Master Windows & Linux: Ultimate Admin Bootcamp (2025)

Explore managing user accounts in active directory, including roaming profiles, account attributes, user profiles, templates, and handling inactive or disabled accounts to bolster enterprise security.

Create and manage user accounts to authenticate to the ads domain and access network resources. Apply naming conventions and unique logon names, including UPN suffixes.

Configure user account attributes in Active Directory using Administrative Center, ADs, PowerShell, and DS Mod, covering logon hours, logon to computers, expiration, password policies, and delegation.

Learn to manage user accounts in Active Directory Administrative Center by creating, deleting, and moving users, updating departments and group memberships within organizational units, and using scripts for population.

Create and manage roaming user profiles across multiple workstations by configuring profile paths, logon scripts, and home folders with group policy objects and folder redirection.

Explore creating and managing user profiles in Windows, configuring roaming profiles, logon scripts, and home folders, then enable or disable accounts and apply folder redirection with group policy.

Explore how Windows PowerShell cmdlets create, modify, and delete user accounts, with single commands or scripts for bulk operations, including password handling and account enablement.

Master Windows PowerShell for creating, modifying, enabling, disabling, moving, and deleting Active Directory user and computer accounts, with automation that complements GUI tools like Active Directory Users and Computers.

Create bulk Active Directory users with Windows PowerShell by looping, importing a CSV, and assigning properties such as display name, given name, surname, and user principal name.

Learn how to modify Active Directory user properties with Windows PowerShell, including bulk updates, updating descriptions, and changing attributes across OUs.

Use Windows PowerShell to add a user to the same security groups as the administrator account by listing the administrator’s groups and adding James to each.

PowerShell updates office, home, and mobile numbers for single or multiple users by identifying attributes with the attribute editor or Getdata user cmdlet and applying bulk changes from csv.

Enable and disable Active Directory accounts in bulk with Windows PowerShell, and move user objects between OUs using enable-adaccount, disable-adaccount, and move-adobject, feeding inputs with Get-ADUser and Get-Content.

Learn to delete Active Directory users with Windows PowerShell using the Remove-ADUser cmdlet, handle confirmations, and remove accounts listed in a text file via Get-Content.

Explain domain controllers and the global catalog in ad ds, including sign-in impact, gc placement in single versus multi-domain environments, and the role of dns and operations master.

Explore Windows Server 2016 group types, security and distribution, and how each enables permissions, email distribution, and ACL-based access; learn conversions and token implications in large Exchange deployments.

Learn to create and convert security and distribution groups in Active Directory, manage global scope, enable protection from accidental deletion, and inspect group properties with PowerShell.

Explore Windows server group scopes: local, domain local, global, and universal, and how they govern permissions and membership across domains and forests.

Explore group scopes in Active Directory, create and manage domain local and global groups, add members, and apply domain local groups to local resources on a Windows 11 client.

Implement group nesting to form a hierarchy using global, domain local, and universal groups, granting access via ACLs and read permissions while aligning with role-based management rules.

Demonstrates Windows Admin Center setup and Active Directory group management, including domain controller access, group nesting, and site-based access with Lead New York Global.

Use the restricted groups setting in a domain level GPO to control local group membership on domain-joined computers, automatically remove non-designated members from enterprise admins and domain admins.

Use restricted groups in group policy to grant George local administrator rights on Windows 11 computers, then update policies with gpupdate /force and test disk management.

Learn about Windows Server 2016 default local groups, including administrators, domain admins, enterprise admins, and schema admins, and how protected groups govern Active Directory rights.

Explore account operators and delegate control in Active Directory, demonstrating how built-in security groups grant create, move, and delete permissions, and how delegation narrows actions to specific OUs or domains.

Master windows special identities, such as anonymous logon, authenticated users, everyone, interactive, network, and creator owner, and learn how to assign rights and permissions by authentication or connection.

Demonstrate creating a new group in Windows Server using Active Directory Administrative Center, adding members, changing group type and scope to distribution and universal, and configuring a group manager.

Demonstrates checking and managing user and group membership in Windows and Linux using Active Directory Administrative Center and PowerShell, including domain admins and commands like gpresult and get-adprincipalGroupMembership.

Learn to manage computer objects in Active Directory, join computers to the domain, understand trust relationships, and configure secure channels and group policy; handle password mismatches and lifecycle tasks.

Create custom OUs to host computer objects and avoid using the default computers container, enabling delegated administration and precise group policy application.

Control permissions to create computer accounts in the correct OU and join computers to the RDS domain. Delegate control, pre-create accounts, and manage the machine account quota to limit creations.

Join or leave a domain by using the computer name tab in advanced system settings, entering the domain or workgroup name and credentials, then restart.

Explore managing computer objects in an Active Directory domain by creating and moving organizational units, delegating computer-management tasks, and joining client machines to the domain with PowerShell.

Reset the secure channel between a computer and its domain when authentication fails. Use methods like rejoining domain or resetting the computer account with DSMod, NetDom, NLTest, ADUC/ADAC, or PowerShell.

Demonstrates resetting a computer account's secure channel via Active Directory users and computers, then verifies trust with Hyper-V and local/domain logins, and fixes it using PowerShell with credentials.

Learn how to perform an offline domain join. Use djoin to create and transfer the domain join file, enabling a computer to join a domain without online contact.

Learn to create and configure AD DS groups and user accounts for a new branch office, manage computer objects, and repair a trust relationship via test computer secure channel repair.

Demonstrates step-by-step management of AD DS objects, including creating groups and organizational units, nesting security groups, and configuring user accounts. Shows resetting computer accounts and repairing secure channels.

Plan the ou structure in Active Directory and learn how permissions govern ou use, then use the delegation of control wizard to simplify assigning permissions and delegating tasks.

Design Active Directory OU structures using location-based, resource-based, organization-based, multi-tenancy-based, and hybrid strategies to delegate rights and apply group policies.

Plan Active Directory functionality by aligning the OO structure to administrative purposes, delegation models, and GPOs, while acknowledging inheritance, change, and reflecting departments at a lower OO level.

Explore considerations for using organizational units in Active Directory, including creation methods in Active Directory Users and Computers, Active Directory Administrative Center, and Windows PowerShell; enable protection from accidental deletion.

Explore Active Directory administrative delegation by merging object-oriented design with OU security, and learn how tokens, seeds, and security descriptors govern permissions and auditing in AD.

Learn to delegate administrative rights in Active Directory, choosing between object type delegation and role-based delegation, using groups rather than individuals, and employing the Delegation of Control Wizard for tasks.

Master Windows PowerShell to automate administration with cmdlets, manage groups, computer accounts, and OUs, perform bulk operations, query and modify objects, and work with CSV files.

Learn to manage groups in Windows PowerShell: create, modify, delete groups; manage membership with add group member and add principal group membership cmdlets; and use piping for bulk operations.

Learn to manage Active Directory groups with PowerShell, creating global, domain local, and universal security groups, and search, modify, and manage group memberships, including adding and removing members.

Learn how to add user and computer accounts to security groups in Active Directory using PowerShell, including single and multiple additions, batch input from files, and copying members between groups.

Manage Active Directory group memberships with PowerShell by adding computer accounts to security groups using Add-ADGroupMember and Get-ADComputer, appending the dollar suffix to names to group test and prod machines.

Learn PowerShell to manage, configure, and modify security group objects, nest groups with proper scope (universal, global, domain local), and create or add multiple groups in bulk.

