365 Azure Azure AD Free license and Azure AD connect

Question

Hello,

We have an E3 365 license which includes Azure AD Free license. We have used MS 365 for many years and are now setting up Cloud based Domain Controller, File and print servers. we have been working on geting Azure AD connector to work with what we have without an luck, at beset we can get some groups to pull into the AD on the domain controller but not in the correct OU's. So I stepping back and looking for some help starting with a couple of questions.

1 will the 365 Azure AD Free license work in this case or do we need to upgrade?

2. Does the Azure AD and The Domain controller have to match? Explanation, our Azure AD is based on our domain name xxxxx.org but our DC AD is xxxxx.local with all OU's in a container below called xxxxx . what we are trying to accomplish is to pull all the Azure Data into the DC AD.

Answer 1

Hello @Greg Bemis !

Welcome to Microsoft QnA!

For the license question Azure Ad Free is enough and you can have a detailed look here

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/enterprise-users/directory-service-limits-restrictions

Also check here because MFA is now a must and you might consider Azure Premium P1 as an add-on

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/authentication/concept-mfa-licensing#available-versions-of-azure-ad-multi-factor-authentication

You don't have a problem with the domain names . Actually this is a common thing so the only thing you have to do is add a UPN Suffix and the users will be synced just fine

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/prepare-a-non-routable-domain-for-directory-synchronization?view=o365-worldwide

The mechanism of Azure AD Connect is quite advanced with a lot of options and features. Among them is the Sync Rules Editor

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/connect/concept-azure-ad-connect-sync-user-and-contacts

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/hybrid/connect/how-to-connect-group-writeback-v2

You can also apply OU filtering along with Device Write back and Group Write back

I would suggest considering Azure AD Premium P1 , for the Identity Security Mechanisms and the MFA Controls

I hope this helps!

Kindly mark the answer as Accepted and Up-vote in case it helped!

Regards