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Pre-Midterm Practical Review

Skills Gauntlet

Branch Office Deployment Challenge

75 mystery objectives. No instructions. No handholding. Build an entire branch office from bare metal. Prove you're ready for OUTPOST.

75
Objectives
11
Consoles
M01-M11
Coverage
100
Max Score

WORK ORDER — BRANCH OFFICE ALPHA

PRIORITY: HIGH DEADLINE: End of Shift CLASSIFICATION: Internal
You have been assigned to deploy IT infrastructure for the new Hexworth Corp branch office (Branch Office Alpha). A single rack-mount server has been delivered and powered on. It currently has no configuration — no name, no IP, no roles, no domain membership.

Your task: build the complete infrastructure according to company standards. No step-by-step guide is provided. You are expected to know the tools. Work order details follow.

DEPLOYMENT REQUIREMENTS

SystemRequirements
Network The branch uses 10.0.50.0/24. The server should be .10. Gateway is .1. DNS should point to itself once configured.
Domain Create a subdomain under hexworth.local for the branch.
Users & Groups The branch has two initial employees (jsmith, mjones). Create proper organizational structure and an admin group.
Storage Two additional disks need formatting. One for user data (100GB, NTFS), one for backups (200GB, ReFS). Set up a network share.
Virtualization Two VMs needed: APP01 (4GB) and DB01 (8GB). Both Gen 2. Create proper virtual networking with external and internal switches.
Containers Deploy a containerized web frontend using the IIS nanoserver image. Set up container networking.
High Availability Set up basic failover clustering between BRO-DC01 and APP01 with a file server clustered role.
Monitoring Configure performance baselines and alerts for CPU (90%) and memory (85%). Monitor disk I/O. Set up event filtering.
DNS Full zone configuration including reverse lookup. Create records for all servers (APP01 at .20, DB01 at .21). Alias the intranet. Configure MX and external forwarding.
DHCP Serve addresses .100-.200 to branch clients with proper options. Reserve IPs for APP01.
Security Policies Password policies (12 char minimum, 90 day rotation, lockout after 5 attempts). Apply to appropriate OUs with proper security filtering.
Web Server Internal intranet site with Windows Authentication, HTTPS, dedicated app pool on .NET 4.0. Disable anonymous access.

Hint System

Stuck? Each objective has 4 progressive hints. But hints come at a cost — each hint reduces your maximum possible score. Use them wisely, or don't use them at all.

Level 1: -1 point
Level 2: -2 points
Level 3: -3 points
Level 4: -5 points

NO FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS WILL BE PROVIDED

All objectives are hidden as ??? until you complete them. Use your knowledge of Modules 01–11 to figure out what needs to be done. Your progress is saved automatically.

SKILLS ASSESSED

Server Configuration Active Directory Storage & Volumes Hyper-V Containers Failover Clustering Performance Monitoring DNS DHCP Group Policy IIS Web Services
BEGIN GAUNTLET →

Your progress is saved automatically. You can leave and return at any time.

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