Master PowerShell for Active Directory groups by listing members with Get-ADGroupMember, identifying object class, exporting to CSV, and removing or deleting groups with bulk and recursive options.

Learn to use Windows PowerShell cmdlets to create, modify, display, and delete computer accounts and OUs, including managing trust relationships and protecting against accidental deletion.

Manage computer objects in Active Directory with PowerShell, including creating, modifying, enabling or disabling, and deleting accounts. Learn pre-staging of computer accounts and moving them between OUs.

Manage computer objects in Active Directory with PowerShell by enabling, disabling, and removing stale computers using Get-ADComputer, Enable-ADAccount, Disable-ADAccount, and Remove-ADComputer, with OU filters and last logon date.

Describe, deploy, and implement Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) in Windows Server 2016 to enable single sign-on across local, partner, and online applications and extend to external clients.

Explore the components and boundaries of Active Directory, including domains, trees, and forests, and learn why organizations deploy multiple domains or forests, including Azure IaaS deployments.

Explore how Active Directory domain and forest boundaries govern authentication, access, and searches. Understand replication, administration, group policy, auditing, and DNS boundaries across domains and forests.

Learn why organizations deploy multiple active directory domains to meet replication, dns namespace, and distributed administration needs, while noting autonomy without administrative isolation and the option of forests.

Explore why organizations implement multiple forests, including security isolation and privileged access management with a bastion forest, plus incompatible schemas, perimeter network security, and mergers or divestitures.

Deploy domain controllers on Azure IaaS to host AD DS in virtual machines, enabling disaster recovery, geo-distributed authentication, and isolated app scenarios.

Learn how to automate user provisioning, group management, self-service, and certificate handling in complex AD DS deployments with Microsoft Identity Manager 2016, enabling cloud-ready identities and Azure AD synchronization.

Learn to deploy a distributed AD DS environment with Windows Server 2008 as the minimum domain functional level and optimize DNS with conditional forwarders, suffix search order, and stop zones.

Upgrade Active Directory domain functional levels from Windows Server 2000 native through Windows Server 2016 to unlock features like universal groups, DNS partitions, fine-grained password policies, and Kerberos enhancements.

Understand forest and domain functional levels, trusts and forest trusts, linked value replication, and key Active Directory features across Windows Server versions.

Explore new Active Directory functional levels in Windows Server 2025, including forest and domain levels, 32K database page feature, and unattended promotion using PowerShell and DC Promo.

Create a forest in AD DS to auto-create the forest root domain, forming the base with the schema master and domain naming master, and explore child and three-domain deployments.

DNS, centralized vs decentralized models, verify, monitor, cross-forest name resolution, conditional forwarders, stop zones, global name zone, Active Directory integrated DNS, UPN suffixes, federated authentication.

Install ads binaries on the Toronto Dc1 domain controller and configure Dc1 as an ads domain controller using the active directory domain services configuration wizard to add adatum.com to forest.

Upgrade Active Directory to Windows Server 2016 by either upgrading existing domain controllers or introducing 2016 domain controllers and decommissioning older ones, after upgrading the AD DS schema with adprep.

Learn to use the Active Directory Migration Tool (ADMT) to migrate user, group, and computer accounts across domains and forests, including pre-migration tasks, restructuring plans, and seed history management.

Master AD DS trusts and forest trusts by configuring name resolution between root domains, ensuring forest functional level Windows Server 2003 or later, and applying selective authentication to control access.

Explore AD DS trust types and their transitivity and direction, including parent and child, tree root, external, realm, forest complete or selective, and shortcut trusts.

Explain how trusts in an active directory forest enable cross-domain resource access, routing session tickets through domain controllers, and how shortcut trusts shorten the trust path for faster access.

Learn how forest trusts enable cross-forest access in Active Directory, including forest-wide and selective trusts, one-way and two-way configurations, transitivity, upn authentication, and Kerberos v5 across domains.

Master advanced AD DS trust settings by implementing seed filtering, selective authentication, and name suffix routing to control authenticated access and protect resources across external and forest trusts.

Explore how Active Directory domain services provide an efficient sign-in infrastructure and high availability by deploying multiple domain controllers, configuring sites, and monitoring replication to optimize authentication and traffic.

Describe how the configuration partition provides global catalog information and is replicated to all domain controllers, and outline the multi-master replication model, site topology, and conflict resolution in Active Directory.

Explore how Active Directory data is partitioned to optimize replication across domain controllers in the forest, covering the configuration, schema, domain, and application partitions and their replication topology.

Explore the characteristics of AD DS replication, including multiple master replication, pool replication, store and forward replication, data store partitioning, attribute level replication, and collision detection.

Learn how Active Directory domain controllers replicate within a site, driven by connection objects and the knowledge consistency checker, with notifications, polling, and automatic two-way, three-hop topology.

Ads uses a multiple master replication model, so conflicts may arise when domain controllers modify the same attribute or object; stamp with version, timestamp, and server GUID determines the winner.

Learn how replication topology is generated across forest-wide schema and configuration partitions, with cross-domain replication, global catalog considerations, and fault-tolerant, multi-partner domain controller replication.

Learn how Sysvol replication synchronizes the domain-wide policy wall across domain controllers, moving from file replication service to dfs replication, using remote differential compression and migration tools.

Implement ads sites to manage bandwidth and localize authentication, explain replication between sites, the site topology generator, and how clients locate domain controllers within sites and move controllers between sites.

Manage replication traffic and localize services by mapping IP subnets to AD DS sites, ensuring domain controllers route clients to the nearest site and GPOs apply at the top.

Review how to create additional Active Directory sites to control authentication, replication, and service localization across slow links and locations with enough users to host domain controllers.

Explore how replication differs within and between sites, emphasizing site link bandwidth, compression, and scheduling, with change notifications and urgent or immediate replication to minimize inter-site latency.

Explain how the intersite topology generator automates inter-site replication by calculating the ideal topology, designating bridgehead servers, and creating connection objects across sites.

Publish service records (srv) to map Kerberos v5 and LDAP to host names, enabling authentication and directory services with ports 389, 88, 464, and 3268 using tcp or udp.

Explore how Windows clients locate and authenticate to domain controllers using DNS SRV records, LDAP pins, and site-based affinities, with site coverage for local resources.

Move domain controllers between sites using Active Directory sites and services, with domain administrator privileges, to relocate controllers, enable automatic site coverage, or create sites without controllers.

Configure and monitor AD DS replication via site links, inter-site settings, site link bridging, and universal group membership caching, including 15-minute replication duration. Use tools to monitor replication across sites.

Configure AD DS site links to enable replication between sites using the Knowledge Consistency Checker and ISG. ISG creates connection objects that determine replication paths.

Configure site links and bridging to manage inter-site replication, using automatic bridging or custom site link bridges with in-between costs to ensure connectivity between Amsterdam, HQ, and Seattle.

Explore universal group membership caching and how domain controllers cache user group data from a global catalog to speed remote sign-ins, with an eight-hour refresh and security risks.

Configure Active Directory sites, subnets, and domain controllers across Toronto and London HQ, set up site links and replication monitoring to optimize AD traffic.

Implement and configure Active Directory Domain Services on tor dc1, create and manage sites and subnets, set up site links and replication, and monitor replication across sites.

Explore group policy fundamentals and the GPO infrastructure, then implement and administer GPOs across sites, domains, and OUs with filtering, scope, processing, and troubleshooting guidance.

