Usually focused entirely on creating VM installs for Configuration Manager, Johan Arwidmark, OS deployment extraordinaire and IT/Dev Connections speaker, has released a new Hydration Kit that provides a complete installation for the entire System Center 2012 R2 suite of products.

I knew he was working on something big over the weekend when I saw this tweet from him:

Seriously, DPM is the ONLY System Center team who cannot write a decent installer! Just saying... #RealWorldNote

— Johan Arwidmark (@jarwidmark) February 9, 2014

Here's what's included in this release:

• DC01 – Windows Server 2012 R2, DC, DHCP and DNS
• CM01 - Windows Server 2012 R2, SQL Server 2012 SP1, System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager
• DPM01 - Windows Server 2012 R2, SQL Server 2012 SP1, System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager
• MDT01 - Windows Server 2012 R2, WDS, SQL Server 2012 SP1 Express
• MDT02 - Windows Server 2012 R2, File Server
• OM01 - Windows Server 2012 R2, SQL Server 2012 SP1, System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager
• OR01 - Windows Server 2012 R2, SQL Server 2012 SP1, System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator
• PC0001 - Windows 7 SP1 x64, domain Client
• PC0002 - Windows 8.1 x64, domain Client
• PC0003 - Windows 7 SP1 x64, domain Client
• PC0004 - Windows 7 SP1 x64, domain Client
• SM01 - Windows Server 2012 R2, SQL Server 2012 SP1, System Center 2012 R2 Service Manager
• VMM01 - Windows Server 2012 R2, SQL Server 2012 SP1, System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager

The new release is available for direct download from his link: Download the Hydration Kit for System Center 2012 R2

However, you'll also want to read through Johan's instructions which include how to install and accumulating the prerequisites. It's a long, verbose post, so you'll probably want to consider printing it out.

Here's the instructions: The Hydration Kit for System Center 2012 R2 is available for download

What is a Hydration Kit?

A Hydration Kit is a download and a process for creating an entire Configuration Manager 2012 infrastructure in a Virtual Machine (VM). The VM runs on Hyper-V or VMware and allows admins to build a complete lab environment quickly. And, it's free. Johan delivers ConfigMgr training all over the world and the Hydration Kit allows him to build a training environment whenever a fresh set of training computers is needed. Johan is very community-minded, so he continues to provide his valuable Hydration Kit to the System Center community.