Creating Virtual
Infrastructure
Version 1.0
Created by: Jake Weston

Creating virtual infrastructure | Windows Server 2012
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Contents
The Theory...................................................................................................................................3
Why Virtualise?........................................................................................................................ 3
Cost Savings.......................................................................................................................... 3
My Plan....................................................................................................................................3
First steps.................................................................................................................................3
Skills............................................................................................................................................ 3
The Setup.....................................................................................................................................4
Physical – PC............................................................................................................................. 4
Physical – Laptop...................................................................................................................... 4
Physical – Network.................................................................................................................... 4
Virtualisation Software.............................................................................................................. 4
Virtual Machines....................................................................................................................... 4
DC Server 2012...................................................................................................................... 4
Windows Server 2012............................................................................................................ 4
Windows 7 (2)....................................................................................................................... 4
Windows 8 1 x64................................................................................................................... 4
Creating the base virtual infrastructure.......................................................................................... 5
How to start............................................................................................................................. 5
Installing Server roles: DNS, DHCP & AD DS ................................................................................ 6
Active Directory(Users & Computers)........................................................................................ 7
The networked client computers ............................................................................................... 7
Configuring the network ............................................................................................................... 8
ConfiguringVMWare ................................................................................................................ 8
Connecting the clientVMs to the domain................................................................................... 8
Confirming your connection to the network............................................................................... 9
Installing & Configuring Exchange 2013........................................................................................ 10
Confirming connection between laptopVM(10.1.1.5) and PC VM(10.1.1.1) .............................. 10
Installing Exchange 2013 ......................................................................................................... 10
Accessing & Configuring Exchange 2013................................................................................... 11

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The Theory
Why Virtualise?
One of the benefits of virtualising your environment is that it allows you to make better and more
efficient use of your IT Infrastructure. For example, in my environment I was able to create and make
use of three virtual servers/computers on one physical set of hardware, instead of having three sets of
physical hardware that will more than likely have RAM or storage that they aren’t using and for the
most part will be a waste.
With virtualised servers/computers you are easily able to increase their specifications (Depending on
available hardware) as you can power them down ‘remotely’, add more RAM or CPU cores, then start
up the machine ‘remotely’, thus saving you time from having to be physically at the servers/computers
adding or upgrading the RAM/CPU.
Cost Savings
Research shows that Virtualising your infrastructure can: 1
 Reduce operating costs by at least 25%
 Increase server utilisation rates from 5% - 15% to 80%
 Reduce Energy costs by up to 80%
 Lower per-applications costs by up to 20% - 30%
My Plan
The reason for me creating a virtual environment was to be able to learn new skills and gain some
experience working on technologies that I haven’t had the opportunity to before.
In this test environment I was able to have some hands on experience working with Active Directory,
Exchange 2013, Networking, Virtualisation and Windows Server 2012.
First steps
To start creating the virtual environment you need to have an idea of what you are planning to
achieve and how best to spread out the virtual machines across your physical hardware. After you
have figured out how you are going to set up your network, then you need to ensure that you have
your virtualisation software installed on the relevant machines. In this environment I used VMWare
Workstation Version 11 across two physical machines.
Skills
 Installation of VMWare Workstation Version 11
 Installation and Configuration of Windows Server 2012 Datacenter Edition
 Installation and Configuration of Windows 8.1
 Installation and Configuration of Windows 7
 Active Directory (Users and Computers) / Domain set up
 Configuration of DHCP
 Installation and Configuration of Exchange 2013, Web browser accessed. (Integrated with
AD)
 Configuration of networks between virtual and physical
 Installation and Configuration of Virtual Machines
1 http://firmology.com/2013/06/18/how-much-can-your-business-save-with-virtualization/

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The Setup
Physical – PC
Operating System: Windows 8.1 Preview
Processor: AMD A8-6600K APUT with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics (4 CPUs), ~3.9GHz
Memory: 8GB RAM
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
Physical – Laptop
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3320M CPU @ 2.60GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Memory: 8GB RAM
Graphics: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000
Physical – Network
CAT 5 UTP Ethernet Cables
TP-LINK TL-SG105 – TP 5 port steel Gigabit Switch
Virtualisation Software
VMWare Workstation Version 11.
Virtual Machines
DC Server 2012
Operating System: Windows Server 2012 Datacenter Edition
Memory: 2GB RAM
IP Static: 10.1.1.1
Hosted on PC
Roles:
 DHCP (Scope 10.1.1.1 – 10.254.254.254 (Excluding 10.1.1.1))
 DNS
 Active Directory Domain Services (Domain Name: JGW.Local)
Windows Server 2012
Operating System: Windows Server 2012 Datacenter Edition
Memory: 6GB RAM
IP: 10.1.1.5 (DHCP)
Hosted on Laptop
Roles:
 IIS
 Exchange 2013
Windows 7 (2)
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional
Memory: 2GB
IP: Automatically Assigned via DHCP
Hosted on PC
Windows 8 1 x64
Operating System: Windows 8.1 Professional
Memory 2GB
IP: Automatically assigned via DHCP
Hosted on PC

