Hands-On Labs
Five labs, in order. Each one exists to make a resume claim true.
| Lab | What it proves | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Virtualisation — Hyper-V, VMs, snapshots | ~90 min |
| 2 | Windows Server — DC, DNS, DHCP | ~3 h |
| 3 | Active Directory and Group Policy | ~3 h |
| 4 | Firewall, VLANs, VPN with pfSense | ~3 h |
| 5 | Running real troubleshooting scenarios | ~2 h |
Ten hours of labs turns "I've read about Active Directory" into "I built a
domain controller, delegated a helpdesk role, and diagnosed a broken GPO with
gpresult /r". That difference is the entire interview.
Why a home lab is the right call
You already self-host. You already know Linux, containers, services and monitoring. What you lack is Windows Server, Active Directory, and switched networking — and all three are free or cheap:
| Component | Cost | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Hyper-V | Free | Windows 10/11 Pro or Windows Server |
| Windows Server 2022 | Free evaluation, 90 days | Microsoft |
| Ubuntu Server LTS | Free | Canonical |
| pfSense | Free | Netgate |
| Cisco Packet Tracer | Free | Cisco |
You do not need a server. Hyper-V runs fine on a modern laptop or desktop with 16 GB of RAM and a good SSD. Allocate conservatively and it stays responsive.
Prerequisites
# Hyper-V requires Windows 10/11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education.
# Home edition will not do — check before you start.
systeminfo | Select-String "Hyper-V Requirements"
# Enable it
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V -All
# then reboot
The habit that makes it count
Screenshot each milestone and push to GitHub with a short README. When the interview asks "have you done this?", a repository link is worth a paragraph of explanation.
Rules
- Break things deliberately. Labs 2, 3 and 4 all contain a step whose only purpose is to break the environment so you can diagnose it.
- Write down what you changed. The recovery is the exercise.
- Time yourself on Lab 5. Speed at recall is what you need under pressure.
What "done" looks like
When you finish all five, you can say — truthfully:
"I built a Windows Server lab with a domain controller running AD DS, DNS and DHCP, a three-tier OU structure, delegated helpdesk permissions, and four Group Policies I've broken and diagnosed. I run a firewall VM with VLAN routing and a VPN server, and I use it to rehearse the ticket scenarios my JD describes, like locked accounts, DHCP exhaustion and printers."
That is a paragraph you can deliver without flinching. Start with Lab 1.