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Lab 01 - Manage Microsoft Entra ID Identities
Lab introduction
This is the first in a series of labs for Azure Administrators. In this lab, you learn about users and groups. Users and groups are the basic building blocks for an identity solution. You also get familiar with basic administrator tools.
This lab requires an Azure subscription. Your subscription type may affect the availability of features in this lab. You may change the region, but the steps are shown in East US.
Estimated timing: 40 minutes
Lab scenario
Your organization is building a new lab environment for pre-production testing of apps and services. A few engineers are being hired to manage the lab environment, including the virtual machines. To allow the engineers to authenticate by using Microsoft Entra ID, you have been tasked with provisioning users and group accounts. To minimize administrative overhead, membership of the groups should be updated automatically based on job titles. You also need to know how to delete users to prevent access after an engineer leaves your organization.
Interactive lab simulation
There are interactive lab simulations that you might find useful for this topic. The simulation lets you to click through a similar scenario at your own pace. There are differences between the interactive simulation and this lab, but many of the core concepts are the same. An Azure subscription is not required.
- Manage Entra ID Identities. Create and configure users and assign to groups. Create an Azure tenant and manage guest accounts.
Architecture diagram
Tasks
- Task 1: Create a resource group.
- Task 2: Create and configure user accounts.
- Task 3: Create groups and add members.
- Task 4: Familiarize yourself with the Cloud Shell.
- Task 5: Practice with Azure PowerShell.
- Task 6: Practice with the Bash shell.
Task 1: Create a resource group
In this task, you create a resource group. A resource group is a grouping of related resources. For example, all the resources for a project, a department, or an application.
Note: For each lab in this course you will create a new resource group. This lets you quickly locate and manage your lab resources.
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Sign in to the Azure portal -
https://portal.azure.com.Note: The Azure portal is used in all the labs. If you are new to the Azure, type
Quickstart Centerin the top search box. Then a few minutes to watch the Getting started in the Azure portal video. Even if you have used the portal before, you will find a few tips and tricks on navigating and customizing the interaface. -
In the Azure portal, search for and select
Resource groups. -
On the Resource groups blade, click + Create, and provide the required information.
Setting Value Subscription name your subscription Resource group name az104-rg1Location East US Note: All the labs use East US. Watch the Select the best region video in the Quickstart Center to learn what to consider when selecting a region.
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Click Review + create and then click Create.
Note
: Wait for the resource group to deploy. Use the Notification icon (top right) to track progress of the deployment.
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Select Go to resource, refresh the page and verify your new resource group appears in the list of resource groups.
Task 2: Create and configure user accounts
In this task, you will create and configure user accounts. User accounts will store user data such as name, department, location, and contact information.
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Continue in the Azure portal.
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Search for and select
Microsoft Entra ID. -
On the Microsoft Entra ID blade, scroll down to the Manage section, click User settings, and review available configuration options.
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Navigate back to the Users - All users blade, and then click + New user.
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Create a new user with the following settings (leave others with their defaults). Notice all the different types of data that can be included in the user account.
Setting Value User principal name az104-user1Display name az104-user1Auto-generate password de-select Initial password Provide a secure password Job title (Properties tab) Cloud AdministratorDepartment (Properties tab) ITUsage location (Properties tab) United States
Task 4: Create groups and add members
In this task, you create a group. Groups are used for user accounts or devices. Some groups have members that are statically assigned. Some groups have members that are dynamically assigned. Dynamic groups update automatically based on the properties of user accounts or devices. Static groups require more administrative overhead (administrators must add and remove members manually).
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In the Azure portal, search for and select
Groups. -
Notice the group information like Membership type, Source, and Type. Also notice, the number of members in the group.
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Select + New group and create a new group.
Setting Value Group type Security Group name IT Lab Administrators(adjust the name if this one is not available)Group description Administrators that manage the IT labMembership type Assigned Note
: Your Membership type drop-down list might be grayed out. This is where you can switch from an assigned group to a dynamic group. This requires an Entra ID Premium P1 or P2 license.
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Click No members selected.
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From the Add members blade, search for and select the az104-user1 and add them to the group.
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Click Create to finish creating the group.
Task 5: Familiarize yourself with the Cloud Shell.
In this task, you work with the Azure Cloud Shell. Azure Cloud Shell is an interactive, authenticated, browser-accessible terminal for managing Azure resources. It provides the flexibility of choosing the shell experience that best suits the way you work, either Bash or PowerShell.
