ing. M.A.C.M. (Martijn) van den Boom on Martijn's Notes

Windows Server 2022 Home Lab — AD DS, DNS, CA and Secured RDP

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0200

This article describes the full build of a two-server Windows Server 2022 home lab in Proxmox VE. Together, the two virtual machines provide Active Directory Domain Services, DNS, Group Policy and a Certificate Authority (ADCS). RDP connections are secured with PKI certificates so the Mac Mini M1 management workstation connects without certificate warnings.

This is part 3 of the series on building a Windows DevOps lab in Proxmox. In part 1 I described how to create a VM, and in part 2 how to prepare the template.

Windows Server 2022 in Proxmox — Template Preparation

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Download as Word document

This is part 2 of the series on building a Windows DevOps lab in Proxmox. In part 1 I described how to create the VM. In this article I prepare the VM as a reusable Proxmox template. All future VMs — the CA server, member servers and other roles — will be cloned from this template.

Important: After Sysprep, never start the VM again. If you do, the generalization is consumed and the template must be rebuilt from scratch.

Windows Server 2022 in Proxmox — Creating a VM

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0200

Download as Word document

In this article I describe step by step how I create a Windows Server 2022 VM in Proxmox VE 9.1.6. The guide is based on real-world experience and includes all corrections and lessons learned along the way. This is part 1 of a series on building a fully functional Windows DevOps lab in Proxmox.

Lab Environment

Component	Value
Proxmox host	macpro2013.local — Mac Pro 2013 Trashcan
Proxmox version	9.1.6
RAM	128 GB
Storage	3.6 TB NVMe (local-lvm pool)
Network bridge	vmbr0 — internal lab network (192.168.178.x)
Proxmox WebUI	https://192.168.178.205:8006

Why a CA Is Needed — the SSL Warning

Anyone who opens the Proxmox WebUI via macpro2013.local in Safari will immediately see a certificate warning. Proxmox uses a self-signed certificate by default.

Windows Server 2022 — Active Directory and DNS Installation

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0100

This article describes step by step how I installed Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) and DNS on a Windows Server 2022 Datacenter VM in a VMware Fusion lab environment. The result is a fully functional domain controller for the domain lab.local, serving as the foundation for a Windows DevOps lab.

Environment

Component	Value
Virtualization	VMware Fusion (macOS)
Guest OS	Windows Server 2022 Datacenter (Desktop Experience)
Hostname	DC01
Domain name	lab.local
NetBIOS name	LAB
Lab network adapter	Ethernet1 — 172.16.37.10 (static IP)
Internet adapter	Ethernet0 — DHCP via VMware NAT

Step 1 — Configure Networking

Before installing Active Directory, the domain controller needs a static IP address. AD DS and DNS depend on a stable address.

Windows Packet Capturing for LDAPS Analysis

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 20:19:01 +0100

Troubleshooting LDAPS Connectivity: Using Built-in Windows Tools to Audit Firewall Compliance As organizations move toward more secure infrastructure, migrating from standard LDAP (Port 389) to LDAPS (Port 636) is a critical step. However, this transition often reveals “silent” failures where a network firewall might allow the initial connection but block the subsequent SSL/TLS handshake.

At Van den Boom Online, we understand that a smooth user experience starts with a robust backend. In this guide, we’ll show you how to perform packet capturing using only built-in Windows tools to verify if your traffic is reaching its destination or being dropped by security appliances.

Install Ansible AWX 24.6.1 in Minikube on Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS in a single VM

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 13:35:25 +0200

Create a Ubuntu Virtual Machine with:
32 GB RAM
8 cores
120 GB HD

Step-by-step: Install AWX 24.6.1 on Minikube (Ubuntu)

🔧 1. System Preparation

1$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
2$ sudo apt install -y curl wget apt-transport-https ca-certificates gnupg lsb-release software-properties-common
3$ sudo timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Amsterdam

📦 2. Install Docker (Minikube backend)

 1$ curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo bash
 2$ sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
 3$ newgrp docker  # Activate group without reboot
 4
 5Enable and start Docker:
 6$ sudo systemctl enable docker
 7$ sudo systemctl start docker
 8
 9Test:
10$ docker run hello-world

🧱 3. Install Minikube

Install Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 in a single VM

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 23:10:08 +0200

Attention: I have not been able to make it restart automatically after a reboot!
Perhaps it is better to look into making it run in Minikube?

Create a Red Hat 9 Virtual Machine with:
32 GB RAM
8 cores
120 GB HD

1$ sudo hostnamectl hostname aap.vandenboom.local

Download the Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 Containerized Setup Bundle from: https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/480/ver=2.5/rhel---9/2.5/x86_64/product-software

 1$ tar zxvf ansible*.tar.gz
 2
 3$ sudo vim /etc/hosts
 4localhost aap.vandenboom.local
 5
 6$ ping aap.vandenboom.local
 7
 8$ sudo dnf install -y podman git python3-pip rsync tar jq unzip
 9
10$ podman login registry.redhat.io
11
12$ sudo dnf install ansible-core wget
13
14$ python3 -m pip install virtualenv
15$ pip3 install ansible
16
17$ vim inventory
18Edit the settings as seen below
19
20$ time ansible-playbook -i inventory ansible.containerized_installer.install -K

This is the contents of the file: ./inventory

A comparison of the resource usage of Kubernetes and OpenShift

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 15:15:43 +0100

When comparing Kubernetes with OpenShift (Red Hat’s Kubernetes-based platform), there are several key differences that affect how they handle resource consumption and system resources. While OpenShift is built on top of Kubernetes, there are additional functionalities and differences that impact the resource requirements:

Additional Functionalities in OpenShift OpenShift offers more out-of-the-box functionality than Kubernetes. This can lead to higher overhead, but also to more ease of use and integration:

Security: OpenShift adds extra security layers, such as Security Context Constraints (SCC) and SELinux restrictions, which may require additional resources for securing containers and applications.

The statement 'beware of Kubernetes, it burns through your resources'

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 15:00:43 +0100

The statement “beware of Kubernetes, it burns through your resources” refers to the fact that Kubernetes, although a powerful and flexible solution for orchestrating containerized applications, can consume a relatively large amount of system resources (such as CPU, memory, and storage).

This is due to several factors:

Kubernetes has overhead: Kubernetes itself runs as a cluster of various components, such as the API server, scheduler, controller manager, and more. These components run on the control plane and need to be managed. This adds extra overhead to your system, meaning that the resources Kubernetes itself uses are added on top of the applications you are actually running.

Golang / Go: The Smart Programming Language for Efficient Software and Concurrency

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 21:00:43 +0100

Concurrency might sound like a technical term, but it boils down to a program performing multiple tasks at once, as if it’s multitasking. Imagine you’re cooking: while the pasta is on the stove, you start the washing machine and charge your phone. Although you’re not doing everything at the exact same moment, it all happens smoothly side by side. Software that supports concurrency works the same way: a program can, for instance, download files, perform calculations, and send data to a server all at once. This multitasking makes the use of computing power more efficient and ensures faster, smoother performance.