Overview

I support a complex Microsoft Configuration Manager instance professionally. I decided a long time ago that in order to keep my skills current and learn new things, I needed my own Microsoft Configuration Manager playground. I have investigated a few of the methods to spin up pre-built instances but none I found were designed with a Central Administration Site in mind and I wanted my lab to more closely resemble the environment I support. Plus having to rebuild the environment regularly as trial licenses expire has been a good learning experience to drive automating new steps each time I need to tear it all down and start over again.

The lab environment consists of a Active Directory domain and three additional Windows Server virtual machines running Configuration Manager and SQL co-located on the same system. There is a Central Administration Site (CAS) and two Child Primary Sites (PS1 and PS2). Additionally, there is a Windows 10 and a Windows 11 client assigned to each site.