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
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)
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
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
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)
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
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 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)
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
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
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
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 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.
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