This is a start-to-finish walkthrough for someone who has never run this tool before: staging the files it needs, launching the GUI wizard, clicking through every page, and knowing what "it worked" looks like. It does not assume you know ConfigMgr, Hyper-V, or this project.
If you already know the tool and just need the reference tables (templates, cmdlets, config keys, full troubleshooting list), see the main README instead -- this doc is the guided version of its GUI walkthrough section.
One command (via a wizard, or via a single PowerShell cmdlet) turns a blank Windows host into a working Microsoft Configuration Manager lab: three virtual machines, networked, domain-joined, with a healthy CM site at the end.
| VM | What it is |
|---|---|
| DC01 | Domain controller + certificate authority |
| CM01 | SQL Server + the ConfigMgr site server |
| CLIENT01 | A Windows 11 PC managed by that site |
Everything runs locally in Hyper-V on your machine. Nothing leaves the host. A first build takes about 70 minutes; see timing below.
| Resource | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| RAM | 32 GB | 64 GB |
| Free disk | 300 GB SSD/NVMe | 500 GB+ |
| CPU | 4 cores | 8+ cores |
| OS | Windows 10/11 Pro or Server 2022+, Hyper-V capable | Windows 11 Pro |
The lab is lighter once it's up and idling than the sizing above implies -- it's the CM install and OS deployment work that spikes usage. Size for the peak, not the idle.
The wizard and the engine both require PowerShell 7.6 LTS or
newer (not the powershell.exe that ships in Windows -- that's
5.1). If you're not sure which you have, open a terminal and run
pwsh -Version; if that command isn't found, install it:
winget install Microsoft.PowerShellThe engine builds VMs from real Windows/SQL/ConfigMgr media. Create the folders below (if they don't already exist) and place each file. This is the step most worth double-checking before you launch the wizard, since a missing file is the single most common first-run failure. If you'd rather not do this by hand: the wizard's Media page checks all of it, downloads the direct-link items for you (ADK, WinPE, VC++, ODBC), and opens the sign-in-gated download pages for the rest.
- Windows Server 2025 Eval ISO ->
C:\LabSources\ISOs\(download) - Windows 11 Enterprise Eval ISO ->
C:\LabSources\ISOs\(download) - SQL Server 2022 Eval ISO ->
C:\LabSources\ISOs\(download -- this runs a small bootstrapper first; choose "Download Media" to get the actual ISO) - ConfigMgr 2509 baseline, extracted ->
C:\LabSources\SoftwarePackages\CM\ConfigMgr_2509\(download, then extract the download with 7-Zip into that folder) - ADK offline layout ->
C:\LabSources\SoftwarePackages\ADK\Offline\(getadksetup.exehere, then runadksetup.exe /quiet /layout C:\LabSources\SoftwarePackages\ADK\Offline) - WinPE offline layout ->
C:\LabSources\SoftwarePackages\ADKPE\Offline\(getadkwinpesetup.exehere, then runadkwinpesetup.exe /quiet /layout C:\LabSources\SoftwarePackages\ADKPE\Offline) - VC++ 14.50 redist, x64 and x86 ->
C:\LabSources\SoftwarePackages\VCRedist\(x64, x86) - ODBC Driver 18.5.2.1 MSI ->
C:\LabSources\SoftwarePackages\ODBC\msodbcsql.msi(download -- must be this exact version; 18.6.x has a documented NULL-value regression that breaks CM)
You do not need to download an MSOLEDB driver -- CM 2509 setup installs its own and the engine skips that step by default.
The wizard's Media page scans for all of this and tells you exactly what it can't find, so it's fine to move on even if you're not 100% sure everything landed in the right spot.
Building Hyper-V switches, VMs, and a domain requires an elevated session. The wizard checks for this and will not let you proceed without it, so it's easiest to just open PowerShell as Administrator from the start:
- Click Start, type
pwsh, right-click PowerShell 7 (x64), choose Run as administrator, and approve the prompt. - Or, from an existing terminal:
Start-Process pwsh -Verb RunAs.
Everything above -- hardware, PowerShell 7, staged media, elevation -- is required either way. From here you can click through the GUI wizard (the rest of this doc), or skip straight to a working lab with one PowerShell command.
From the same elevated PowerShell 7 window, at the project root:
cd C:\projects\mecm-homelab
Import-Module .\modules\HomeLab\HomeLab.psd1
Install-HomeLabInstall-HomeLab is the whole engine -- it reads config.psd1,
builds the default 3-VM topology from the
media you staged, and prints
progress straight to the console. Same engine, same result, same
timing as the GUI path; the GUI is just a
wizard sitting on top of this one cmdlet.
