Create a User in Microsoft Entra ID

Lab overview

In this lab, you will gain hands-on experience with Microsoft Entra ID by creating and configuring a new user account in the Microsoft Entra Admin Center. This process is fundamental for managing identities within an organization, and you will explore key features such as adding user details and configuring user properties.

By the end of the lab, you will understand how to effectively manage user accounts in Entra ID, ensuring that users have the correct permissions and settings for accessing resources within your environment.

Why you'd do this

Every Microsoft 365 license, every Azure role, every Teams channel and SharePoint site is granted to an identity, and in a cloud-first organization that identity lives in Microsoft Entra ID. Creating a user is the first thing a new administrator does and the one task that never goes away. It's also where most downstream problems start: a user who can't sign in, can't be found in the address book, or can't be assigned a license usually traces back to something set wrong on this screen.

The user principal name is the one you'll want to get right. It's the sign-in address, it has to be unique across the tenant, and the suffix you pick from the dropdown has to be a domain the tenant has verified. Changing it later is possible but ripples through mailboxes and OneDrive URLs, so organizations settle on a naming convention (first initial plus last name, as in this lab) and stick to it.

The properties tab looks optional and isn't. First name, last name, job title, company, and department feed the global address list that every Outlook and Teams user searches, and they're the attributes that dynamic groups and Conditional Access policies filter on. Fill them in at creation and the user lands in the right groups automatically; leave them blank and someone fixes it by hand later. The usage location is the quiet one that bites: Microsoft 365 licenses can't be assigned to a user without one, because license availability varies by country, so a user created without it will fail at the next step of onboarding.

You'll skip the Assignments tab in this lab, which is the correct default. Administrative roles are added deliberately, to the few people who need them, not during routine user creation. For certification prep, managing Entra users is a core AZ-104 objective, the user and property management material appears in MS-102, and this is foundational for AZ-900.

Lab details

• User Principal Name: mmitchell@[domain].com
• Display Name: Mike Mitchell
• First Name: Mike · Last Name: Mitchell
• Job Title: HR Manager
• Company: Surf City Boats
• Department: Human Resources
• Usage Location: United States

Learning objectives

1. Navigate the Microsoft Entra Admin Center to locate the user management section.
2. Create a new user with customized attributes, such as display name and user principal name (UPN).
3. Understand how to review and modify user account settings to ensure proper access control and security.
4. Gain familiarity with the basic user management functionality within Microsoft Entra ID.

Exam relevance

• AZ-104 — Azure Administrator — Manage Microsoft Entra users and groups, Configure user accounts and properties.
• MS-102 — Microsoft 365 Administrator — Manage identity and access, Administer Microsoft Entra ID users.

Step-by-step instructions

1. Navigate to the Identity section in the Azure portal.
   • Select Users to manage users and their properties.
2. Click the Users dropdown to display user management options.
   • Choose All Users to view the complete list of users in the directory.
3. Click New User.
   • Select Create new user to begin adding a new user manually.
4. Configure the User principal name:
   • Type mmitchell and press Enter — this defines the unique username for sign-in.
   • Click the UPN suffix dropdown and select .com to assign the correct domain.
5. Set the Display name:
   • Type Mike Mitchell and press Enter.
6. Click Next: Properties and specify user properties:
   • First name: Mike
   • Last name: Mitchell
   • Job title: HR Manager
   • Company name: Surf City Boats
   • Department: Human Resources
7. Scroll down and configure the Usage location:
   • Select United States to define the user's location.
8. Click Next: Assignments — no roles will be assigned in this exercise, continue to the next step.
9. Click Review + Create to verify the user's configuration.
   • Review all entered details to ensure accuracy.
10. Click Create to finalize the new user setup.
    • The user Mike Mitchell is now created in Microsoft Entra ID with all configured properties.