I’m a server noob, it will be my first time officially setting up an Active Directory.
Our company is growing, and I have 200+ computers on 18 different locations/sites. All of those computers are set up as regular computer where there is 1 user account that can be accessed and shared by everyone. It’s a nightmare for me to manage each device individually.
My boss is very thrifty and doesn’t want to spend resources on stuff than can be done w/o spending. It’s been years that this setup is going on.
Recently I noticed that the biometrics server, which is installed on a windows 10 desktop, doesn’t have enough resources whenever it is doing some calculations. I mentioned this to my boss, and he granted permission to move it to a windows server. Then I got this idea to have the active directory run side-by-side with the biometrics system on the same server.
Now I have the physical server approved. I can also have the OS approved as well. But now I’m getting confused on the licensing part of windows server.
I just wanted to simplify the account management of all my computers. If employee#1 uses computer#1, I just want him to have his own desktop environment on that computer, but when he uses computer#2, it doesn’t matter if he has all his files from computer#1 to be there. If employee#2 uses computer#1, he’ll have his own desktop environment and have the same rules as employee#1 when using computer#2.
I’m sorry but I’m really a complete noob on this stuff. Is there any way I can simplify things and if there’s a free or open-source alternative that I can do about it.
I also have a UTM that can connect all these computers thru VPN.