part has command output, event logs and a walk-through of what they say.
Second: we do everything from PowerShell, not with the mouse. A command can be repeated, put into a script and run on twenty servers, shown in an article more precisely than any screenshot, and on Server Core there is simply no other way.
First the basics: installing the server, disks and network, how Active Directory is built. Then the domain: the first controller, LDAP and Kerberos from the inside, DNS, DHCP, the second controller and replication. Protocols already covered in the Networking for beginners series are not explained again: where they come up, there is a link and the gist in two sentences.
Windows Server from scratch
The first article on Windows Server administration from scratch: editions, Server Core vs Desktop Experience, installation and first setup in PowerShell.
Disks and network: diskpart, netsh and their PowerShell replacements
How Windows sees disks, what diskpart does and how the Storage module replaces it, netsh contexts and their PowerShell twins, what only old tools can do.
How Active Directory works
Forest, tree, domain and OU, directory objects, schema and partitions, NTDS.dit and SYSVOL, finding a DC via DNS, and the protocols behind a domain logon.
The first domain controller
Choosing a domain name, installing AD DS, Install-ADDSForest and its parameters, what promotion to a DC does, dcdiag and the first computers.
LDAP from the inside: the directory through ADSI Edit
LDAP operations and binds, DNs and attributes, the schema, RootDSE, filter syntax, ldp.exe and ADSI Edit, a tour of the directory and what not to touch.
Kerberos from the inside: how the protocol works
Principals, realm and KDC, krbtgt, AS and TGS exchanges field by field, tickets and the PAC, encryption types, SPNs and NTLM fallback, delegation, klist.
DNS in the domain
How Active Directory stores DNS zones in the directory, who registers records and how, forwarders and stub zones, reverse zones, scavenging and the DNS Server log.
DHCPv4
The DHCP role in a domain: server authorization, scopes, options and reservations, DNS updates on behalf of clients, failover in two modes, and relaying.
The series is not finished: the next parts are on their way.