Deploying an Exchange 2013 Hybrid Lab Environment in Windows Azure (Part 5)

If you would like to read the other parts in this article series please go to:

Introduction

In part 4 of this article series revolving around what the Windows Azure service is all about as well as how you deploy an Exchange hybrid deployment in Windows Azure, we continued our deep dive into the Windows Azure Active Directory (WAAD) side of things. More specifically, I showed you how you create a new directory from within the Windows Azure Management portal and how you add a co-administrator to a Windows Azure subscription. I also showed you how to change the default directory in order to be able to authenticate to the Microsoft Account based Windows Azure subscription using an organizational account.

Let’s get going…

Enabling Office 365 for the Default Directory

To enable Office 365 for the new default directory we have created in our Windows Azure subscription, launch your favorite browser and navigate to http://portal.microsoftonline.com.

On the Office 365 sign-in page, enter the credentials for the Global Administrator that we created back in part 4 of this article series (in my case it’s “[email protected]”) and then click “Sign-in”.

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Figure 1:
Entering credentials of the Global Administrator account on the Office 365 sign-in page

Since we have never logged in with this Global Administrator account, we are prompted to change the password. Do so and click “Save”.

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Figure 2:
Changing the password for the Global Administrator account

We are now taken to the Office 365 admin center where we are warned about the Office 365 services are not available for one of three reasons. In our case this makes total sense as we are not subscribed to any Office 365 services.

The only reason why we can log in to the Office 365 admin center is because we have created the Windows Azure Active Directory that Office 365 utilizes.

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Figure 3

To get going, let us create an E3 trial subscription. To do so, click “purchase services” and in the list of available services, click the “trial” link right under the “Office 365 Enterprise E3” plan (Figure 4).

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Figure 4:
Clicking the trial link under the Office 365 Enterprise E3 plan

We will be granted with 25 E3 user licenses that will run for 30 days.

Click “try now” in order to confirm the order.

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Figure 5: Confirming the order

On the “order receipt” page, click “continue”.

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Figure 6: Order Receipt page

Now click on “licensing” in the left pane. Under “subscriptions”, we can see that we have an Office 365 Enterprise E3 trial subscription associated with our Windows Azure Active Directory / Office 365 tenant.

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Figure 7: Office 365 Enterprise E3 Trial subscription listed under subscriptions

In order for the provisioning of the miscellaneous Office 365 services to get triggered, let’s assign a license to our Global Administrator account. We can do this by clicking “users and groups” in the left pane and then opening the property page for the account. On the property page, click “licenses” and tick “Microsoft Office 365 Plan E3” and then click “save”.

Note:
You may also be prompted to specify the location of the user.

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Figure 8: Assigning a license to the Global Administrator account

Now logout of the Office 365 admin center and back in. You will now see the respective Office 365 services are provisioned as shown in Figure 9.

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Figure 9: Office 365 services are being provisioned

After the Office 365 services have been provisioned, the Office 365 tenant has reached the same state as an Office 365 tenant that is created directly from the Office 365 sign-up page.

This means that we can begin to use Office 365 services such as Outlook Web App, although we still have a lot to do in preparation for enabling an Exchange hybrid. We have to add our custom domain(s), create the required DNS records, configure identity federation, and enable directory synchronization and much more. Oh and by the way, we have not even created the on-premises infrastructure with the Exchange 2013 hybrid servers yet.

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Figure 10: Opening the mailbox of the Global Administrator account using Outlook Wep App (OWA)

Creating a User and Group in the Office 365 Admin Center

Before we finish this part 5, I just want to show you how creation of a user and groups via the Office 365 admin center is reflected in our default directory in the Windows Azure subscription.

Click “users and groups”. As you can see we currently have two users here. The Global Administrator account and the Microsoft Account that is associated with the Windows Azure subscription. The latter cannot be used to access Office 365 services.

Click the plus sign.

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Figure 11: List of existing users

Enter the name and username for the account and click “next”.

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Figure 12: Creating a new cloud identity user

Specify the role and location of the user and click “next”.

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Figure 13: Specifying role and location of the new user

Assign a license to the user and click “next”.

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Figure 14:
Assigning a license to the new user

Specify the email address to which the temporary password should be sent and click “create”.

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Figure 15: Specifying the email address to which the temporary password should be sent

On the results page, click “finish”.

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Figure 16: New user results page

Now that the user has been created, click on the “security groups” tab.

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Figure 17: List of users

Click the plus sign.

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Figure 18: security groups tab

Specify a name for the group and click “save”.

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Figure 19: Creating a new security group

On the “select members” page, click “save and close”.

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Figure 20: group members page

The security group has been created.

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Figure 21: New security group created

Now switch back to the Windows Azure Management portal and click “Active Directory” and then open the default directory.

Under “Users”, you can see the user we created via the Office 365 admin center.

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Figure 22: Viewing the user via the directory in Windows Azure

Click “Groups”. Again, here you can see the group we created in the Office 365 admin center.

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Figure 23: Viewing the security group via the directory in Windows Azure

This concludes part 5 of this multi-part article in which I provide you with an explanation of what Windows Azure is and how you configure an Exchange 2013 hybrid lab environment in Windows Azure.

If you would like to read the other parts in this article series please go to:

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