Introduction

Test Lab Guides (TLGs) allow you to get valuable hands-on experience with new products and technologies using a pre-defined and tested methodology that results in a working configuration. When you use a TLG to create a test lab, instructions define what servers to create, how to configure the operating systems and system services, and how to install and configure any additional products or technologies. A TLG experience enables you to see all of the components and the configuration steps on both the front-end and back-end that are required for a product or technology or for a multi-product or technology solution.

A challenge in creating useful TLGs is to enable their reusability and extensibility. Because creating a test lab can represent a significant investment of time and resources, your ability to reuse and extend the work required to create test labs is important. An ideal test lab environment would enable you to create a basic lab configuration, save that configuration, and then build out multiple test labs in the future by starting with the base configuration.

The purpose of this TLG is to enable you to create the Base Configuration test lab, upon which you can build a test lab based on other TLGs from Microsoft or published in the TechNet Wiki, perform TLG extensions in the TechNet Wiki, or create a test lab of your own design that can include Microsoft or non-Microsoft products.

Depending on how you deploy your test lab environment, you can image the drives for the Base Configuration test lab if you are using physical computers or you can create snapshots of the Base Configuration test lab virtual machines. This enables you to easily return to baseline configuration where most of the routine client, server, and networking services have already been configured so that you can focus on building out a test lab for the products or technologies of interest. For this reason, make sure that you create disk images or virtual machine snapshots after completing all the steps in this TLG.

The Base Configuration TLG is just the beginning of the test lab experience. Other TLGs or TLG extensions in the TechNet Wiki focus on Microsoft products or platform technologies, but all of them use this Base Configuration TLG as a starting point.

In this guide

This document contains instructions for setting up the Base Configuration test lab by deploying four server computers running Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition and one client computer running Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate. The resulting configuration simulates a private intranet and the Internet.

Test lab overview

The Base Configuration test lab consists of the following:

• One computer running Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition named DC1 that is configured as an intranet domain controller, Domain Name System (DNS) server, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server, and an enterprise root certification authority (CA).

• One intranet member server running Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition named APP1 that is configured as a general application and web server with secure sockets layer (SSL) support. APP1 also hosts the certificate revocation list (CRL) for the enterprise root CA installed on DC1.

• One roaming member client computer running Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate named CLIENT1.

• One intranet member server running Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition named EDGE1 that is configured as an Internet edge server.

• One standalone server running Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition named INET1 that is configured as an Internet DNS server, web server, and DHCP server.

The Base Configuration test lab consists of two subnets that simulate the following:

• The Internet, referred to as the Internet subnet (131.107.0.0/24).

• An intranet, referred to as the Corpnet subnet (10.0.0.0/24), separated from the Internet subnet by EDGE1.

Computers on each subnet connect using a physical hub, switch, or virtual switch. See the following figure for the configuration of the Base Configuration test lab.

This document describes how to build out the Base Configuration test lab in two sections:

• Steps for configuring the Corpnet subnet (DC1, APP1, and CLIENT1)

• Steps for configuring the Internet subnet (EDGE1 and INET1)

Some TLGs require only the Corpnet subnet. However, it is strongly recommended that you build out both subnets if you ever plan to test technologies, products, or solutions that include access to intranet servers and services from the Internet. The Base Configuration test lab environment consisting of both subnets can be saved and reused for other TLGs. By building out both the Corpnet and Internet subnets, you will have a reusable snapshot of the entire Base Configuration test lab that can be used for intranet and Internet-based TLGs, which has the starting Base Configuration test lab in a unified and consistent state.

Hardware and software requirements

The following are required components of the test lab:

• The product disc or files for Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition.

  For an evaluation copy of Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition in download and virtual hard disk (VHD) form, see Windows Server 2008 R2 Evaluation Free 180-Day Trial (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=102582).

• The product disc or files for Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate.

  For an evaluation copy of Windows 7 Enterprise in download form, see Windows 7 Enterprise 90-day Trial (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=180603).

• Four computers that meet the minimum hardware requirements for Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition. One of these computers (EDGE1) has two network adapters installed.

• One computer that meets the minimum hardware requirements for Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate.

• If you wish to deploy the Base Configuration test lab in a virtualized environment, your virtualization solution must support Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition and Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate 64-bit virtual machines. The server hardware must support the amount of RAM required to run the virtual operating systems included in the Base Configuration test lab and any other virtual machines required by additional TLGs.