3 days (24 hours total)
Focus: advanced AD, security, automation, cluster/HA, PKI, hybrid integration.
Day 1 – Advanced Active Directory & Security
1. AD Replication Deep Dive
Multi-site replication, site links, bridgeheads, troubleshooting lingering objects, USN rollback behavior.
2. Advanced FSMO & Domain Recovery
FSMO seizure, metadata cleanup, authoritative restores, tombstone lifecycle, DC isolation testing.
3. AD Tiered Administration Model
Admin tiering, privileged access workstations, role separation, secure delegation, ESAE principles.
4. Group Policy Advanced
Loopback, AGPM, GPO versioning, advanced filtering, GPO processing analysis, Sysvol migration (DFSR).
5. PKI & Enterprise CA Advanced
AIA/CRL design, OCSP responders, HSM integration basics, cross-forest PKI trust, certificate lifecycle controls.
Day 2 – Networking, Security & Automation
6. DNS Advanced
Conditional forwarders, stub zones, DNSSEC high-level, secure dynamic updates, AD-integrated DNS health.
7. DHCP Advanced
Failover clustering, MAC filtering, superscopes, option inheritance, rogue server detection.
8. Windows Firewall + IPsec
Connection security rules, IPSec negotiation modes, certificate auth, securing server-to-server channels.
9. Windows Server Hardening
CIS templates, secure baselines, LAPS (Legacy + LAPS v2), credential guard, secure bootchain analysis.
10. PowerShell Automation & DSC
Advanced scripting structure, remoting at scale, Just Enough Administration, DSC configurations, partial configs.
Day 3 – Failover, HA, Hybrid & Operations
11. Failover Clustering Advanced
Cluster networking, CSV internals, cluster-aware updating, resource fencing, Stretch cluster fundamentals.
12. Hyper-V Advanced
Nested virtualization, SR-IOV, NUMA tuning, shielded VMs, storage live migration behavior.
13. Storage & SMB Advanced
SMB Direct (RDMA), multi-channel, SOFS, ReFS behavior, S2D conceptual overview.
14. Hybrid Integration (Azure AD + Entra)
Seamless SSO, PTA vs AAD Connect, device writeback, hybrid join, conditional access workflows.
15. Monitoring, Auditing & Forensics
Event forwarding, advanced audit policy, Sysmon, AD change tracking, core incident response flow.