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Creating the base virtual infrastructure
How to start
To begin creating your virtual infrastructure you will have to install VMWare Workstation on the two
physical computers. This is a fairly straight forward procedure and you can easily go through the
installation wizard in order to achieve this. Once you are in VMWare Workstation you need to create
your first virtual server. I started by creating the main core server, running on Server 2012. (As you
can see in the below image)

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Installing Server roles: DNS, DHCP & AD DS
With this being my main core server and I wanted to set up a domain. The next step for this server
was to install the server rolls: DNS, DHCP & AD DS.
After the DHCP role is installed you have to go into the MMC tool and open the snap-in for DHCP.
From this view, you have the options to set the scopes in which this server will dynamically assign the
IP addresses to the servers/computers that are connected to the network. In this environment, I set up
the DHCP scope of 10.1.1.1 – 10.254.254.254 (Excluding 10.1.1.1, which is the static IP address for
the core DHCP server).
Once the DHCP role was installed, I started the process of creating the domain by installing the Active
Directory Domain Services role on the server. (as you can see in the below image)

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When the AD DS role has finished installing you will need to promote the server that it is being
installed on to a Domain Controller. In windows server 2012 you open up the dashboard and a
‘warning’ symbol in the top notifications bar. Open this and it will give you the option to promote the
server to a domain controller (DC). In this environment, I made the domain name ‘JGW.Local’.
Active Directory (Users & Computers)
After the AD DS role had finished installing, I opened up Active Directory Users and Computers. I
created some various accounts that could access the various different VMs that I was creating in my
network. I created three domain user accounts:
 JGWAdmin
 JGWlyates
 JGWbscott
The networked client computers
Once I’d finished installing and configuring the DC, I installed two ‘client’ computers in VMWare.
The first client computer I created to run on windows 8.1, the other I created with Windows 7
Professional. With the default settings of VMWare, these computers are currently standalone and
aren’t able to communicate with the DC that is also hosted on the same physical hardware.
I checked to ensure that the Active Directory domain users where able to login to the new client
machines.

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Configuring the network
Configuring VMWare
To allow the three VMs to communicate on a VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) you have to change
the settings of each of the VMs in VMWare. To achieve this you have to right click each VM, go to
settings, click on network and you will be given two options. If you want the VMs to be able to
communicate with the VMs on the same physical hardware then you can configure them to be on the
same LAN segment. However, because I wanted these VMs to not only be able to communicate with
other VMs on the same physical hardware, but also be able to communicate to another VM on
different physical hardware, I configured the network settings to ‘bridge’ the connection to the
network. This allows the VMs to use my physical NIC (Network Interface Card) on my computer to
reach the physical switch, which was also connected to my laptop.
With this setting, both my physical computer and laptop are both assigned an IP address from my
virtual DC with DHCP.
Connecting the client VMs to the domain
Now that all of the different VMs are able to communicate (ping) on the network and allow the virtual
DHCP server to assign them an IP address. It’s now time to connect them to the domain.
To achieve this you need to go into control panel, system & security, system and click ‘change
settings’ under the sub-heading computer name, domain and workgroup settings.

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*Note – When you try to connect to the domain, you will need a domain administrator before you can
authenticate into the domain
Confirming your connection to the network
Once VMWare has been configured to talk on the physical network, you can confirm if you are
correctly connected by opening up command line and typing ‘ipconfig’.
If you are correctly connected you will see that you are connected to the domain ‘JGW.Local’ and you
will have an IPv4 address of 10.*.*.* (as seen in the below image, from the Windows 8.1 client
machine)

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Installing & Configuring Exchange 2013
Confirming connection between laptop VM (10.1.1.5) and PC VM (10.1.1.1)
In order to test the connectivity, I pinged the virtual DC’s IP address through the Active Directory user
‘JGWadmin’
Installing Exchange 2013
For my exchange server I created a new VM on my laptop and networked it so that it would talk to the
DC and the client machines on the server. I downloaded the trail version from Microsoft, installed all
the required software (e.g. IIS) and then installed Exchange 2013.

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Accessing & Configuring Exchange 2013
In my environment, I’m using the default standard access method to access my exchange
server/mailbox and that is to access it via the web browser. To access the admin console I connected
to the web browser console from opening up IE 10 on the exchange server and accessing the
following URL: Https://10.1.1.5/ecp To configure the settings, I logged into the web app using the
Active Directory domain administrator I created ‘JGWadmin’.
I created mailboxes for the three users that I create earlier.
 JGWAdmin
 JGWlyates
 JGWbscott
Once all three of the mailboxes where created, I tested by sending E-Mails (again, through the web
browser) between the two client virtual machines that were hosted on the other physical computer.

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