A home lab that simulates a real SMB rollout of Microsoft Configuration Manager (SCCM / MECM) and WSUS for a fictional 120-user freight company across two sites.
Note
This repo is a work in progress. Scenario, architecture, and build runbook docs are in place. PowerShell scripts, diagrams, and screenshots land phase by phase as the lab is rebuilt for evidence capture.
Important
📜 Free to use, fork, and learn from. If this repo helps you and you build on it or share it, a credit back is appreciated. Full terms in the LICENSE.
Tip
This repo is built to teach. It is an open educational resource for anyone starting a career in IT, system administration, or Microsoft endpoint management. Fork it, share it, use it in classrooms, take it to interviews.
Why this exists
- 📚 Learn by real-world example. Each deployment maps to a business reason, not "because the tool can do it."
- 🏗️ Rebuildable from scratch. Every phase is documented so a learner can replicate the lab end to end.
- 🌍 Free to share. No paywall, no gated content. Use it however helps you grow.
Who it is for
- 👨💻 Aspiring sysadmins, helpdesk pros, and tier-2 desktop engineers
- 🎓 IT bootcamp and community college students
- 🔁 Career switchers building their first technical portfolio
- 🧑🏫 Instructors looking for a turn-key SCCM and WSUS teaching scenario
Meridian Freight Co. is a regional logistics provider. 120 employees, two sites (HQ in Tacoma, warehouse satellite in Kent). The lab simulates the workload of a one-engineer IT shop standing up endpoint management, patching, OS deployment, and application delivery from scratch.
| 👥 Employees | 120 |
| 📍 Sites | HQ (95) + Warehouse (25) |
| 🏭 Industry | Regional freight forwarding |
| 👤 IT staff | 1 systems engineer (the role this lab represents) |
📖 See docs/01-scenario.md for the full business story and drivers.
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| 🖥️ Hypervisor | Hyper-V on Windows 11 Pro |
| 🪟 Server OS | Windows Server 2022 |
| 💻 Client OS | Windows 11 |
| 🆔 Identity | Active Directory Domain Services + DNS |
| 🗄️ Database | SQL Server 2022 Standard |
| 📦 Endpoint management | Microsoft Configuration Manager (current branch) |
| 🔄 Patching | WSUS as the SCCM Software Update Point |
| 🖨️ Print | Windows Print and Document Services |
| ⚙️ Automation | PowerShell (idempotent, parameterized) |
This lab runs on a single Hyper-V host. Pick the tier that matches how much of the lab you plan to run at once.
| Tier | CPU | RAM | Storage | What it runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 cores / 8 threads (VT-x or AMD-V) | 32 GB | 500 GB SSD | All 5 servers + 1 to 2 clients at a time | |
| ✅ Recommended | 8 cores / 16 threads | 64 GB | 1 TB NVMe SSD | All 5 servers + 4 to 6 clients concurrently |
| 🚀 Comfortable | 12+ cores / 24+ threads | 128 GB | 2 TB NVMe SSD | Full lab (servers + all 10 clients) with snapshot headroom |
Host requirements
- 🪟 Windows 11 Pro / Enterprise OR Windows Server 2022 with the Hyper-V role
- ⚡ Hardware virtualization enabled in firmware (Intel VT-x / VT-d or AMD-V / AMD-Vi)
- 🌐 One physical NIC for internet and management; virtual switches handle the lab networking
- ❄️ Adequate cooling and stable power for sustained virtualization workloads
Tip
Don't have 64 GB of RAM? You can still complete every phase. Power off clients you are not actively testing, and lean on Hyper-V checkpoints so you can roll back without rebuilding. Dynamic Memory is enabled on client VMs by design for exactly this reason.
Click to expand the full scope
- AD forest build, OU structure, group policy (security baselines, drive mapping, printer mapping)
- SQL Server prerequisites for SCCM (collation, SPNs, service accounts)
- SCCM primary site install, boundary groups, client push, role distribution
- WSUS / SUP configuration, ADR (Automatic Deployment Rules) for monthly patching
- Windows 11 OS deployment via PXE (custom thin image)
- Application packaging and deployment (Microsoft 365, Google Chrome, PDF reader)
- Printer deployment via SCCM and GPO comparison
- RBAC inside SCCM (helpdesk role, server admin role)
.
├── README.md This file
├── docs/ Scenario, architecture, runbook, deployments, lessons
├── diagrams/ Topology and AD structure diagrams
├── screenshots/ Build evidence, console captures
├── scripts/ PowerShell automation (idempotent, parameterized)
├── gpo-exports/ Backed-up GPOs as XML
├── local_ONLY/ Working files excluded from git (see folder README)
├── LICENSE MIT
└── .gitignore
| # | Doc | What is inside |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Scenario | Company story, departments, business drivers |
| 02 | Architecture | Topology, IP plan, naming convention, AD design, SCCM site |
| 03 | Build runbook | Phase-by-phase build checklist |
| 04 | Deployments | Application and OS deployment scenarios with business reasons |
| 05 | Lessons learned | Real gotchas captured during the rebuild |
| Contributor | Role | |
|---|---|---|
| 👤 | @Aj-Networks | Author, architect, and lab operator. Built and maintains the scenario, infrastructure, runbook, and PowerShell. |
| 🤖 | Claude (Anthropic) | Documentation assistant. Helped scaffold the docs, README structure, and repo layout during the initial build. |
Find more work from @Aj-Networks on GitHub.
MIT License. See LICENSE for the full text.
Caution
✅ You CAN: use, fork, study, adapt, and build on this lab for learning, teaching, your own homelab, or commercial work.
❌ You CANNOT: strip attribution and republish this repo (or substantial parts of it) as your own original creation.
📌 If you reference or reuse content from this repo, you MUST credit the original and include the MIT copyright notice. Link back to github.com/Aj-Networks/SCCM_WSUS_Project. This is legally required by the MIT License terms.
⭐ If this repo helps you learn or teach, consider giving it a star.