It deploys with the published default lab password unless you pass your own:
$pw = ConvertTo-SecureString 'Your-Lab-Password!' -AsPlainText -Force
Install-HomeLab -LabPassword $pwTo build one of the other six topologies instead of default, add
-Template <name> -- see the template table
in the README for what each one is.
Everything later in this doc -- verifying the site is healthy, troubleshooting, starting over -- applies the same regardless of which path you used to deploy. Skip ahead to What "done" looks like, or keep reading for the GUI walkthrough.
In your elevated PowerShell 7 window, move to wherever you cloned this project and run the entry script:
cd C:\projects\mecm-homelab
pwsh -NoProfile -File .\gui\start-homelab-gui.ps1The wizard runs every phase in-process. Long steps (CM setup, SQL install) execute on a background thread so the window stays responsive and the log drawer at the bottom keeps streaming.
The sidebar on the left is the workflow, top to bottom. You move through it with the Next button on each page (or by clicking a sidebar item directly once you've reached it). Options at the bottom of the sidebar is not part of this flow -- see Options below.
Just a summary of the six steps ahead. Nothing to configure here -- click Pick template in the sidebar to start.
Seven built-in topologies plus an option to load your own
config.psd1. If this is your first deploy, pick default --
it's the 3-VM lab described above and the one every part of the
engine fully supports. The other templates trade up to more VMs and
closer-to-enterprise role separation once you know what you're doing
-- see the template table in the README.
Click Next: Host check.
Click Run host check. This is the wizard actually testing your machine -- PowerShell version, Hyper-V, RAM, free disk, virtualization extensions, elevation. Each row gets a checkmark or an X; a summary line above the grid tells you pass/fail at a glance. (Your staged media gets its own page next.)
If something fails, the Detail column names exactly what's wrong. The two most common first-run misses:
| Detail says | Fix |
|---|---|
| Hyper-V not enabled, reboot required | Reboot the host, then re-run the wizard -- the engine already turned the feature on, it just needs the restart to take effect. |
| TrustedHosts / WinRM check failed | The check gives you the exact Set-Item command to run in an elevated window. Run it as shown, then re-run the check. |
Warnings (shown but not blocking) are fine to proceed past -- e.g. RAM above the minimum but below the recommended number. Only a red X blocks Next.
Click Next: Media.
Every external file from the
download checklist, checked
against your LabSourcesRoot, one row each. A checkmark means found
(the Detail column shows the file it matched and its size); an X
means missing. Each missing row offers what fits:
- Download -- for the direct-link assets (ODBC MSI, both VC++
redistributables, the ADK and WinPE offline layouts), the wizard
fetches straight into the correct folder. The two layouts run the
Microsoft bootstrapper's
/quiet /layout, which downloads a multi-gigabyte payload -- start those and let them run. - Web page -- the three eval ISOs and the ConfigMgr media need a Microsoft sign-in, so the wizard opens the download page in your browser instead. Save the file into the folder the Detail column names (the Folder button opens it in Explorer, creating it if needed).
- Re-check rescans after you've staged anything.
The "CM prerequisite offline cache" row is optional -- without it, CM setup downloads its prerequisites live during Phase 08. Missing required rows here will keep the Review page's Deploy button disabled, so this is the page to finish before moving on. The filename match is a wildcard: the exact ISO name doesn't matter, the folder does.
Click Next: Topology.
A per-VM grid: name, roles, IP, CPU, memory, disk size, start delay. For a first deploy, leave everything as-is and click Validate, then Next -- the defaults are a known-good configuration. Come back to this page on a later run once you want to, say, hand CM01 more RAM or rename a VM.
Validate re-runs the same schema check the engine itself uses before a real deploy: every IP inside the lab network, exactly one domain controller, minimum memory not greater than maximum memory, and so on. Fix anything it flags before moving on.
Click Next: Post-CM.
Optional day-2 extras, applied after the site is up and healthy. Safe to leave everything unchecked on a first run -- you're not losing the ability to add these later, since re-running the wizard against an already-built lab is quick (see Starting over). Each section is independent:
- Collections -- ready-made device collections: All Workstations, All Servers, and a test collection containing CLIENT01.
- Maintenance windows -- a Saturday patch window and a daily test window, tied to the collections above.
- Driver categories -- vendor/model tags for OS deployment.
- Applications -- import output from the app-packager tool, if you have any staged.
