Daniel Owen

The other two, if you want the whole chain or just one piece of it. New-VMwareWorkstationVM takes an ISO to a running, network-configured Windows Server VM. Useful on its own if you build VMs and do not care about AD. https://github.com/0x44616e69656c/New-VMwareWorkstationVM new-AdDomain promotes the forest and does the populating. Point it at any clean Windows Server 2025 box, no VMware required. https://github.com/0x44616e69656c/new-AdDomain

One thing I had to work around is that AD promotion is a hard boundary. Once a server becomes a domain controller, a lot of the things you'd normally configure beforehand either change or disappear. Rather than trying to survive the promotion reboot with one giant script, I split it in two. The first script handles everything before promotion. The second resumes after the reboot, populates the directory, and runs validation tests so I know the build actually worked. If you saw my New-VMwareWorkstationVM post, this is the AD half of that workflow. Together they take you from a Windows Server ISO to a populated forest without touching a wizard. Next up is a script that ties the whole lab build together.

One implementation detail took way longer than it should have. If you assign a static IP, the script waits for the VM to come online, ejects the install media, performs a soft shutdown, removes the virtual CD/DVD from the VMX, then confirms it boots cleanly. VMware Workstation rewrites the VMX from its in-memory device list when the VM powers off, silently overwriting any edits made while the VM was running. Found that one the hard way. Next up: a script to build out a complete Active Directory lab once the docs are finished.

@yolo@defcon.social I do not require any third party applications or tooling outside of Windows and VMware Workstation. That was one of my major requirements when I envisioned this. Everything this does is possible with other existing tools, but this makes it literally something you can run from a PowerShell prompt with a single command line.

@Viss@mastodon.social I know Breville calls these toaster ovens, but I treat mine like a mini oven and cook pretty much anything that'll fit in it. I'll go long stretches between needing to turn on a full size oven. I also find the breville has much more even temp control than my full size ovens. That is some good looking bread you made.