Active Directory Account Creation and some CMD Commands

 This is a follow up from the previous blog were we renamed our computer and server and installed Active Directory on our virtual machine. If you haven't checked the previous one out, I advise you to go read it here and the one before that as well.

Since we've already dealt with Active Directory installation and its other intricacies, I would like to show you a little bit of things that you could do and I would like to make it as straightforward and short as possible so let's get started.

First thing's first is to open VirtualBox, run the Windows Server OS that we installed, and log in your account. Since we created Active Directory services and everything, now we want to make a brand new account. Just a heads up, it's not gonna be your regular account. This is going to be a Help Desk account and he's going to have superpowers and he's gonna have access to do everything but not server manager which would mean we have to do other things.

That would mean a bunch of things which means that I'll have to have a bunch of virtual machines for other users. One virtual machine for a user, and one virtual machine for Help Desk. First I'll have to show you how to create a new account. A new Help Desk account using the copy method.

First thing we need to do is open Active Directory Users and Computers. It should be somewhere in the taskbar pinned if you followed the previous step which you can just directly open. Though you can also find it at the Tools section on the Server Manager if you didn't pin it at the taskbar.

Click on the domain name(mine is stealytek.com) left arrow and see it pop up multiple different folders. Then click on the Users folder to see a list of users within the domain.

To create a new user, right click on the User folder. Then click New > User and it should pop out a form that looks something like this. The input will depend on other factors when you get a Help Desk job but this is a virtual machine so you can play around with it.

Though that's the standard way to create a user, we're going to do the copy method for this one. 

TIDBIT: I really do recommend you to play around with Active Directory Users and Computers just to get a gist of it.

Next thing I want you to do is go to Start > Windows Administrative Tools > Active Directory Administrative Center. Once you're in, click on your local domain server(mine is stealytek) and on the right side, click on Enable Recycle Bin.

Once that's done, it's going to pop out some messages. Just click Ok on them and refresh the Administrative Center.

It's going to take a while but a new folder called Deleted Objects will be created. If you deleted anything by accident, you may want to enable Recycle Bin on your domain center or administrative center. It's something that you kind of need to know.

Now first thing we want to do is go back to Active Directory Users and Computers. Go to Users and find the Administrator, and then right click on it and click on Copy. 

Once that's done, you'll see a form the same way when you create a new user. Type in HelpDesk for the name and the ID. Password is dependent on you. One thing that we have to keep in mind that since we copied the HelpDesk user from Administrator, it's going to have the same superpower 1:1.

The point of that exercise was to show you that you can just copy another user with the same type of permission and privileges without having to make another user account and trying to emulate an account you're basing it off of if that makes sense.

Important CMD Commands:

Now the important CMD commands that you need to know if you're brand new to IT is "ipconfig".

The reason why "ipconfig" is the first thing you need to know because a lot of times you work with network admins, sysadmins, Desktop Support Level 2, or someone in your job that asks if you could give the IP address on a specific computer.

I also recommend you to add /? at the end of any command that you are not familiar with, because it adds more context and helps you out on how you're able to work with it.

The next command is "net use". 

This will tell you the share drives that a person is connected to. Say for example that you're getting a phone call about someone has access to the Z: Drive, the J: Drive, or any specific drive, and you don't know what that means, you can go on your computer and type "net use" and it will tell you all the share drives that they're incorporated with or they are a part of.

The next command is a super duper important one if you're working help desk level 1 and that is "net user username domain" 

The command gives you a lot of details on an account like if its password would expire, its account status, activity, and etc... in a command line format. Very useful if you want to look up a specific account in which domain.

I recommend you to check out a CMD Tutorial on Youtube to find out more or you could check it here.

Final Part:

Once again I recommend that you play around with it but if you're legit brand new, I recommend you to look up any CompTIA A+ or ITFundamentals type material if you're really brand new to IT because it gives you everything you need to know. There will obviously be a next part coming soon but it's a 50/50.