Discover how configuration management centralizes changes across multiple computers, using scope and application to achieve a consistent, desired state with group policy and Active Directory.

Explore how individual policy settings configure user or computer environments, including administrative templates and not configured states, and how the Group Policy Management Editor applies, enables, or disables those policies.

Explore computer and user configuration policies, including software settings, Windows settings, scripts, security settings, folder redirection, and administrative templates, plus policy updates and results verification.

Navigate the group policy management console to create and edit a GPO named disable control panel, link it to the domain, and verify updates with gpupdate and gpresult.

Explore the benefits of group policy for centralized administration, security, desktop standardization, and software deployment across users and computers, with folder redirection and network configuration options.

Define and manage group policy objects (GPOs) with the Gpmc, edit settings in the Group Policy Management Editor, and link GPOs to domain, OU, or site using PowerShell.

Define gpo scope by linking gpos to sites, domains, or ous to set the maximum scope, and refine it with security filters, wmi filters, and targeted group policy preferences.

Learn how GPOs link to sites, domains, or OUs, how the highest-precedence GPO determines the final values across GPOs, and how local, site, domain, and OU processing order governs inheritance.

Operate the group policy client service to determine applicable gpos and apply settings locally via client-side extensions. Learn how extensions manage security settings, startup scripts, software installation, and registry changes.

Explore domain-based GPOs, their storage on domain controllers, and how to create, link, edit, and manage GPOs using Windows PowerShell and Gpmc, including starter GPOs and delegation of administration.

Explore domain based GPOs, including default domain policy and default domain controllers policy, their scope, and how local GPOs interact with domain policies.

Learn how a group policy object comprises a group policy container and a group policy template, stored in domain controllers, with versioned updates and DFSR or FRS replication.

Utilize starter GPUs in the Gpmc as templates to create domain GPUs with administrative templates settings, and export or import via cabinet or cap files for distribution.

Delegate administration of group policy within the master Windows & Linux bootcamp by backing up, restoring, importing, copying, and migrating GPOs with Gpmc and PowerShell.

Delegate group policy tasks to distribute workload, enabling groups to create, edit, link GPOs, perform policy model and analysis on a domain or OU, and manage WMI filters using GPMC.

Delegate permissions to create and link GPOs, and to view results, then verify permissions with PowerShell and manage group policy in the adatum.com domain.

Learn how to scope and link GPOs, control processing order and inheritance, use loopback processing, and apply security filtering and WMI filters to manage policy across computers and users.

Learn how to link GPOs to domains, sites, and OUs using the GPMC console, define scope, and understand group policy processing order, policy downloads, and site-linked GPOs across a forest.

Understand how group policy inheritance follows a hierarchical order—from local gpos to sites, domains, and ous—and how the last policy applied wins.

Set the scope and precedence of GPOs using security filtering and link order. Learn how inheritance, blocking inheritance, and enforcement shape which policy settings finally apply.

Learn to filter GPO scope using security filtering, ACLs, and read and apply permissions to target authenticated users, specific groups, and exemption groups, with delegation considerations.

Learn how to enable or disable GPOs and GPO nodes using WMI filters, create WMI queries with WQL, and weigh performance implications before deployment.

Configure GPO status options to enable or disable computer and user settings during policy refresh, optimizing processing. Use Gpmc to force a policy refresh for emergency configurations.

Apply centralized control of user environments with group policy loopback processing to tailor user settings by computer, enabling standardized desktops in conference rooms, labs, kiosks, and virtual desktop infrastructure scenarios.

Group policy applies only selected settings on slow links detected by the client side extension, 500 kbps; disconnected computers retain policies, but startup and logon scripts may not run offline.

Explore how group policy settings apply through replication and domain controller propagation, including GPO replication, security token updates, and refresh intervals, with manual gpupdate options and restart requirements.

Implement a group policy infrastructure to lock screens after ten minutes, enforce a 600‑second screen saver with password protection, and use security filtering and loopback for conference room exemptions.

Troubleshoot GPO deployment and scope by creating, editing, and linking group policy objects, applying loopback processing, and validating settings for screen saver, registry access, and firewall rules.

Master refreshing GPOs using gpupdate and invoke-gpupdate, configure computer and user refresh intervals, perform remote policy updates via gpmc, and troubleshoot health using event logs and replication status.

Explore how RSoP reports reveal policy application and learn to generate RSoP reports; grasp computer and user refresh intervals, sign-in behavior, and remote group policy updates via Gpmc.

Explore how to analyze and troubleshoot group policy with the group policy results wizard and GP results, modeling outcomes and reporting applied settings across users and computers.

Learn to implement standard desktop environments using group policy objects, administrative templates, folder redirection, software installation, and configure scripts, and master configuring group policy preferences to manage settings.

discover how administrative templates control operating system environment and user experience via gpo, with computer and user settings modify registry (hkey local machine, hkey current user) and organize into subnodes.

Explore how group policy settings are stored in dot adm and admx files, including language specific adml and idml files and the central store concept.

Create and maintain a central store for admx and adml files in a domain to standardize GPO templates and updates, enabling the Group Policy Management Editor to read them.

Configure administrative template policy settings in the group policy editor, learn filtering options, and practice copying, backing up, and importing GPOs with commands.

Configure Windows security settings with security templates and distribute them via group policy and Security Compliance Manager. Import templates into GPOs, compare configurations, and manage templates across devices.

Learn to manage administrative templates by downloading or creating custom templates, adding them to the central store, customizing settings via the group policy editor, and deploying the GPO.

Explore folder redirection, software installation, and logon scripts via group policy to standardize user desktops.

Learn how folder redirection places folders on a network server while appearing as local drives. Gain insight into offline files, cross-computer access, backups, and reduced roaming profile sizes.

Explore folder redirection in group policy, selecting none, basic, advanced, or follow the documents folder, and configure per-user root paths to keep data private while noting sign-in impact.

Configure manual permissions on a shared folder to store redirected folders, and apply NTFS and share permissions for root, subfolders, and files as folder redirection creates or uses existing folders.

Demonstrates creating a shared folder, configuring a GPO for folder redirection of documents, setting everyone with read/write access, and testing via gpupdate /force.

Apply group policy scripts to automate startup, shutdown, sign-in/out tasks, and environment setup using VBScript, batch, or PowerShell, stored on the Netlogon share.

Demonstrates creating a logon script and linking it to a GPO to display a message, then tests the script by signing in on client computers and using gpupdate /force.

Describe configuring group policy preferences to manage Internet Explorer with IE settings, shortcuts, and registry; explain item level targeting limits across forests and mapped drives delivered via group policy.

Explore group policy preferences and extensions like drive maps, folder options, printers, and scheduled tasks, compare them with policy settings, and learn the create, delete, replace, and update actions.

Learn how to configure group policy preferences, including general tab actions (create, delete, replace, update), input details for drive mappings and environment variables, and item level targeting.

Explore item level targeting in group policy preferences, using 27 categories and/or logic to apply settings precisely to computers or users, with dynamic background refresh and real-world deployment scenarios.

Create a printer with group policy preferences and set it as default. Configure a balanced Adatum Power Plan via group policy and test with gpupdate /force on Windows 10.

Learn to manage user settings with group policy using administrative templates and preferences, implement drive mapping, shortcuts, folder redirection, and Office 2016 GPO design.

