New Windows 10 Pro Domain - How do you do it?

[Guest obsidianpillar]

Hi all,

 

Hope you're all well and staying safe during these current times.

 

I've been assigned a task of setting up a new network for a small business (5 employees). They currently have Windows 10 Professional installed (OEM) and pay monthly for Office 365 Business Premium (I believe?). They get Teams, Desktop Office Apps & some OneDrive storage too. Again, not too sure which tier of licensing this is. They pay via GoDaddy (and the login page for O365 reflects this).

 

I'm wanting to use these existing licenses and hardware to build a new network, however my experience of Windows Server, AD etc ran out at around time time Windows 8.1 was current! Apparently, Mandatory Profiles, Folder Redirection (to file servers & offline files sync) has gone out of the window and being replaced with OneDrive storage etc.

 

I'm wanting to setup Active Directory (of sorts) that supports the same username and password to login to the machines as they do for O365 etc. I also want to be able to manage the machines remotely (and deploy software etc) while having all of this cloud based (they have correct licensing for Server 2019 Standard the correct CALs if it requires an on-premise server too). They also need to print to two printers across two offices & I'd like to have some Group Policy control. Documents I'd like to be 'forced' to be stored in OneDrive so they're all sync'd across all devices easily.

 

What solution to do you recommend for implementing this? We're not after major horsepower here - just something that works and doesn't require a lot of patching, updating etc (apart from the workstations themselves). I understand Enterprise LTSC etc would provide a more robust solution in terms of the control of workstations etc. However, this is currently out of budget.

 

I'd ideally like to go full cloud, however if hybrid etc is going to be the better options we have the resources for this too as discussed. We have Static IP's at both offices etc, and the routing etc (if applicable) I'm more than able to do. Just a bit stumped at the best way to achieve the requirements as it's been a while since I've been faced with this.

 

Thanks again for your time.

 

Tom

[witch]

Hi

 

I am sure that if you search the site you wil find the information you need. Try looking for Server 2016, or 2012R2 at a pinch. Also AD and some of the other buzzwords you use should give you some info from a search.

Otherwise I am sure someone will come and give you a hand in a minute!

Edited September 2, 2021 by ZeroHour

[Steve21]

Based on what you said I wouldn't personally even consider building a domain/server setup, as the cost for the license alone is going to outweigh what you gain. (Unless you're expecting a huge increase of users soon)

 

Office 365 Business Premium contains Intune licenses for the management/deployment sides. Also includes shared activation for Office on those machines.

 

You have Azure AD for usernames/passwords etc

 

Steve