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Select the Cloud Shell icon in the top right of the Azure Portal. Alternately, you can navigate directly to
https://shell.azure.com. -
When prompted to select either Bash or PowerShell, select PowerShell. Bash is used in the next task.
Did you know? If you mostly work with Linux systems, Azure CLI feels more natural. If you mostly work with Windows systems, Azure PowerShell feels more natural.
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On the You have no storage mounted screen select Show advanced settings and provide the required information. When completed select Create storage.
Settings Values Resource Group Create new resource group Storage account (Create a new account a use a globally unique name (ex: cloudshellstoragemystorage)) cloudshellxxxxxxx File share (create new) shellstorage Note: If you are working in a hosted lab environment, you need to configure cloud shell storage each time a new lab environment is created.
Note: Task 6 lets you practice with Azure PowerShell. Task 7 lets you practice with the CLI. You may do both tasks or just the one you are most interested in.
Task 6: Practice with Azure PowerShell
In this task, you create a resource group and an Azure AD group by using Azure PowerShell session within Cloud Shell.
>**Note:** Use the arrow keys to move through the command history. Use the tab key to autocomplete commands and parameters.
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Continue working in the Cloud Shell. At any time use cls to clear the command window.
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Azure PowerShell uses a Verb-Noun format for cmdlets. For example, the cmdlet to create a new resource group is New-AzResourceGroup. To view how to use the cmdlet, run the Get-Help command.
Get-Help New-AzResourceGroup -detailed -
To create a resource group from the PowerShell session within Cloud Shell, run the following commands. Note that the commands starting with a dollar sign ($) are creating variables that you can use in later commands. Ensure you receive a succeeded message.
$location = 'eastus' $rgName = 'az104-rg-ps' New-AzResourceGroup -Name $rgName -Location $location -
To retrieve properties of the newly created resource group, run the following command:
Get-AzResourceGroup -Name $rgName -
Now, let's try to create new Azure group.
Get-Help New-AzureADGroup -detailed -
Using the example in the Help, try these commands. Notice you must first connect to Azure AD.
Connect-AzureAD New-AzureADGroup -DisplayName "MyPSgroup" -MailEnabled $false -SecurityEnabled $true -MailNickName "MyPSgroup" -
Return to the Azure portal. Confirm you have a new resource group and a new Azure group. You may need to Refresh the pages.
Task 7: Practice with the Bash shell
In this task, you create a resource group and an Azure group by using Azure CLI session within Cloud Shell.
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Continue in the Cloud Shell. Use the drop-down to switch to Bash.
Note: Use the arrow keys to move through the command history. Use the tab key to autocomplete commands and parameters.
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The Azure CLI uses an easy-to-read syntax. For example, to interact with resource groups, the command is az group.
az group --help -
The create option looks promising. Note the capitalized names create variables that you can reference in subsequent commands.
RGNAME='az104-rg1-cli' LOCATION='eastus' az group create --name $RGNAME --location $LOCATION -
To verify and retrieve properties for the newly created resource group, try the show command.
az group show --name $RGNAME -
Now, let's use help to learn more about creating an Azure group.
az ad group --help -
Create the group and list the groups to verify.
az ad group create --display-name MyCLIgroup --mail-nickname MyCLIgroup az ad group list -
Return to the Azure portal. Confirm you have a new resource group and a new Azure group. You may need to Refresh the pages.
Key takeaways
Congratulations on completing the lab. Here are some main takeways for this lab:
- The Azure portal is a good way to get started with creating and managing Azure resources. Administrators can customize the portal and share dashboards.
- Resource groups are a way of grouping of related resources,. You can use a resource group for a project, a department, or an application. This makes it easy to manage and monitor a group of related resources.
- There are different types of user accounts in Microsoft Entra ID. Each user account type has a level of access specific to the scope of work expected.
- Group accounts group together related users or devices. Group membership can be assigned statically or dynamically.
- The Cloud Shell is an interactive, authenticated terminal for managing Azure resources. The Cloud Shell provides access to Bash or Azure PowerShell.
- Azure PowerShell and Bash provide a scripted way to create resources.
Cleanup your resources
If you are working with your own subscription take a minute to delete the lab resources. This will ensure resources are freed up and cost is minimized. The easiest way to delete the lab resources is to delete the lab resource group.
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In the Azure portal, select the resource group, select Delete the resource group, Enter resource group name, and then click Delete.
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Using Azure PowerShell,
Remove-AzResourceGroup -Name resourceGroupName. -
Using the CLI,
az group delete --name resourceGroupName.