Explore practical group policy design to manage Office 2016 settings, drive mappings, a notepad desktop shortcut for IT security group, and folder redirection, using administrative templates and policy preferences.

Learn to use folder redirection to map different shared folders on separate servers for security groups, and apply GPOs with WMI filters, GPO permissions, and item-level targeting for portable computers.

Secure domain controllers, implement account security, and audit authentication in a Windows network. Learn the security risks, secure settings, physical access, and password replication policies for read-only domain controllers.

Identify your security boundaries and defend domain controllers by addressing network security, authentication attacks, elevation of privilege, denial of service, operating system and app attacks, and physical security risks.

Install and configure nmap on a test server, then perform scans to identify open ports, service versions, and operating system details on a domain controller, and assess vulnerabilities.

Configure security settings for Active Directory domain controllers centrally with a GPO, ensuring consistent enforcement of password, audit, and firewall policies across all domain controllers.

Configure domain controller security policies with group policy management, set password length to 14, increase log size, enable audit logon events, and verify with event viewer after gpupdate /force.

Configure a custom domain controller security policy gpo, including restricted groups for remote desktop users. Disable select services to harden security.

Create custom GPOs for domain controllers to preserve defaults and enable granular, OU-based policy application. Adopt custom GPOs for most configurations to follow Microsoft recommendations and ensure proper change management.

Implement secure authentication by hardening user accounts and passwords, securing elevated groups, auditing critical changes, and deploying two-factor authentication with smart cards or mobile MFA, and deprovisioning.

Ensure physical security for domain controllers hosting Active Directory by deploying in secure locations, enabling BitLocker on volumes, monitoring hotswap disks, protecting virtual disks, and storing backups securely.

Explore read-only domain controllers (RODCs) for branch offices, detailing caching, password replication policies, and the security and replication limitations for Exchange and DNS.

Deploy a read-only domain controller (RODC) using the Active Directory Domain Services Configuration Wizard or remote PowerShell. Plan a two-stage deployment with pre-staging, delegated promotion, and password replication policy.

Configure an RODC password replication policy to control which user and computer credentials are cached, using allowed and denied lists and domain groups.

Configure the password replication policy on read-only domain controllers to decide which users' credentials are cached. Use allowed and denied lists with precedence to manage domain-wide groups.

Delegate rodc local administration by assigning a domain user or group as a local administrator on a read-only domain controller; the delegated admin can perform maintenance on that server only.

secure active directory by reducing the attack surface, enforcing least privilege, implementing secure administrative hosts, and monitoring for signs of attack with incident recovery planning.

Describe account security options in Windows Server 2016 and later, including password and lockout policies, Kerberos, protected groups, and fine-grained policies. Explain Windows Hello and Azure MFA integration.

Configure domain and local password policies via the group policy console, enforcing password history of 24, max age 42 days, min age 1 day, min length 7, and complexity.

Examine how account lockout policies set thresholds, durations, and unlock methods to prevent brute force attacks and protect user accounts.

Configure Kerberos policy settings from the default domain policy to govern domain, user, and computer accounts, including service ticket lifetimes, user ticket lifetimes, and clock synchronization tolerance.

Configure password policy and lockout policy via Group Policy Management Console; enforce history 20, max age 45, min length 10, and complexity; set lockout duration 30 and reset after 15.

Learn to enforce secure local group membership with restricted groups in group policy and to protect credentials using the Protected Users Security Group on Windows Server 2012 R2 or newer.

Explore fine grained password policies in Windows Server 2008+ that assign per-user or per-group password and lockout settings using password settings containers and shadow groups.

Configure fine grained password policies in Windows Server 2012 or newer using PowerShell or Active Directory Administrative Center, setting complexity, length, age, history, reversible encryption, and lockout rules.

Demonstrates configuring a fine-grained password policy in Active Directory Administrative Center, creating password settings for the Adatum managers group, and enforcing length 15, history 20, complexity, age, and lockout.

Link multiple PSOs to a user or group and use the PSO with the lowest password settings precedence as the resultant PSO. Apply default domain policy when none are linked.

Configure password, account, and Kerberos policies across local and domain environments using Local Security Policy Console or Group Policy Management Editor, noting default domain policy precedence and policy conflicts.

Explore the difference between audit account logon events and audit logon events, and how advanced and basic audit policies, domain controllers, and GPOs govern logon and logoff auditing.

Learn to configure authentication audit policies with group policy management, enabling account logon and Kerberos auditing, and view event IDs 4771 and 4768 in Event Viewer.

Define the scope of audit policies with GPOs linked to the correct OUs to apply logon event auditing and account logon events across domain controllers.

Explore configuring managed service accounts and group MSAs, extending standard MSAs to multiple servers. Learn Kerberos delegation and SPNs for secure Windows Server 2016 service authentication.

Understand how Windows uses built-in local accounts: local system, local service, and network service. Weigh domain admin passwords that never expire against built-in accounts and perform a thorough security analysis.

Identify challenges with service accounts, including domain and local accounts, password management, and SPN administration, and explore managed service accounts in Windows Server 2016.

Master managed service accounts (MSAs) for automatic password and SPN management, their Active Directory integration, and key usage requirements across Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2016.

Extend managed service accounts with group MSAs to run across multiple servers, enabling automatic password maintenance and simplified SPN management within domain environments and server farms.

Demonstrates configuring group MSAs by creating a KDS root key in the London C1 domain, provisioning a sample app MSA, and setting the Data Sharing service logon in PowerShell.

Implement and enforce AD DS security policies, password and lockout rules, and auditing, while deploying an RODC in the branch office and evaluating a group MSA for secure app access.

Configure security policies for accounts and passwords, enforce restricted groups and auditing in Active Directory, and implement fine grained password settings for IT administrators and domain admins.

Deploy and configure Active Directory Domain Services, create domain controllers, implement password replication policy, manage groups, and install a managed service account for web services.

Configure domain password policies with a PSO for all users, linked to the domain users group, to centralize management and tailor settings across the domain.

Review essential security practices for Active Directory, including physical security, auditing domain authentication, and domain controller policies, while addressing account lockout considerations and multi-controller event auditing.

Plan your progress by exploring theoretical lectures, demonstrations, and labs, including hands-on labs and lab videos. Use section overviews and review questions to build practical, well-structured knowledge.

Explore Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) in Windows Server 2016 to enable single sign-on across local, partner, and online apps, and learn to deploy ADFS for external clients.

Compare enterprise and standalone CA deployments, using auto enrollment, certificate templates, and policy-based approval. Deploy multiple subordinate CA for segmentation, high availability, and geographic regions within Active Directory.

Learn how AD CS enables PKI in Windows Server to issue and manage certificates, secure data with encryption and signatures, and ensure availability with a CA hierarchy and enrollment services.

Explore designing a CA hierarchy for PKI, from root and subordinate CAs to policy keys and cross certification, including two-tier setups and when single or external CAs suffice.

Compare standalone and enterprise certificate authorities, detailing ad ds integration, auto enrollment, and publication points for Windows Server environments.

Consider offline versus enterprise and standalone root CA deployments, and plan cryptographic provider, key length, hash algorithm, and CRL/CDP/AIA publishing for offline security.

This demonstration deploys an enterprise root CA with Active Directory Certificate Services. It covers configuring the enterprise CA and route CA option, 4096-bit keys, and private key creation.

