Microsoft Endpoint Manager evaluation lab kit now available as free download
Published Sep 21 2020 03:00 AM 30.2K Views
Microsoft

Microsoft Endpoint Manager is now an industry leader to manage and empower your users across all their devices.  One of the unique advantages it provides is that it does not matter where you are in your cloud management journey, Microsoft Endpoint Manager meets you where you are. In the last year, we saw many new IT management and security professionals discover Microsoft Endpoint Manager as part of their secure remote work initiatives and/or Zero Trust strategy. 

  

To help your learning goals, we are excited to announce the brand-new Microsoft Endpoint Manager Evaluation Lab Kit is now available for free download! Again, it doesn't matter what background you come from, this guide will meet you where you are.

 

The Microsoft Endpoint Manager Evaluation Lab Kit provides a self-deploying Configuration Manager lab environment and self-guided instructions to get hands-on with both the on-premises and cloud aspects of the unified platform. At the end of this lab, you will become familiar with using certain key features of Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager to deploy Windows 10 and Microsoft 365 apps for enterprise using the Microsoft Endpoint Manager administration console.

 

What makes this innovation in Microsoft Endpoint Manager possible is the native cloud integration with Configuration Manager to co-manage your Windows 10 devices. You can continue to use Configuration Manager for managing Windows 10, and seamlessly add Microsoft Intune cloud service for Zero Trust security without necessarily migrating. As a component of Microsoft Endpoint Manager, Configuration Manager becomes the intelligent edge within your organization, connected to the Microsoft 365 intelligent cloud.

 

What’s inside

 

The lab kit consists of two parts: a complete, virtual lab environment and a 140-page, step-by-step lab guide. The lab environment leverages the same environment as the Windows and Office Deployment Lab Kit, with the lab guide providing a deep dive into Endpoint Manager security and management features. Both parts of the lab are available in the Microsoft Evaluation Center.  

 

Download the Microsoft Endpoint Manager lab guide

Download the Windows and Office Deployment lab environment

 

Then, help us improve the next revision by filling this quick survey

 

Lab guide scenarios

The Microsoft Endpoint Manager Evaluation Kit lab guide provides step-by-step guidance for the following scenarios:

 

Directory and Network Readiness          

  • Optimize Windows 10   
  • Cloud management gateway (CMG) & cloud distribution point (CDP)   
  • CMPivot for real-time data in Configuration Manager
  • Windows Autopilot        
  • Tenant Attach, co-management and switching workloads          
  • Outlook mobile app config and app protection 

 

Shaping devices to corporate standards

  • User file and settings migration
  • Security and Compliance            
  • Secure and deploy business applications            
  • Office and Windows as a Service

 

 

MEM web page July 2020 - Infographic.png

 

Next steps

The lab environment that runs with this lab kit contains evaluation software that is designed for IT professionals interested in evaluating Microsoft Endpoint Manager and related products on behalf of their organization. We do not recommend that you install this evaluation if you are not an IT professional or are not professionally managing corporate networks or devices. Additionally, the lab environment is intended for evaluation purposes only. It is a standalone virtual environment and should not be used or connected to your production environment. To learn more, please visit the product documentation

 

If you enjoyed this lab kit, please help us out by filling this quick survey. It will help us innovate further in future revisions of this guide and add more scenarios that you find useful.

 

 

Follow @Msintune on Twitter

 

(The lab guide is co-authored with Danny Guillory, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft 365)

11 Comments
Brass Contributor

I think the link given for download is incorrect and should point to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-mem-evaluation-lab-kit

 

Bronze Contributor

Great news

Always better to learn hands-on!

Microsoft

Thank you @Kapila Munaweera . Fixed it! Please share your feedback using the survey at https://aka.ms/MEMLabSurvey after you use the lab

Copper Contributor

It is a little confusing concerning the details of the lab binaries itself.  Part of the post implies that this is a new lab environment, but then it talks about re-using the existing Windows and Office Deployment Lab Kit.

 

The download link is only for the lab guides, and you then need to find the download for the Windows and Office Deployment Lab Kit to use with it.  It is listed in the guide's description:

 

This lab guide is based on an automatically provisioned virtual lab environment, including domain controller, Internet gateway, and a fully configured ConfigMgr instance. The lab environment is free to download.

Download the lab environment here in the Evaluation Center

 

 

Microsoft

Thank you for the feedback @Mike Marable . We have tweaked the blog to be clearer about what's inside. Let us know your thoughts on the lab using the survey link, it will be much appreciated!

Copper Contributor

"This lab consists of evaluation versions of Microsoft products. The client VMs expire on December 5, 2020. An updated lab kit with refreshed VMs will be published on or before that date"

 

when the LAB will be updated ?

Brass Contributor

Any news on when this lab will be updated, because in the prerequisites it still says: "Lab expires December 5, 2020. A new version will be published prior to expiration." ?

Microsoft

Thanks for the feedback. Lab is updated with current date. 

Copper Contributor

Microsoft:  Is renewing this lab kit (or other ones) on your calendars?  Because it happened again with this previous lab kit... expired on Feb 7th and then took a few days before a newer one was available.  Also, should these lab kits be refreshed/published more frequently--so that folks always having at least 60-90+ days of evaluation time before they expire?  In other words, the expiration date should never be more than X days from the current date?  Thanks for your help and listening to customers!

Copper Contributor

lab kits is now refreshed/published, thanks for that!:smile:
but please update the documentation (the MEM lab guide) as well,

there are to many changes done by MS in the cloud so the document is no more accurate ( eg. the document is referring to Intune which has been moved to MEM):unamused:

Brass Contributor

Is there a way to have these as hosted labs for us to try out?

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‎Oct 21 2020 09:06 AM
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