RAFEEQ KHAN

+91 9985142897 | rafeeqkhan.it7@gmail.com | Hyderabad, India

IT Infrastructure Admin | Azure Admin | Microsoft 365 Admin

Education

Osmania University, Hyderabad Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com)

Certifications

Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) - Earned
Microsoft 365 Certified (M365 Administrator) - Earned
AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals - Recommended
AZ-305 Azure Solutions Architect - Roadmap
SC-300 / MS-102 Identity & M365 Admin - Roadmap

Experience

IT Infrastructure / Cloud Lab Administrator - HomelabCenter - Hyderabad 1 Year

Built a virtual datacenter on Hyper-V (Windows Server 2025): 10+ VMs, virtual switches, VHDX disks, checkpoints and per-role resource allocation.
Deployed AD DS domain controller (HYD-ADDC-V-01): new forest, OUs, users & groups, GPOs, DNS records, forwarders and Sites & Services.
Operated core server roles: File Server (Share vs NTFS, GPO-mapped drives), IIS with public DNS + SSL, Exchange 2025 SE (mailboxes, MX/SPF, OWA over HTTPS).
Configured a two-node Hyper-V failover cluster: iSCSI shared storage, Cluster Validation, file-share quorum witness, CSV, zero-downtime Live/Quick migration.
Established site-to-site VPN (RRAS to Azure VNet Gateway) and proved it with cross-cloud ping plus an additional Azure DC (AZU-ADDS-V-01).
Implemented Entra Connect hybrid identity: OU / attribute filtering, Password Hash Sync, synced-user verification and SSO testing.
Delivered Azure workloads: Landing Zones with policy & RBAC, 2x IIS VMs behind a Public Load Balancer with health probes and failover test, Web App with Private Endpoint (public access disabled).
Protection & end-user computing: Recovery Services Vault backup/restore, AVD host pool (multi-session Windows 11, multi-user test), Azure file server failover cluster with cloud witness.

Projects | 15 Hands-on Labs: On-Prem > Hybrid > Azure

1. OS Installation & Virtualization - Clean installs of Windows 11 & Windows Server 2025 from ISO, BIOS/boot settings, Desktop Experience vs Core, Hyper-V role, virtual switches, VM creation, checkpoints.
2. Active Directory Domain Services - Forest / domain promotion, OUs, users, groups, GPO deployment (password policy, drive maps), DNS zones, forwarders, Sites & Services replication.
3. File Server (HYD-FILE-V-01) - Domain join, FSRM, shared folders, Share vs NTFS permission model, GPO-mapped S: / P: drives for users.
4. Web Server - IIS (HYD-WEBS-V-01) - Site & bindings, DNS A records, NAT + public DNS publishing, ZeroSSL certificate, HTTP to HTTPS redirect.
5. Exchange Server 2025 SE (HYD-MAIL-V-01) - Prerequisites, mailbox role install & health check, mailboxes via EAC, MX / SPF / Autodiscover, SSL-secured OWA & SMTP.
6. Two-Node Hyper-V Failover Cluster - iSCSI target & LUNs, node domain join, Cluster Validation Wizard, file-share quorum witness, CSV, Live / Quick migration.
7. S2S VPN - On-Prem to Azure (HYD-VPNR-V-01) - RRAS role, VNet, VNet peering, Virtual Network Gateway, Local Gateway, shared-key S2S connection, cross-cloud validation.
8. Entra Connect Hybrid Identity - Express / Custom install, OU & attribute filtering, Password Hash / Pass-through sync, Entra Connect Health monitoring.
9. Management Groups & Landing Zones - Tenant root group, workload vs platform landing zones, policy + RBAC assigned at MG scope for clean billing and compliance.
10. High-Availability Web Tier - 2x IIS Azure VMs, Standard Public Load Balancer, backend pool, HTTP/HTTPS rules, health probes, simulated VM-failure failover test.
11. Azure Web App (PaaS) - App Service plan, Private Endpoint in PrivateEndpoint subnet, Private DNS validation, public access disabled, VNet outbound integration, TLS hostname.
12. Azure VM Backup & Restore - Recovery Services Vault, storage redundancy, daily / weekly retention, on-demand backup, alerts, restore as new VM with IIS + login validation.
13. Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) - AVD VNet + DNS to AD, host pool, Windows 11 Enterprise multi-session + M365 Apps image, workspace, app group, RBAC, multi-user session test.
14. Azure File Server Failover Cluster - 2 nodes (AZU-FSCL-V-01/02), Azure Shared Disk, cluster validation, Cloud Witness, Internal Load Balancer probe, clustered SMB share + failover test.
15. Monitoring & Next Steps - WSUS / Azure Update Manager, FSLogix profiles & scaling plans, Entra Connect sync-rule troubleshooting, Azure SQL basics (in progress).

Technical Skills

Cloud (Azure): Management Groups, Landing Zones, Policies & RBAC, VMs, Public Load Balancer, App Service + Private Endpoint, Recovery Services Vault, AVD, Cloud Witness

Operating Systems: Windows Server 2025 / 2022 (Desktop Experience & Core), Windows 11, Linux basics

Server Roles & HA: Hyper-V, AD DS, DNS, GPO, File Server + FSRM, IIS, Exchange Server 2025 SE, WSUS (basic), Failover Clustering, iSCSI Target, CSV, Live Migration

Networking: RRAS S2S VPN, VNet Gateway, VNet Peering, NAT, TCP/IP, VLANs, DHCP, DNS

Identity / M365: Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD), Entra Connect Sync, Password Hash Sync, SSO

Tools & Scripting: PowerShell, Server Manager, Entra Admin Center, Azure Portal, Azure CLI