Issue certificates to clients with a subordinate CA to enforce PKI policy securely. Use enterprise subordinate CA in ads environment with offline root CA for load balancing and fault tolerance.

Configure root or subordinate CAs with CA policy.inf file during AD CS installation. Define sections, keys, and values to set certification practice statement, CRL intervals, renewal settings, and AIA/CDP paths.

Learn to administer key hierarchy and keys, configure security options and auditing in ADCs, and tailor role-based administration and permissions to control certificate issuance and enrollment.

Learn to deploy and manage a certification authority using the Certification Authority Console, PowerShell, and certutil, including templates, CDP, AIA, OCSP, and group policy for auto enrollment.

Configure CA security with the Certification Authority console, grant read and issue rights, read issued certificates, delegate template rights via certificate manager, and restrict access via certificate members.

Explore role based administration in ADCs by delegating permissions to groups, and configuring roles such as enterprise PKI admins and certificate managers through the Certification Authority Console.

Configure policy and exit modules on your certificate authority to route, approve, and publish certificates using CA console or cert util, including MIM workflow and email or file-based notifications.

Configure the AIA and CDP certificate extensions on your CA to enable trust chain validation and revocation checks in a PKI environment; publish these URLs for enterprise and offline CAs.

Configure key certification authority properties by reviewing general, policy, exit, extensions, and security settings, and learn to restrict security principals to certificate templates in a practical CA demonstration.

Explore built-in tools for troubleshooting certificate authorities, including certificate snap-in, PKI view, Certification Authority Console, certutil, PowerShell, and GP results tools for auto enrollment and template permissions.

Learn how to renew root and subordinate CA certificates, set appropriate validity periods, manage keys (including 4096‑bit RSA), and handle CRLs and renewal procedures.

Learn how to move a root certificate authority to new hardware, preserving the key identity through backup and restore of private keys, CA certificate, certificate databases, and templates.

Monitor enterprise PKI with the Sky View and PKI view consoles in Windows Server 2016, review key health, and manage certificate templates, CDP, AA locations, and CRLs.

Deploy a two-tier AD CS PKI on Windows Server 2016, establishing an offline root CA and an enterprise subordinate CA, with proper CDP/AIA configurations, CRL publishing, and DNS registration.

Deploy and configure Active Directory Certificate Services across offline root and enterprise subordinate CAs, publish certificates via CDP and AIA, create DNS records, and distribute trusted roots through group policy.

Develop the skills to deploy and manage certificates, configure certificate templates, and manage backup and recovery. Learn to use certificates in business environments and manage smart cards.

Explore certificate templates in a CA and Active Directory Domain Services environment, including versions, permissions, auto enrollment, and updating or superseding templates.

Explore how certificates bind identities with a private/public key pair, usage types, validity, and revocation lists, and configure certificate templates to tailor distribution and enrollment control.

Explore certificate template versions in Windows Server from version 1 to 3, including auto enrolment, customization, and CNG cryptography. Learn how compatibility, template duplication, and key protection influence deployment.

Configure certificate template permissions by defining the security tab settings to control read, write, full control, enroll, and auto enroll, and assign these permissions to global or universal groups.

Explore configuring certificate template settings across versions, including security, default templates, single and multi-purpose certificates, and steps for duplication, format, key length, validity, CSP, and enrollment.

Modify an existing certificate template or merge multiple templates into one, so issued certificates reflect updates; supersede templates via the Certificate Templates console to switch users to the new template.

Learn to modify and enable a certificate template in the Certification Authority console, review IPsec, duplicate templates, adjust security for enroll and auto enroll, and issue Exchange User Test one.

Explore multiple certificate enrolment methods in Windows Server 2016, including auto enrolment for mass deployment and manual enrolment for certificates tied to specific security principles.

Discover how auto enrollment streamlines certificate issuance in an enterprise CA by using templates, read/enroll/auto enroll permissions, and domain group policy for computers and users.

Configure certificate enrollment using an enrollment agent on Windows Server 2016 CE, enabling designated users to enroll on behalf of others while restricting scope to specific groups and templates.

Learn how certificate revocation works through CRLs and OCSP, including the revocation life cycle, crypto API phases, path validation, and configuring online responders.

Discover how to archive and recover private keys for EFS-encrypted data, and configure key archival with CRA, KRA, and data recovery agents.

Configure key properties in a certification authority by inspecting certificate details, policy module, exit module, extensions (CDP and AIA), ACL permissions, then restrict security principals to certificate templates.

Learn how SSL certificates create secure, encrypted connections between clients and servers, enabling authentication, key pair usage, CA trust, certificate installation, and certificate signing requests.

Sign documents digitally with a private key in a PKI certificate to protect content and verify authorship. Verify with the public key, hash digest, and certificate trust, including CRL checks.

Discover how to protect content with encryption using Windows EFS and certificate-based keys, including hybrid encryption with a file encryption key, key recovery options, and sharing across users.

Demonstrates signing a Word document digitally using a user certificate enrolled via MMC and the certificate enrollment wizard, then encrypts the file with EFS and tests cross-user access.

Deploy a two-tier PKI on Windows Server 2016 with an offline root CA and an enterprise subordinate CA, configuring CDP and AIA, CRLs, and DNS/group policy trust.

Configure certificate templates, enable auto enrollment, and issue and manage certificates to secure websites, smart card logon, EFS, and digital signatures in Office documents.

Review PKI deployment with Windows Server 2016 ADCs for EFS, digital signing, and web certificates. Learn key recovery, auto enrollment, enrollment agents, virtual smart cards, templates, and common troubleshooting.

Build a PKI lab environment with Hyper-V using a sysprep base image and differencing VHDs, then configure AD DS, DNS, and an offline root CA with PowerShell.

Configure an offline root certificate authority by preparing the CA policy.inf file, setting the OID, installing a standalone root CA, and using 4096-bit keys with sha-256 for 10 years.

Configure root CA settings by adjusting CRL distribution point and AIA via GUI and PowerShell, set 12 hour overlap, ten-year validity, and verify URIs for certificate revocation lists.

Configure PKI infrastructure across subordinate CA Svr2 using PowerShell, install the Windows web server role and IIS management service, and add root certificates and DNS records.

Configure IIS for PKI by creating a PKI folder, granting cert publishers access, adding a virtual directory, enabling directory browsing and anonymous authentication, and enabling double escaping via PowerShell.

Set up an enterprise subordinate CA on the Vr2 server, which also runs IIS, configure CA policy, generate and submit certificate requests, and complete the offline root process.

Configure CRL distribution point and AIA on the subordinate CA by clearing, adding, and verifying points, then set CRL properties with certutil and verify via PowerShell.

Build a PKI infrastructure lab on Windows Server Core VMs by provisioning a three-server domain with a root and lead CA on Hyper-V, using PowerShell direct and certificate issuance steps.

Build a PKI lab on Windows Server Core VMs by provisioning VHDs and VMs, configuring a root CA offline, and setting up certificate services, CRL distribution points, and DNS.

Build and configure an enterprise subordinate certificate authority lab on Windows server core VMs, including PKI directory setup, IIS anonymous authentication, offline enrollment, and verification of CDP/AIA settings.

Learn to select a partition table format on Windows Server, compare MBR and GPT, and note MBR limits like four primary partitions and two terabytes.

Initialize new disks with MBR or GPT, convert between basic and dynamic disks, and manage system and boot volumes while noting BitLocker options during Windows installation.

