Resources

Building a CM Lab

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Series Intro
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Series Intro

In this series, I'll be walking through how I've setup our Dev ConfigMgr Lab. This post will give a basic overview, and links to the posts as they are added. At the time of this posting the main lab setup will be complete, but additional items and posts will continue to be added as we add additional features and services into the lab.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 1 – Domain Controller VM
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 1 – Domain Controller VM

This post will be going over creating the Domain Controller for the Lab. This will be the basic setup, we'll be revisiting the Domain Controller later when we need to extend the schema and start adding additional users and groups into the mix, but for now, we're just going to get it functional, with DNS & DHCP. This post is 99% pictures, not much text.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 2 – Gateway Virtual Machine (VM)
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 2 – Gateway Virtual Machine (VM)

If we have a lab and we want to keep it separate from rest of our environment, we need a gateway. You can do this with a linux VM, another physical router, or several other options. For our lab, we decided to use Microsoft Windows Server to be our gateway.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 3 – Certificate Authority
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 3 – Certificate Authority

This is a bonus, you can do everything you want in your lab without this feature, but guess what, if you're going to do anything that needs HTTPS, having your own Certificate Authority (CA) makes this so much slicker.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 4 – ConfigMgr Server Pre-Reqs
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 4 – ConfigMgr Server Pre-Reqs

This is the big one, this is our MEMCM server, so much is happening to setup this server it's going to take a few posts. This post is covering some basics, and the pre-reqs, we'll move into SQL & the actual CM Install in up coming posts.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 5 – Configuration Settings (AD / GPO)
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 5 – Configuration Settings (AD / GPO)

Along the way when you setup your lab, you'll need to create accounts, groups, gpos, and other things to make life easier. While you want to keep it fairly clean and lean, if you plan to keep this lab around awhile, you'll want a few of these setup:

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 6 – ConfigMgr Source Share
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 6 – ConfigMgr Source Share

This short post will explain how I've setup the Source Share on the Server. The Source Share is were all content sources for Apps / Packages / Updates / Operating Systems / Drivers, etc will go. It is not the content in the DP, but it's the content that supplies the DP

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 7 – Installing SQL for ConfigMgr
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 7 – Installing SQL for ConfigMgr

So far, we've got our Gateway, DC and started to setup our ConfigMgr Lab Server, in this installment, I'll be going over the SQL install for CM.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 8 – ConfigMgr Install
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 8 – ConfigMgr Install

We've been building up to this one, all the ground work has been laid. Let install ConfigMgr.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 9 – ConfigMgr Settings Setup
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 9 – ConfigMgr Settings Setup

This post will go over all the things we need to do now that we have a server

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 10 – ConfigMgr Collections and App Deployments
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 10 – ConfigMgr Collections and App Deployments

So now we have a functional ConfigMgr Server, lets setup some Collections and Create a few Apps

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 11 – Operating System Deployment
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 11 – Operating System Deployment

In this post, we're going to confirm OSD, and make sure we have what we need for basic OSD. This post will NOT cover the fancy stuff, but just the basics of getting OSD working.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 12 – SQL Reporting Services (SSRS)
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 12 – SQL Reporting Services (SSRS)

So you've got your CM Server and some clients, now you want to surface that data via reporting. [MS Docs] Sure Power BI is cool, but who has money for that, SSRS is included and there are some pretty nifty free reports in the community. In this post, we're going to be installing SSRS 2019, along with getting it configured then installing the Reporting Service Role in ConfigMgr.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 13 – Cloud Management Gateway (CMG) – Certs PreReq
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 13 – Cloud Management Gateway (CMG) – Certs PreReq

Learn about the Required Certificates needed for a CMG and how to set them up, including Client Authentication Certs, Web Cert for CMG device and Root CA Cert

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 14 – Cloud Management Gateway (CMG) – Azure Subscription
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 14 – Cloud Management Gateway (CMG) – Azure Subscription

What to do within Azure Portal to get things ready for a CMG. This was the biggest thing that tripped me up, mostly because I was using an account that didn't work properly. So just a note, if you don't log into your Azure Portal Directory with the Same "domain name" as the one you're managing, you'll run into issues.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 15 – Azure Services Connection
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 15 – Azure Services Connection

In the previous posts we've created the Certificates required for CMG and looked at Azure to confirm we have things in place. We also confirmed we have the rights setup in Azure that are needed. Let's start the process in the CM Console.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 16 – Setting up CMG in the Console
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 16 – Setting up CMG in the Console

We're four posts into our CMG Sub Series here, and we're finally getting to the CMG setup, we're going to go through the CMG Setup in the Console.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 17 – Cloud Management Gateway (CMG) – Post CMG Config
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 17 – Cloud Management Gateway (CMG) – Post CMG Config

In our previous posts, we've setup the pre-reqs and the CMG, now it's time to continue setting up CM to leverage the CMG.

Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 18 – Cloud Management Gateway – Client CMG Endpoints
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Building a ConfigMgr Lab from Scratch: Step 18 – Cloud Management Gateway – Client CMG Endpoints

So now we've got everything in place, let's do some CMG tests to confirm it's working.