Hello.
Back some time ago I had purchased The Windows-noob OSD Guides for Configuration Manager 2012 R2 by Niall Brady. At that time as I was going through the Hydration Kit installations I was having some valid issues and Niall had very kindly stepped in to assist in getting me setup. During this period in my life I was not as resourceful, patient or knowledgeable as I am now and I got frustrated about needing to constantly ask for help from the Author. Although he was willing to assist me with some of the lab issues I was having since I was in US and he was in Sweden I could not wait to get the support I needed only on weekends and I returned the book out of frustration. Let me just reiterate that Niall was amazingly helpful and did what he could for me and I am still a huge fan of his and support everything is doing and has done. I am back on this site again and very grateful for the community of amazing dedicated SCCM engineers that I have access to and am looking forward to starting with a new fresh outlook and enthusiasm.
I am wanting to give the book another try and was wondering if anyone could tell me if I can still go through the exercises without having the exact lab setup from the Hydration Kit that comes with the book. I have SCCM 2012 now running in my home lab on my domain and want to go through the book but it's not setup using the ViaMonstra layout. I am also willing to give the hydration kit another try but wanting to know if anyone has recently used it and if it is still valid.