Anybody here running AD on-prem in your homelab?
I'm curious as to why someone would need to do that short of having a bunch of users and a small office at home. Or maybe managing the family's computers is easier that way?
I was considering a domain controller (biased towards linux since most servers/VMs are linux) but right now, for the homelab, it just seems like a shiny new toy to play with rather than something that can make life easier/more secure. There's also the problem of HA and being locked out of your computer if the DC is down.
Tell me why you're running it and the setup you've got that makes having a DC worth it.
Thanks!
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I do. 4 or 5 users and several computers plus virtual server members. I still use Linux for DNS which works surprisingly well after the initial setup.
I did it half for practice and half for fun, but having the authentication backend makes it good enough to keep around.
Could you tell me how you use your own DNS server with AD? I was under the impression that AD wanted to control DNS in the network.
There are some SRV and other records which you add for the AD-provided services (kerberos, gc, ldap). This allows your Windows clients to find the domain controllers for authentication via your non-Windows DNS. I think I might have followed a Microsoft or other article when doing the initial setup, but once getting those items in place I haven't had many issues.