LU Datacenter Bootcamp

Location: Ludwigshafen/Mannheim
Project involvement: Aug–Sep 2024 | Apr & Jun 2025

As part of the design and planning team for an infrastructure project, I had the opportunity to develop a fully simulated customer scenario. Future trainees will be trained based on this scenario in a boot camp setting.

Drawing inspiration from real-world deployments, we developed a comprehensive documentation and built the entire setup in a server room using enterprise hardware. Through this hands-on experience, I deepened my understanding of enterprise-grade LAN design, VLAN segmentation, and services like Active Directory, DHCP, MariaDB server and Docker-based monitoring.

Collaborating with peers and simulating a real customer rollout sharpened both my technical and project coordination skills. Thanks for this valuable professional development opportunity.

Project Management & Planning:

  • Time and resource planning (Gantt-style breakdown),
  • Task distribution and team coordination,
  • Documentation and presentation of project results,
  • Communication with stakeholders and technical leads.

Networking & Infrastructure:

  • VLAN design and segmentation,
  • Cisco IOS upgrade via TFTP,
  • CLI configuration of Cisco Catalyst switches and ISR routers,
  • Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) configuration (Portfast, BPDU Guard),
  • Static routing and IP subnetting,
  • Patch panel and structured cabling documentation.

Server & Virtualization:

  • Hardware RAID configuration (RAID 1, RAID 5),
  • Installation of ESXi, Windows Server 2019, Ubuntu Server,
  • VMware ESXi configuration (vSwitches, Portgroups, VLANs),
  • VM deployment and service hosting (Apache, MySQL),
  • Windows Services & Domain,
  • Active Directory setup and domain promotion,
  • Group Policy Object (GPO) creation and deployment,
  • Firewall rules,
  • Network shares and access control.

Linux & Docker:

  • Ubuntu server setup and SSH hardening,
  • Docker installation and container management,
  • Portainer deployment,
  • Fail2Ban configuration for SSH protection,
  • Uptime Kuma monitoring setup.