Set up your Microsoft Defender XDR trial in a lab environment

Note

Want to experience Microsoft Defender XDR? Learn more about how you can evaluate and pilot Microsoft Defender XDR.

Applies to:

• Microsoft Defender XDR

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

Create an Office 365 E5 trial tenant

Note

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

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

   

2. Complete the trial registration by entering your email address (personal or corporate). Click 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 Office 365 will be hosted.

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

   

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

   

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

   

7. Click Go to Setup to complete the Office 365 E5 trial tenant provisioning.

   

8. Connect your corporate domain to the Office 365 tenant. [Optional] Choose Connect a domain you already own and type in your domain name. Click 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. Click Next to skip this step.

    

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

    

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

    

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

    

15. Congratulations, you have completed the provisioning of your Office 365 tenant.

    

Enable 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, click Billing and then navigate to Purchase services.

2. Select Microsoft 365 E5 and click 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 click Start your free trial.

   

5. Click 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, then swap the license from Office 365 E5 to Microsoft 365 E5. Click Save.

   

7. Select the global administrator account again then click Manage username.

   

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