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test Lab?

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by dennisbv

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I am setting up a test lab for Windows 2000.
It will start with one server and one client.
First I set the server up as a child domain is this correct? I want it that if I screw up the test server it will have no affect on the production servers. I set it up this way because I needed access to Domain resources.

Second can I install Exchange 2000 on my test server with out it interfering with our regular Exchange server? I need to retrieve some data from a public folder and I cannot do it on our regular Exchange server because I cannot selectively recover data from the public store like I can with the private store.

7 replies

by sgt_shultz

i am a beginner at this also. so for what it is worth. i wouldn't have my test lab that 'near' my main network. i think i would rather have couple of network cards and bridge them or something. but i am lazy sort and that is lots of work and my network tiny and very controllable so i was thinking i am going to setup my lab as a new domain tree in an existing forest. this is supposed to give me access to resources in existing trees. my skimming of mskb using windows 2000 searched by child domain looks like can be problematic. don't want that on my main network.

by sabatogz

Buy Microsft "Microsoft Virtual PC" and run all your test from your local computer and not effect the production network.

by dennisbv

Poster rated this answer.
Thank you very much for your answer but I am only interested in answers to my question.

by ryany23

You would start by setting up the server as a new domain in a new forest. Setting it up as a child would indicate that it is part of a larger domain and that is not what you what if you intend to keep it separate from your production network.

Second, the only thing that you can do to screw up your production network is run DHCP on the new server while it is on the same subnet. If you do that, clients on the production network can receive IP leases from your test server. If you want to fully test the capabilities of Windows 2000, you will want to give it its own subnet. You can do that by using a router or by using another windows 2000 machine with 2 NICs setup for Routing and Remote Access. If you want to setup a router, you can still have your test server and client on the same subnet, just make sure that you set them up with static IP address that are outside of the DHCP lease scope.

Third, you can install Exchange 2000 on your test server with out fear of it interfering with the production server. Just make sure that you set it up as a new site and not as a new server in an existing site.

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