- OSD -- imports a WinPE boot image and creates a starter "Build Win11" task sequence.
Click Next: Review.
Read-only panes: the topology you're about to build, the Post-CM options you selected, the media check, and the ordered list of phases the engine will run. If any required media is still missing, the media pane lists exactly what and Deploy stays disabled -- stage it, then click Re-check media. This is your last chance to back out or go fix something -- nothing has been created yet.
Click Deploy to move to the final page.
Click Start deploy. From this point the wizard is actually building the lab: Hyper-V switch, VMs, domain promotion, SQL, CM setup, CM configuration, then your Post-CM choices, in that order. You'll see:
- A status line and spinner showing the current phase.
- A phase checklist that flips from
waitingtorunningtodoneas it goes. - A progress bar across all phases.
- The log drawer at the bottom streaming every engine line live.
Keep the window open until this finishes -- the deploy runs inside the wizard process, so closing it stops the build. If your host is a laptop, turn off sleep for this run.
Cancel stops the build after the phase currently in flight finishes -- it will not abandon a phase mid-way (so if CM setup is running, it finishes CM setup, then stops before the next phase).
If you didn't supply your own password (by editing AdminPass in a
config file, or setting the HOMELAB_PASSWORD environment variable
before launching), the wizard silently falls back to the same
published default password every copy of this repo ships with --
you'll see a WARN line about it in the log drawer. That's fine for
an isolated lab on your own machine; just know it's not a secret.
Measured on a fairly capable host (20 threads, 32 GB RAM, NVMe):
| Scenario | Time |
|---|---|
| First deploy, building from ISOs | ~70 minutes (~25-30 of which is a one-time base-image build) |
| Full teardown + rebuild, base images cached | ~45-65 minutes |
| Re-running against an already-healthy lab | under 10 minutes |
The CM site install itself is the biggest single chunk and doesn't get faster on repeat runs -- everything upstream of it does, thanks to caching and idempotent phase checks.
When the deploy finishes, the log drawer prints a summary: the VM table, service health, the accounts that got created, which Post-CM options applied, and where things live on disk.
Open the ConfigMgr console on CM01 and every site system should show healthy:
To get into a VM:
Import-Module .\modules\HomeLab\HomeLab.psd1
Connect-HomeLabVM -Name CM01That opens a console session (vmconnect.exe under the hood). Log
in as CONTOSO\LabAdmin with the lab password from the
note above.
The README's Troubleshooting section has the full list. The ones a first-timer is most likely to hit:
- CM setup hangs or fails. The log drawer will say so, but the
authoritative source is
C:\ConfigMgrSetup.logon CM01 itself. Re-runningInstall-HomeLab(or the wizard) is usually enough -- every phase is idempotent and picks up where it left off. - "Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Path'" during CM configuration. A stale WinRM session from an earlier phase. Just re-run -- the engine refreshes its environment on every attempt.
- CM01 runs out of disk. Content distribution filled the OS volume. See the README's CM01 OS disk full entry for the resize steps.
Made a mistake, or just want a clean lab again? From an elevated PowerShell 7 window:
Import-Module .\modules\HomeLab\HomeLab.psd1
Remove-HomeLab -KeepBaseImages
Install-HomeLab-KeepBaseImages reuses the cached, already-sysprepped Windows
images, which is why a rebuild (~45-65 min) is faster than the first
deploy (~70 min). Drop that flag to wipe everything including the
image cache.
The Options item at the bottom of the sidebar is always available and holds settings that apply across runs, not just this one:
- Paths -- where staged media lives (
LabSourcesRoot, defaultC:\LabSources) and where VM disks get built (LabImagePath, defaultC:\LabImages), plus how many VMs the engine provisions in parallel (1-16, default 3). - Logging -- how much detail the log drawer shows (Quiet / Normal / Verbose), whether it timestamps each line, and the exact paths of the GUI and engine log files on disk.
- Defaults -- which Post-CM checkboxes come pre-checked the next time you open that page.
- About -- current version, project URL, and where the settings file itself lives on disk.
The dark/light theme toggle lives at the bottom of the sidebar, not on this page.
- README -- full reference: all seven templates, the
cmdlet path, every
config.psd1key, exported cmdlets, and the complete troubleshooting list. - docs/architecture.md -- how the engine's phases fit together, for anyone modifying it.
- docs/native-engine-cookbook.md -- specific Microsoft-surface gotchas the engine works around.
- docs/unattend-templates.md -- how the per-VM unattended-install answer files are built.