What is the best way to setup a Active Directory in the cloud and have users authenticate to it?

In the Microsoft 365 (previously known as Office 365) environment, you are likely using Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) for identity and access management, even though you might not see physical on-premise servers. Azure AD is a cloud-based identity service from Microsoft. It provides identity and access management services in the cloud and supports the same type of authentication processes you used to have on your on-premise Active Directory servers.

Checking Azure AD Configuration:

Go to Azure Portal:

• Login to the Azure portal.

Navigate to Azure AD:

• Find and select "Azure Active Directory" to view and manage your users, groups, and other identity-related settings.

Review Settings:

• Review your user settings, group memberships, and authentication settings to ensure everything is configured correctly.

Setting Up a File Server in the Cloud:

One of the options for setting up a file server in the cloud is to use Azure Files. It allows you to set up highly available network file shares that can be accessed by using the standard Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.

Here are the steps to create a file share using Azure Files:

Create a Storage Account:

• In the Azure portal, go to "Create a resource" > "Storage" > "Storage account."
• Fill in the subscription, resource group, storage account name, and other fields as necessary. Ensure to select a region that is close to your users to reduce latency.

Create a File Share:

• Once your storage account is created, go to the “File shares” section in the storage account and click on the “+ File share” button.
• Provide a name and the size for the file share and click on “Create.”

Configure Access:

• Configure the access to the file share by setting up appropriate permissions. You can create a shared access signature (SAS) token for secure access.

Access the File Share:

• Your users can now access the file share either directly by using the URL provided in the Azure portal, or by mounting the file share on their local machines.

Mount the File Share:

• Users can mount the file share on Windows, Linux, or macOS using the instructions provided in the Azure portal.

Ensure that you monitor and manage the file share and associated permissions regularly to keep your data secure and accessible to authorized users only.