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Windows Server 2012 Test Lab Guides

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The Windows Server 2012 (previously known as Windows Server "8") Test Lab Guides (TLGs) are a set of documents that describe how to configure and demonstrate the new features and functionality in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 in a simplified and standardized test lab environment.

The test lab starts with the Windows Server 2012 Base Configuration test lab, which can consist of two subnets representing a simplified intranet and simulated Internet. The following figure shows the initial setup of the Windows Server 2012 test lab based on the Test Lab Guide: Windows Server 2012 Base Configuration (overview video).

For information about how to configure this test lab on a Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V server, see Hosting the Windows Server 2012 Base Configuration Test Lab with Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V (overview video).

The following video shows how to build out this test environment.

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Some key differences between the Windows Server 2012 base configuration test lab and the Windows Server 2008 R2 base configuration test lab are the following:

  • The configuration of a simplified public key infrastructure (PKI) has been removed. You can add this to your base configuration with the Windows Server 2012 mini-module: Basic PKI.
  • Windows PowerShell command equivalents are now available in addition to the UI-based procedures.

The TLGs for Windows Server 2012 are the following:

The TLGs for Windows Server “8” Beta are the following:       

**TLG mini-modules
**TLG mini-modules include just the essential configuration steps to get an existing and working test lab to a new working configuration. TLG mini-modules for Windows Server 2012 include the following:

  • Basic PKI  This mini-module configures an enterprise root certification authority (CA) on APP1 and configures the corp.contoso.com domain for computer certificate autoenrollment.
  • Homenet subnet  This mini-module creates a Homenet subnet using a new computer named NAT1. The Homenet subnet simulates a typical home connection to the Internet subnet.
  • Second Corpnet subnet  This mini-module creates a second subnet for the Contoso intranet, Corpnet2, using the address prefix 10.0.2.0/24 and configures DC1 as a router between the Corpnet and Corpnet2 subnets.
  • Cross-Forest Certificate Enrollment using Certificate Enrollment Web Services - Describes how to issue certificates between two different forests without a trust relationship between them. A new feature for Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8, which is called certificate key-based renewal, is demonstrated between the forests.

For more information about the TLG initiative and a list of all the TLGs, see Test Lab Guides in the TechNet Wiki.

For the latest information about TLGs for Windows Server 2012, see the Test Lab Guides blog.

We strongly encourage you to develop and publish your own TLG content for Windows Server 2012, either in the TechNet Wiki (example: Test Lab Guide: Demonstrate Remote Access VPNs) or in your own publishing forum (example: Test Lab Guide (Part 1) - Demonstrate TMG PPTP, L2TP/IPsec and SSTP Remote Access VPN Server). If you want to publish your TLG content in the TechNet wiki, see Creating and Publishing Test Lab Guide Content for information about the types of content you can create and for links to templates, guidance, and examples.