create a tenant

A tenant is essentially your organization’s subscription to Microsoft 365 services, which can include Office 365, Enterprise Mobility + Security, and Windows 10. Each tenant is unique and separate from other tenants, providing a secure and isolated environment for your organization’s data.

Steps to Create a Microsoft 365 Tenant

1. Sign up for Microsoft 365: To create a tenant, you need to sign up for one of the Microsoft 365 services that suits your organization’s needs. This can be done by purchasing a subscription or starting a free trial.
2. Set up a domain: By default, Microsoft provides a .onmicrosoft.com domain, but for a professional appearance, you should register a custom domain or use one that you already own.
3. Verify domain ownership: If using a custom domain, you must verify ownership with Microsoft to ensure it’s not being used with another tenant. This involves adding a TXT or MX record to your DNS settings provided by Microsoft.
4. Create your tenant: As part of the sign-up process, you’ll be guided through creating your tenant, which involves defining a unique name for your tenant and setting up your global administrator account.

Considerations for Tenant Creation

• Tenant Name: Choose a name that reflects your organization, as it will be part of your default domain .onmicrosoft.com.
• Global Administrator Account: This is the top-level administrative account for managing the tenant, its subscriptions, services, and users.
• Location: The location you choose for your tenant cannot be changed afterward and affects where your data is stored for compliance and latency considerations.

Tenant Administration and Configuration

Once the tenant is created, you can configure various settings for your organization:

• User Management: You can add, modify, or remove users and assign licenses to provide access to Microsoft 365 services.
• Group Management: You can organize users into groups for easier management and policy application.

License Management: Microsoft 365 allows you to assign licenses to users either individually or in bulk. Licenses determine access to various services and applications.

Example

An educational institution needs a Microsoft 365 tenant to manage their staff and students. They have a custom domain, university.edu, which they want to use for email and other Microsoft services.

• The institution purchases a Microsoft 365 Education subscription.
• While signing up, they create their tenant with the name university.
• They verify their custom domain using a TXT record.
• The global administrator account created is admin@university.onmicrosoft.com.
• After tenant creation, the admin adds users such as jane.doe@university.edu and assigns the necessary licenses.
• The institution sets up groups for different departments and student classes to streamline communication and collaboration.

Tenant Customization and Integration

Further customizations and integrations include:

• Directory Synchronization: If your organization maintains an on-premises Active Directory, you can synchronize it to Azure AD using Azure AD Connect.
• Single Sign-On: Configure SSO to allow users to access multiple services with one set of credentials.
• Multi-Factor Authentication: Improve security by setting up MFA to require additional verification methods when accessing the tenant’s resources.
• Conditional Access Policies: Establish policies that dictate how and when users can access certain resources based on their location, device, and other factors.

Creating a tenant is just the first step in preparing for the MS-100 Microsoft 365 Identity and Services exam. Understanding how to properly set up and manage a tenant, including identity and access configurations, are key competencies that are tested in the exam. Organizing users, managing groups and licenses, and securing your tenant thoroughly are tasks that must be mastered for effective Microsoft 365 administration.