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Set up your Microsoft Defender XDR trial in a lab environment

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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.

    The Office 365 E5 free trial page

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

    The Office 365 E5 trial registration setup page

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

    The Office 365 E5 trial registration setup page asking for name, phone, and company details

    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.

    The Office 365 E5 trial registration setup page asking for verification preference

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

    The Office 365 E5 trial registration setup page where you can set up your custom domain name

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

    The Office 365 E5 trial registration setup page where you can set your business identity

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

    The Office 365 E5 trial registration setup page prompting to click Go to Setup button

  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.

    The Office 365 E5 Setup page where you should personalize your sign-in and email

  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.

    The Office 365 E5 setup page where you should add a TXT of MX record to verify your domain

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

    The Office 365 E5 setup page where you can add more users

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

    The Office 365 E5 page where you can install your Office apps

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

    The Office 365 E5 where you can set whether to migrate email messages or not

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

    The Office 365 E5 where you can choose your online services

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

    The Office 365 E5 here you can add your DNS records

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

    The Office 365 E5 setup completion confirmation page

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.

    The Microsoft 365 E5 Start free trial page

  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.

    The Microsoft 365 E5 Start free trial page asking for contact details to send code to prove you are not a robot

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

    The Microsoft 365 E5 Start free trial page where you can fill out verification code the system sent to prove you are not a robot

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

    The Microsoft 365 E5 Start free trial page where you should clock the Try now button to start

  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.

    The Microsoft 365 Admin Center page where you can select the Microsoft 365 E5 license

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

    The Microsoft 365 Admin Center page where you can select Account and 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.

    The Microsoft 365 Admin Center page where you can change your domain preference

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.