Setting up a Home Lab(Installing Virtualbox and Server 2016)

 This is going to be one of my first post on setting up a home lab for Help Desk experience or even besides that, it's a good hands-on experience when you're trying to start your IT journey. 

First thing is you have to download some type of virtual machine program to start off with and it could be any type whether it's VMware or VirtualBox(I prefer this one as a starting point). Then after that, we will have to download the ISO file for the OS' that we will be using which is Windows Server 2016 (here) and a home or personal Windows ISO file (here) as a host computer.

HINT: For home Windows, download the installation media and make an ISO file off of it.

Another thing that we have to check on is whether you have the specs or enough memory to run a virtual machine. 2GB of RAM is enough for one virtual machine though I would recommend adding 1 or 2 GB of RAM if your computer can handle it(I have 16 GB of RAM on my laptop so I have to be at least cautious). If you don't have that much, I would recommend you to look up using Microsoft Azure.

Check you PC properties on Windows Explorer by right-clicking on My PC and clicking Properties. It'll give you a summary on your device specifications.

Once that's out of the way, you open VirtualBox and click New which will prompt you to input the VM name and OS.

I named mine Server 2016 Lab and the version being Windows 2016 for the server.

After that, I would just recommend to selecting the default options that VirtualBox gives you because there's no point on being meticulous about it.

Once all of that is done, your virtual machine is going to be at the left column. Click on it and once it's highlighted, you then press Start.

Next thing it'll say is that the virtual machine failed to boot and that is obviously because we don't have the required ISO file. At the DVD section, try to click on Other and look for the path where you put your ISO file at and then select Mount and Retry Boot.

You'll go through the usual installation process with Windows after that. Though just a heads up, the only thing that you'll have to select is the Windows Standard Evaluation with the Desktop Experience and Custom Installation after that.

Once it's done installing, the last thing that you have to do is setup the password for your account. Once you've done that, it's going to ask you to press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to unlock which you unfortunately cannot do with your keyboard. So what you'll have to do is go to Input > Keyboard > Insert Ctrl-Alt-Delete and that should get you in. Type in your password and you're all set after that. 

I will be getting deeper later on especially talking about Active Directory so I'm calling it a day for now. There's so many things to keep learning but for now, I think starting off with the fundamentals is key especially when you're trying to branch out on your IT career whether it's sysadmin, network administrator, CCNA, or cybersecurity etc... Mastering the foundations and the fundamentals will always play a big role and that doesn't just apply to IT but to other skillsets outside like art, athletics, trades, and other fields. All we can really do is keep on improving.