Windows Server II (2024–2025) · Professional Bachelor Applied Computer Science — HOGENT
🚀 One command —
vagrant up --provision— deploys a complete small-business Windows infrastructure: a domain controller, a SQL member server and a domain-joined client. Zero GUI clicking, everything automated with PowerShell.
Manually installing Windows Server roles through the GUI is slow, error-prone and impossible to reproduce. This project takes the classic small-business Windows stack — Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, Certificate Services and Microsoft SQL Server — and turns it into a fully automated, reproducible lab built with Vagrant, VirtualBox and PowerShell. A single command brings up three virtual machines, joins them to the domain WS2-2425-younes.hogent, and configures every role from scratch.
What the lab demonstrates:
- Infrastructure as Code — the entire environment is defined in a Vagrantfile and provisioned by PowerShell scripts, so it can be destroyed and redeployed on demand (
vagrant destroy -f; vagrant up --provision). - Real-world role design — AD DS, DHCP, DNS and CA are combined on one server, the common best practice for small to mid-sized environments where resources are limited.
- Full redundancy — server2 acts as secondary DNS server and performs a zone transfer, while SQL Server 2022 is installed unattended via PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC).
- Managed from the client — the Windows client gets its IP from DHCP and automatically receives RSAT and SSMS, just like an administrator's workstation would.
All three VMs are attached to a VirtualBox Host-Only network (192.168.24.0/24, DHCP disabled) through a virtual switch, while both servers keep a second NAT adapter for internet access. The servers hold static addresses; the client leases its IP from the DHCP scope (192.168.24.101 – 192.168.24.150).
Network diagram — Deel I: server1 and server2 with static host-only addresses, the client in the DHCP range, all connected through a VSwitch with NAT internet access.
| VM | IP Address | OS | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| server1 | 192.168.24.10 (static) |
Windows Server 2022 Standard Core | AD DS · DHCP · DNS · CA |
| server2 | 192.168.24.11 (static) |
Windows Server 2022 Standard Core | MS SQL Server 2022 · Secondary DNS (zone transfer) · CA |
| client | DHCP (192.168.24.101–150) |
Windows 10 Enterprise 22H2 | RSAT · SSMS |
| Layer | Tools |
|---|---|
| Automation | Vagrant · PowerShell (provisioning scripts) |
| Virtualization | Oracle VM VirtualBox · Host-Only networking + NAT |
| Directory & network services | Active Directory DS · DHCP · DNS (+ secondary zone transfer) |
| Security | Certificate Authority (CA) |
| Database | Microsoft SQL Server 2022 (unattended via DSC) |
| Management tooling | RSAT · SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) |
The full write-up — setup rationale, problems & solutions, deployment guide and IP/role overview — lives in Documentatie.pdf (Dutch Documentation)