Attach and initialize virtual disks, then select an appropriate file system, such as NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, or ReFS, considering boot options, security features, and optimal allocation unit sizes.

ReFS is an NTFS-based file system that enhances metadata integrity with checksums, improves data resiliency, supports large volumes and storage pools, and remains backward compatible with NTFS features.

Learn to configure and format ReFS volumes with PowerShell, using Get-Disk, Set-Disk, Remove-PartitionStyle, Clear-Disk, and Initialize-Disk to GPT, then Format-Volume with ReFS to assign drive letters.

Learn to manage virtual hard disks using vhd and vhdx files in Windows Server, including creating, attaching, and booting from virtual disks with Hyper-V and PowerShell.

Enable nested virtualization on the host VM and install Hyper-V, then create, mount, and manage VHD and VHDX disks with PowerShell, including dynamic or fixed sizes, partitioning, and NTFS formatting.

Explore dynamic disks and create simple, spanned, striped (raid 0), mirrored (raid 1), and raid5 volumes in Windows Server. Understand basic management via Server Manager and disk management.

Master the diskpart workflow to manage disks and volumes, including listing, selecting, deleting, cleaning, creating partitions, assigning letters, and extending volumes, while understanding limitations with dynamic disks and storage spaces.

Create and manage volumes and virtual hard disks for a Windows server; resize and shrink volumes, configure mirrored NTFS volumes, and use PowerShell and DiskPart to prepare scalable local storage.

Learn to configure local storage in Windows through practical labs: initialize disks, create ReFS and mirrored volumes, resize and shrink volumes, and manage VHD/VHDX with Hyper-V tasks.

Explore disk types for server and client storage, including IDE, SATA, SCSI, SAS, and SSD. Learn how IOPs, speed, reliability, and cost influence storage choices.

Explore how raid on Windows Server combines disks into a single array to provide fault tolerance, redundancy, and improved reads through mirroring, parity, and striping.

Explain raid levels from raid 0 to raid 6, detailing striping, parity, and mirroring, and their performance and redundancy trade-offs.

Explore storage planning for data centers, comparing direct attached storage, NAS, and SANs while evaluating Fibre Channel, iSCSI, and networked options to meet growing storage demands.

Explore nas, a network attached storage solution with file-level access via cifs/smb and nfs protocols. Compare low-end appliance nas and enterprise nas integrated with san, highlighting storage and cross-platform accessibility.

Learn how a storage area network provides block-level access by linking servers to centralized storage pools via Fibre Channel over Ethernet or iSCSI.

Compare DAS, NAS, and SAN storage topologies and their best-use scenarios, from high-performance transactional databases to branch offices, highlighting cost, scalability, and administrative overhead.

Block level storage and file level storage offer flexible storage options; large enterprises often use both, delivering volumes and LUNs to servers via iSCSI, Fibre Channel, or SMB/NFS.

Compare fibre channel and iSCSI SAN approaches, describe components and layouts, and note better practice of a dedicated iSCSI network.

Evaluate infrastructure, bandwidth, connectivity, reliability, and security when choosing Fibre Channel for storage. Understand dedicated Fibre Channel components, costs, and training, plus Fibre Channel over Ethernet as an alternative.

iSCSI is a protocol that carries standard SCSI commands over TCP/IP networks to enable remote storage access and SAN creation, using port 3260 and supporting iSCSI targets and initiators.

Learn about iSCSI components—target server and initiator—and how to create iSCSI targets and virtual disks, enable authentication, and manage block storage with Server Manager and Windows PowerShell.

Explore storage components in detail, including network adapters, HBAs, converged network adapters, InfiniBand host channel adapters, and disk controllers, with notes on speeds, WWNs, and virtualization implications.

Demonstrate configuring an iSCSI target in server manager, creating a 1 GB iSCSI virtual disk, and attaching it to an initiator with IP 192.168.1.23.

Describe Isns as a central directory for iSCSI targets and Esns for discovering and managing iSCSI and Fibre Channel devices, and explain DCB with Mpi-io for path redundancy and performance.

Explore data center bridging that unites Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and InfiniBand networks with congestion notification and priority-based flow control, and install and manage DCB on Windows Server with PowerShell.

Explore MPIO’s redundancy with multiple storage paths, enabling seamless failover and throughput via MPI-IO load balancing and DCM software on Windows Server.

Demonstrates configuring MPIO on Windows Server by installing the MPIO feature and enabling iSCSI device support. Shows discovering multi-paths and verifying devices under MPIO devices.

Describe the SMB file sharing protocol and its history from SMB 1.x to 3.1.1. Note SMB 3.x improvements, Windows server shared folders, NFS, Kerberos authentication concepts, and auditing SMB one.

Configure SMB shares on Windows Server with File Explorer, Server Manager, and Windows PowerShell, balance share and NTFS permissions, and use quick, advanced, or applications profiles via SMB share cmdlets.

Configure smb shares using Server Manager and Windows PowerShell, create a new volume on disk Z, enable access based enumeration, and verify shares with get smb share.

Explore the evolution of the network file system (NFS) from version 1 to 4.1, covering open standards, exports, performance, security, and cross-platform support across Unix, Windows, and more.

Configure NFS shares on Windows servers using quick or advanced profiles, install the NFS service, and create shares with Windows PowerShell or Server Manager, using Kerberos authentication and UID/GID mappings.

Configure an NFS share with server manager, enabling file and storage services and server for NFS, then create an NFS share with Kerberos v5 authentication and all machines permissions.

Design enterprise storage solutions with centralized management, enabling low-cost, scalable block and file storage, iSCSI, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, and VMware ESXi and Hyper-V provisioning across remote sites.

Learn to implement enterprise storage solutions using iSCSI, SMB, and NFS, deploy iSCSI across geographic locations, evaluate SQL database storage types, enable multipath I/O, and disable legacy SMB access.

Explore storage spaces in Windows Server 2016, learn to virtualize and provision storage with storage pools and virtual disks, and implement data deduplication for cost-effective enterprise storage.

Explore storage spaces, a Windows storage virtualization feature with storage pools and virtual disks managed as a single unit. Understand resiliency, provisioning options, and file systems like NTFS and ReFS.

Explore storage spaces components and features, including storage pool layouts. Learn about two-way and three-way mirrors, data striping, and thin and fixed provisioning to optimize fault tolerance and performance.

Create a storage pool from a disk, set automatic allocation for a simple virtual disk with thin provisioning, and configure a volume in storage spaces via server manager.

Explore advances in file and storage services in Windows Server, including SMB over QUIC, encryption, NTLM blocking, Storage Migration Service, Storage Spaces Direct, Storage Replica, ReFS snapshots, and SMB compression.

Assess Storage Spaces to pool drives into reliable storage with mixed media and hot spares. Manage via MMC or PowerShell, enable VSS snapshots, and deploy Storage Spaces Direct with Hyper-V.

Compare storage spaces to san and nas, noting storage spaces offer an inexpensive, easy-to-manage way to attach disks with redundancy and tiering, while san and nas provide higher performance.

Plan, implement, and manage storage spaces to mitigate disk failure, expand pools, and monitor performance with event logs, using Server Manager and PowerShell for SSD and HDD tiering.

Plan fault-tolerant storage spaces with two-way mirror or parity spaces, three-way mirrors, clustered storage pools, and enclosure-aware jbods to minimize outages and data loss.

