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Set up your Microsoft Defender XDR trial in a lab environment

  • Article

Applies to:

  • Microsoft Defender XDR

This article guides you to set up a dedicated lab environment. For information on setting up a trial in production, see the new Pilot and deploy Microsoft Defender XDR guide.

Important

Microsoft recommends that you use roles with the fewest permissions. This helps improve security for your organization. Global Administrator is a highly privileged role that should be limited to emergency scenarios when you can't use an existing role.

Create a Microsoft 365 E5 trial tenant

Note

If you already have an existing Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Entra subscription, you can skip the Microsoft 365 E5 trial tenant creation steps.

  1. Go to the Microsoft 365 E5 product portal and select Free trial.

  2. Complete the trial registration by entering your email address (personal or corporate). Select Set up account.

  3. Fill in your first name, last name, business phone number, company name, company size, and country or region.

    Note

    The country or region you set here determines the data center region your Microsoft 365 will be hosted.

  4. Choose your verification preference: through a text message or call. Select Send Verification Code.

  5. Set the custom domain name for your tenant, then select Next.

  6. Set up the first identity, which is a Global Administrator for the tenant. Fill in Name and Password. Select Sign up.

  7. Select Go to Setup to complete the Microsoft 365 E5 trial tenant provisioning.

  8. Connect your corporate domain to the Microsoft 365 tenant. [Optional] Choose Connect a domain you already own and type in your domain name. Select Next.

  9. Add a TXT or MX record to validate the domain ownership. Once you've added the TXT or MX record to your domain, select Verify.

  10. [Optional] Create more user accounts for your tenant. You can skip this step by clicking Next.

  11. [Optional] Download Office apps. Select Next to skip this step.

  12. [Optional] Migrate email messages. Again, you can skip this step.

  13. Choose online services. Select Exchange and select Next.

  14. Add MX, CNAME, and TXT records to your domain. When completed, select Verify.

Congratulations! You have completed the provisioning of your Microsoft 365 tenant.

Enable your Microsoft 365 trial subscription

Note

Signing up for a trial gives you 25 user licenses to use for a month. See Try or buy a Microsoft 365 subscription for details.

  1. From Microsoft 365 Admin Center, select Billing and then navigate to Purchase services.

  2. Select Microsoft 365 E5 and select Start free trial.

  3. Choose your verification preference: through a text message or call. Once you have decided, enter the phone number, select Text me or Call me depending on your selection.

  4. Enter the verification code and select Start your free trial.

  5. Select Try now to confirm your Microsoft 365 E5 trial.

  6. Go to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center > Users > Active users. Select your user account, select Manage product licenses, and then assign the Microsoft 365 E5 license. Then select Save.

  7. Select the Global Administrator account again then select Manage username.

  8. [Optional] Change the domain from onmicrosoft.com to your own domain—depending on what you chose on the previous steps. Select Save changes.

Next step

Phase 3: Configure & Onboard Configure each Microsoft Defender XDR pillar for your Microsoft Defender XDR trial lab or pilot environment and onboard your endpoints.

Tip

Do you want to learn more? Engage with the Microsoft Security community in our Tech Community: Microsoft Defender XDR Tech Community.