So there might be times that as a Developer you might find your self setting up Python, Maybe even set up a brand new server from scratch, or if you were to be part of the Incident Response Team or just want to get brownie points after being hacked, you might want to know how to set up your own equipment, not just that, you might want to know how to clean your server and some of those skills can come handy one day. When I competed in CCDC State the scenario was that our team had to go into this company and basically get the network up and running. So Far good right?? Well There was only one problem, Hackers went into the system as change all the network settings, erase all the IPs, and add like 100 more users into the Domain, and you are thinking that’s not bad, well also changed the firewall rules, inserted trojans in the systems and all kind of back doors. That’s just not the end, This is when you have to put two and two together. That means that if the network settings are changed you have to fix it, what if I tell you that there is no internet. The security part of it, I’ll write about another day. With that being said. it is always a good thing to know about how to connect your server and set it up correctly.
Here is how to set up your static IP, or if you just got a regular host just set it up to automatically get an ip from the router via automatic DHCP. https://devtutorial.io/how-to-set-a-static-ip-address-on-windows-server-2019.html
Here is how to set up DHCP server https://computingforgeeks.com/how-to-install-and-configure-dhcp-server-on-windows-server/
Here is how to set up your DNS Server https://computingforgeeks.com/install-and-configure-dns-server-in-windows-server/
As Far as practicing you can use VMs and set up your lab using VMware I would recommend the PRO edition, keep in mind though, you need some RAM to run a lot of VMs at the same time, Come up with your own network and create VMs for everything in a way that you can have all the machines talking to eachother. Why VMWare? You Can actually take a snapshot of a brand new machine, lets say that you have a network of 10 Different VMs you can set up your own network and have a server that will be designated as a DHCP server, another one as a DNS Server, another one as a file Server, another one as a mail server, ETC..
What you can do after you get a snapshot of the brand new machines, make the network work by looking at the articles, after you make the network work take a snapshot of each machine, make sure you name the snapshot in a way that it is not going to confuse you. It sounds complicated but you have to set up the machines one at a time. Remember to break everything down into small steps. Example Would be: Do not think about setting up the network, think about what you have at the moment in front of you, the first step is to gather a network diagram of each machine that you are going to have, step 2 come up with a network number and subnet mask? step 3 what is each machine needs a minimum? meaning IPs, SubnetMask, DNS, and the gateway out Step 4 after you figure out those three steps build the machines one at a time, remember think small, a big machine works because of the small moving parts. This is all for now, Do you have any good links and advice when it comes to Servers? TTYL guys! how do you eat an elephant? one bite at a time!