Learn to expand a storage pool by adding disks, analyzing column usage and layout options (mirroring or parity), and perform expansion via Server Manager or PowerShell with get-virtualdisk and add-physicaldisk.

Explore how to manage storage spaces with Windows PowerShell by viewing storage pool properties, listing disks, and adding physical disks to storage pool one, then creating and inspecting virtual disks.

Monitor storage behavior to ensure reliability and performance, using event logs to diagnose storage spaces issues. Understand event IDs 100 and 102 related to configuration read failures and update problems.

Analyze event IDs, monitor storage pool capacity thresholds and drive health, and review metadata to map or unmap storage, trim space, and address io, drive, and configuration failures.

Monitor storage performance with Windows PowerShell and Performance Monitor, using the storage spaces performance analysis module, and measure spaces with a cmdlet to capture 60-second samples.

Learn to implement storage spaces by creating a storage pool from six disks, build a three-way mirrored virtual disk, enable storage tiering, and simulate drive failure with recovery steps.

Develop and apply storage tiering with Windows storage by creating a tiered storage pool from SSD and HDD, then provision a virtual disk using PowerShell and the Virtual Disk Wizard.

Implement storage spaces by creating a storage pool with multiple disks, configuring a three-way mirror with thin provisioning, forming a mirrored volume, and validating data integrity.

Create a tiered storage pool with PowerShell by selecting physical disks and creating a virtual disk. Set SSD or HDD media types, build storage tiers, and create a volume.

Enable and optimize data deduplication in Windows Server to store more data in less space while preserving data integrity, supporting NTFS and ReFS, VDI and running VMs.

Explore data deduplication components in Windows Server, including the filter driver, deduplication service, optimization, garbage collection, and scrubbing, plus integrity checks, hotspot chunk redundancy, and repair workflows.

Plan and deploy data deduplication by evaluating candidate volumes and data types, install components, enable dedup on volumes, and schedule optimization, scrubbing, and garbage collection to achieve savings.

Identify data deduplication usage scenarios across user documents, software deployment shares, virtualization libraries, file shares, with savings from 30% to 95% and deployment candidates, boot-storm, VDI, BranchCache, and WAN optimization.

Monitor and maintain data deduplication on Windows Server to ensure optimization efficiency. Plan volume size based on data churn and throughput, and use PowerShell cmdlets to track status and health.

Explore how data deduplication speeds backups and restores by reducing data on the volume, detailing optimized backups, chunk store, VSS writer restores, and Windows Server 2016 limitations.

Install and enable data deduplication on Windows Server, verify dedup status, and measure virtual machine storage performance using PowerShell to maximize file server space.

Configure data deduplication on a data volume, run optimization, verify dedup status and savings, and assess vm performance to prepare for the next lab.

Install and configure data deduplication on Windows Server, verify status, optimize files, and monitor performance to maximize storage for file servers and virtual machines.

Explore domain controllers and the global catalog, and learn how their placement affects sign-in times. Plan global catalog distribution in single and multiple domain environments and understand operations masters.

Explore new Hyper-V host features across Windows Server versions, including Hyper-V Manager for Server Core, shielded VM improvements, offline mode, PowerShell direct, and nested virtualization.

Explore Hyper-V virtual machine features in server 2016 and later, including discrete device assignment for PCI Express devices, hot add or remove for network adapters and memory, and production checkpoints.

Explore Hyper-V storage options, including virtual hard disk formats VHD and VHDX, and types fixed, dynamically expanding, differencing, and passthrough, plus SMB three shares and Fibre Channel for high availability.

Explore virtual hard disk formats and types in Hyper-V, including VHDs and dynamic vs fixed disks, plus Fibre Channel support and SMB 3 storage considerations.

Demonstrates creating differencing disks from a base VHDX with Hyper-V Manager and PowerShell, linking differencing disks, and working with a sysprep Windows Server 2022 Core Edition image.

Explore the three types of Hyper-V virtual switches: external, internal, and private, and how to configure them, including NAT considerations and VLAN extensions, for secure, scalable networks.

Explore best practices for configuring Hyper-V virtual networks, including NIC teaming across adapters and switches, bandwidth management per VM, VMQ performance, and using network virtualization to isolate hosts without VLANs.

Master Windows Server Hyper-V networking with software-defined networking and QoS integration, VMQ and multi-queue enhancements, RDMA for virtual switches, and switch-embedded teaming with NAT virtual switch capabilities.

Configure Hyper-V networking with PowerShell to create an internal net switch, assign 192.168.10.0/24, connect virtual machines, and compare external and internal switches using Get-VMSwitch and Set-VMSwitch.

Configure hyper-v virtual machines, manage configuration versions, and use generation two vms for hot add memory and network adapters. Learn upgrade paths, manual vm version updates, and shielded vms.

Explore virtual machine generation versions, compare generation one and generation two Hyper-V VMs, and learn about boot options, uefi support, and os compatibility for Windows Server 2016 and above.

Configure Hyper-V virtual machines with integration services, smart paging, resource metering, and discrete device assignment (PCIe, NVMe, GPUs) while noting secure boot support for Linux and FreeBSD.

Explore hot add memory and dynamic memory in Hyper-V, generation two VMs, shielded VMs with a Host Guardian service, and attestation modes, plus best practices for memory, networking, and storage.

Explore configuring Hyper-V virtual machines by checking and upgrading configuration versions, comparing generation one and two, and understanding host supported versions, imports, and upgrade benefits.

Explore how to create and configure Hyper-V virtual machines, choosing generation one or two, assigning memory, networking, and disks, with planning for guest OS support and Azure upload.

Master the basics of creating and managing Hyper-V virtual machines with PowerShell. Practice using New-VM, Get-VM, memory startup bytes, VHD creation and linking, generation settings, and start/stop operations.

Learn to manage Hyper-V virtual machines, including VM states, production checkpoints, and memory state handling. Export, import, create checkpoints, and use PowerShell direct for host-based VM management.

Explore how to create and manage Hyper-V checkpoints for virtual machines, including standard and production checkpoints, application compatibility, and the impact of reverts on domain joins and backups.

Demonstrates creating, renaming, applying, exporting, and deleting production and standard checkpoints in Hyper-V manager, using PowerShell direct to configure and manage virtual machines.

Learn how to import and export virtual machines in Windows Server, including register, restore, and copy options, exporting with or without checkpoints, and live migration across Hyper-V hosts.

Learn how to perform live migrations of Hyper-V virtual machines, enable incoming and outgoing migrations, configure migration networks, and troubleshoot authentication and resource issues that can block migrations.

Discover how Docker packages apps into portable containers with a complete file system and shared kernel, using the Docker engine and open standards across Windows, Linux, and cloud.

Demonstrates installing and configuring Docker on Windows Server, enabling containers feature, using PowerShell or Server Manager to install Docker engine and client, with a script-based setup.

Explore domain controllers, the global catalog, and DNS service records, and learn how global catalog placement affects sign-in times and planning in single-domain versus multi-domain environments.

Design for high availability by enforcing redundancy across data center infrastructure, power, cooling, and storage to avoid a single point of failure. Enable multiple ISPs, switches, NICs, and domain controllers.

Learn to design continuous availability strategies that keep data and services running through planned downtime, guided by business impact and risk analyses, with backups, failover, clustering, and disaster recovery planning.

Analyze and plan high availability networking and storage to meet business continuity goals, eliminate single points of failure, and implement redundancy through adapters, MPIO, RAID, NAS, SAN, and cloud options.

