Creating a new VM for DNS server

In VMware workstation, click File -> New Virtual Machine. Choose Custom (advanced) and Next.
Leave hardware compatibility as is, click next.

Select I will install the OS later.

We will install from Server 2012R2 evaluation ISO. In the next screen, give the VM a name of “DNS”
and select where to save it on to your portable SSD.

Next, choose firmware BIOS then assign 1 processor with 4 cores. Next memory can be left at 2GB,
don’t increase it for this system.
Next the network needs to be NAT initially so we can license the OS with Microsoft.
Next leave the IO controller, next virtual disk type, next create a new virtual disk, leave it as 60GB
but select “store as a single file” and DON’T allocate all disk space now (leave it unchecked).

Next leave the vmdk file name as is and in the next screen we can select to further customize
hardware or just finish. I recommend adding a second network adapter (disconnected for now) but
set it to Custom virtual network and select VMnet10. This will be the actual management LAN for
our vSphere network.

Once the VM is created, go back to VM settings and select CD/DVD drive, click “use ISO image file”
and select the 2012R2 iso file from your system. The file name is the one below:

9600.17050.WINBLUE_REFRESH.140317-1640_X64FRE_SERVER_EVAL_EN-US-IR3_SSS_X64FREE_EN-
US_DV9.iso

Tick “connect at power on” and now just click play to run the VM and install Windows.
Install and configure DNS server

Install Windows as per usual, make sure you select the correct edition as shown in the screenshot:

Once logged in, firstly we should install VMware Tools as per the message at the bottom of your
screen or if you dismissed it, then click VM -> Install VMware Tools. This will mount an ISO (CD/DVD)
which will contain the Setup file. Execute the setup and accept all defaults and finish the install.
Reboot if necessary.
Now, verify that Windows is licensed. It should have connected to the net and licensed itself
automatically without requiring any key and give you 180 days (at the end of the license period you
may rearm the license a further 5 times for a total of 3 years evaluation license).

Once it’s licensed, go to VM settings and switch the network adapters around. Basically go to the
NAT adapter and uncheck “connected” and “connect at power on” and then go to the VMnet10
adapter and check those two boxes instead.
We now need to set up the IP address on our LAN, so just search for Network and Sharing Center,
click “change adapter settings” on the left hand side then double-click your Ethernet connection
that’s connected to the VMnet10 network (the other Ethernet adapter that’s disconnected should
be the NAT adapter). Now, click Properties and scroll down till you find Internet Protocol Version 4
(IPv4).

Assign a manual IP address with the following settings:

IP: 192.168.1.1
Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: leave blank
DNS server: 192.168.1.1 (since it will use itself as the DNS server)
Now that networking is functional, go to Server Manager, select Local Server and click the computer
name to change it to “DNS”. The VM will want to reboot so let it.

Once logged back in, again in Server Manager, click Manage in the top right and select “Add roles
and features”. We only need to add the DNS Server role so click next, next, next and select it then
finish the install.
1. Again, back in the Server Manager, click Tools in the top right and select DNS. We now
want to configure our domain name. Right-click Forward Lookup Zones, then New Zone
then click next, next until you get to add the zone name. Call it your name or initals to
make sure it’s unique. (eg. alexk.local) for Assessment 2. Click next, next and
finish.
note: don’t add any host mappings yet, continue with the next bit.

Before we add any host mappings, we also need to create a Reverse Lookup Zone, right-click it and
New Zone. Next, next, next then enter the network ID as 192.168.1 (notice the last octet is omitted
and the reverse zone appears as 1.168.192.in-addr.arpa). Click next, next, next and finish.
Now go back to your forward lookup zone and double click alexk.local since we now need to add the
host mappings. Right-click alexk.local and select New Host (A or AAAA) to add your first host.

Note: the DNS server itself doesn’t necessarily need a host mapping since it already appears as SOA
and NS records but you may create one if required.

Add a couple of new hosts as follows. Make sure to tick Create PTR record check box (the PTR
record will be created in the reverse lookup zone simultaneously):

Name: esxi01 / IP: 192.168.1.2

Name: esxi02 / IP: 192.168.1.3

Name: vcsa / IP: 192.168.1.10

Your DNS Forward and Reverse zones should look like this:
This concludes the DNS server configuration, although you may want to install a proper web browser
like Firefox (download the standalone setup file on your host PC and drag it over to the guest OS
desktop; this is a nifty VMware tools feature) as well as a copy of PuTTY since we will use those.