Explore high availability and disaster recovery planning for Hyper-V virtual machines, including migration options, Hyper-V replica, failover clustering, and how to design and implement resilient Hyper-V environments.

Explore high availability options for Hyper-V, including host clustering, guest clustering, and NLB. Learn to configure failover, migrations, and shared storage for virtual machines.

Learn how Hyper-V live migration moves running virtual machines between hosts with minimal outage, using cluster or non-cluster setups, via a four-step process: setup, memory transfer, state transfer, and cleanup.

Discover live storage migration in Hyper-V to move virtual machines to another location or host without turning off the virtual machine, using the storage migration wizard.

Enable and configure live migration on Hyper-V hosts, including incoming and outgoing migrations, network or IP options, and Kerberos authentication. Demonstrate migrating VMs and storage between hosts.

Explore how Hyper-V replica maintains a primary and replica copy for disaster recovery, with configurable replication intervals and extended replication to a third site or Azure.

Demonstrates configuring Hyper-V replication between two servers, enabling a replica, choosing Kerberos authentication, configuring firewall rules, selecting replica storage, and performing planned failover.

Learn to protect data with Windows Server Backup, performing full server, volume, file, and VM backups, and restoring via bare metal, system state, or Azure Site Recovery options.

Learn how Windows Server failover clustering delivers high availability by moving cluster resources between nodes, using quorum and witness components, and enabling failover and failback for continuous service.

Explore how failover clustering enables high availability, supports live migration, and minimizes downtime by coordinating nodes, shared storage, and networks.

Design and deploy highly available failover clusters on Windows Server. Learn storage, networking, and infrastructure best practices, configure shared storage, quorum settings, and cluster aware updating.

Plan a highly available failover cluster with dynamic quorum and dynamic witness. Execute rolling upgrade steps and VM migrations, upgrading nodes, and updating cluster functional level.

Identify highly available services for failover clustering, emphasizing stateful apps and Hyper-V VMs with IP-based failover and automatic client reconnect; plan capacity and uniform hardware to avoid single failure points.

Explore five storage options for failover clusters, including sas, iscsi, fibre channel, shared virtual disks, and smb storage. Include requirements like ntfs or refs and mbr or gpt.

Learn hardware and network requirements for failover clustering in Windows Server, including identical, certified hardware across nodes and redundant networks for high availability.

Plan and configure failover clusters that meet hardware criteria and run Windows Server versions. Secure Active Directory, DNS, and availability while considering detached clusters, Kerberos, NTLM authentication, and rolling upgrades.

Configure cluster properties and manage nodes with Failover Cluster Manager, including adding, evicting, pausing, and setting preferred owners and resource types; failover and failback processes ensure seamless resource movement.

Explore quorum modes and dynamic quorum in Windows failover clustering, including disk, file share, and Azure cloud witnesses. Learn how to configure these options for optimal availability across cluster nodes.

Configure and validate Windows failover clusters by installing the clustering feature, creating clusters, configuring roles and apps, managing nodes, and testing failover with the Validation Wizard and Test-Cluster cmdlets.

Validate and configure a Windows failover cluster using Failover Cluster Manager by adding two nodes and running the Validate Configuration wizard to test servers and storage, with potential warnings.

Learn to create and configure a Windows failover cluster, validate configurations with the validation wizard, set up storage and networking, manage roles and cluster properties for high availability.

Install the failover clustering feature on all cluster members using Server Manager or PowerShell, create the cluster with selected nodes, install and configure the cluster role, and test failover.

Create a general file-server failover cluster from scratch by configuring virtual machines on ESXi, iSCSI storage, and domain integration to ensure high availability.

Configure cluster quorum with the wizard or PowerShell to keep resources online during node changes, and support dynamic quorum management with typical, witness, or advanced options.

Learn to configure a cluster quorum from disk witness to file share witness using PowerShell commands like Get-ClusterQuorum and Set-ClusterVolume, and validate the change.

Monitor failover clusters, back up and restore configurations, and maintain health using Event Viewer, Performance and Reliability Monitor, tracer TSX, and the Validated Configuration Wizard.

Add a shared folder to a highly available file server, configure failover and failback, and validate the deployment; verify quorum and disk witness settings via Windows Admin Center.

Master Windows failover cluster backup and restore, ensuring quorum and witness disk replication, plus non-authoritative and authoritative restores. Learn validation and structured troubleshooting to identify and fix cluster issues efficiently.

Optimize cluster network thresholds and monitoring to sustain node health in Windows failover clusters. Explore aggressive vs relaxed monitoring and configure same-subnet, cross-subnet, and cross-site delays and thresholds.

Discover how cluster aware updating enables zero downtime updates by automatically orchestrating updates across cluster nodes, in remote or self-updating modes, with core orchestrator and PowerShell tools.

Demonstrates configuring cluster aware updating (CAU) by adding roles, connecting to a failover cluster, generating update previews, applying updates, and enabling self-updating schedules.

Identify and resolve failover cluster communication issues, including network latency, failures, drivers, firewall rules, and anti-malware software, and generate the cluster log with Get-ClusterLog in PowerShell.

Troubleshoot cluster availability by resynchronizing the CNO password and repairing CNO or VCO objects with Failover Cluster Manager, and manage quorum with Event ID 1177 checks.

Monitor failover clustering performance and cluster parameters to troubleshoot failures and optimize scalability using Performance Monitor, Event Viewer, failover cluster management snap-in, and PowerShell cmdlets such as Get-Cluster and Test-Cluster.

Deploy stretch clusters to deliver high availability across sites with independent storage and automatic failover. Weigh cost and complexity, and prerequisites like storage replication and low-latency networks.

Deploy a stretch cluster to deliver high availability across multiple sites with independent storage and replication, enabling automatic failover and reduced administration, while weighing cost and complexity.

Learn how Storage Replica in Windows Server 2016 enables synchronous or asynchronous replication without vendor hardware, coordinating writes with a data witness and addressing latency.

Storage replica in Windows Server 2016+ provides block-level, storage-agnostic replication between clusters and servers, offering synchronous and asynchronous modes for stretch cluster, server-to-server, and cluster-to-cluster configurations, with disaster recovery support.

Explore dynamic quorum and dynamic witness in site-aware stretched clusters, comparing Azure Cloud Witness, file share witness, and no witness options for resilient Windows Server storage.

Explore site aware failover clustering in Windows Server 2016, defining site locations, configuring site aware nodes, and using failover affinity and preferred side settings to optimize failover and heartbeat behavior.

Learn to design failover and failback for stretched clusters during site disasters, prioritizing critical services (Active Directory, DNS, DHCP), quorum, storage replication, and client connectivity.

Explore how network load balancing with Windows Server boosts scalability and high availability across multiple hosts. Learn to configure and manage NLB clusters with PowerShell.

Balance traffic across Windows Server 2016+ nodes with network load balancing, enabling scalable, high-availability services for stateless web tiers.

Explore deploying NLB by planning affinity and port rules and meeting infrastructure requirements, including static IP addresses and unicast or multicast adapters. Use DNS round robin for multi-site distribution.

Configure network load balancing clusters using port rules and affinity settings to distribute traffic, manage node priorities, and tune host parameters for high availability.

Explore unicast and multicast options for a Windows NLB cluster, including Mac address behavior, single versus multiple adapters, management access, and VLAN segmentation to optimize performance and reduce switch flooding.