How to add a custom domain to Azure AD Step By Step

Posted on October 24, 2020 by Imran Rashid

Reading Time: 3 minutes

The process below will guide you through adding a custom domain to Azure AD. For the purpose of this demo, I will be adding and verifying cloudbuild.co.uk to my lab setup

Please comment towards the end of this post if you have any questions

If you’re starting out with Azure, you can setup a free trial at Azure Free Trial

2. Select Azure Active Directory from the menu towards the left or use the search field as shown below

3. Select custom domain names from the left menu

4. Click + Add Custom Domain

5. Add your domain and click Add domain

Note: To add a domain, you must already own a domain name and have the necessary sign in credentials to update the DNS records with your domain name registrar.

6. At this point you need to add a txt record to your domain DNS portal. This process verifies that you own the domain that you’re trying to add.

7. Let’s login to the domain portal. In my case, i’ll be adding the txt record to the cloudbuild.co.uk domain portal at my registrar’s website

8. I have now added details to my domain portal as per instructions above

9. Let’s move back to the Azure Portal and verify the domain. If the domain does not verify, wait for DNS replication.

10. Verified

11. I’m going to make this domain primary

Done

Stay tuned for the next blog post

30 days of Azure!

Posted on October 13, 2020 by Imran Rashid

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Where do I begin, it’s been a busy 30 days mainly packed with Microsoft Azure related stuff, apart from the time when i was unwell 🙁

If you’re not already aware, we launched a new website 30 days ago, AzureCrazy.com and I am very pleased that the website has performed extremely well. We have had great feedback from both beginners and existing users of Microsoft Azure. Thanks to the support from all the Techies including Microsoft Employees and MVP’s who volunteered to provide us with a written interview and shared their experiences. Azure Crazy is an Azure Blog which provides great information on how existing Azure Techies started their journey with Azure, recommendations on how to get started with Azure, learning and certification paths, starting a career in Tech and much more! Please do check out the website and subscribe as there are more interviews to come.

Further GOOD NEWS! The Founder of FeedSpot loved the AzureCrazy website and listed the website on the Top 100 Azure Blogs to follow on the Web! The list can be located here Top 100 Azure Blogs On the Web

More GOOD NEWS, this blog (CloudBuild.co.uk) was also listed on the top 100 Azure Blogs to follow. Thankyou FeedSpot! I was and still am really excited and honoured with this news. I first started blogging my IT fixes in 2008 and it’s been great to know that my blog posts have assisted Techies from all around the world. I would recommend starting a blog and sharing your knowledge, it’s a great feeling when shared knowledge benefits others. I’ll be back blogging about Microsoft Azure in the next few days so watch this space!

We also had the three exciting days of Microsoft Ignite sessions, thanks to all who helped bring this event together and brought us great virtual sessions. I admit that it wasn’t the same with the event being held online compared to visiting a venue and being able to network with other Techies face to face. But the sessions were great and I really appreciate the efforts which went into bringing those sessions to us from around the World. A few late nights with the time difference but it was well worth it. Twitter was buzzing with Microsoft Ignite related tweets throughout the night and early hours. It was great! I still have a few videos to catch up on that I saved to my virtual back pack because i wasn’t able to join multiple sessions at once.

I also got started on preparing for MS-700 Managing Teams and hope to sit the exam soon. I’ll document my experience on how I prepared for the exam, so watch this space!

That’s it for now, but i’ll be back with further posts soon 🙂

Thank you for your support!

How to create a new Azure Tenant

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Imran Rashid

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Login to portal.azure.com
Locate or search Azure Active Directory
Click + Create Tenant
Select a tenant type, ‘Azure Active Directory’
Click Next
Complete details (See example below)

Organization name:
Initial Domain Name: This needs to be a unique name and will form your domain ending .onmicrosoft.com
Country:

7. Click Review and Create, and ensure the validation process passes

8. Click create and wait for the action to complete

Creating a virtual network in the Azure portal

Posted on September 20, 2020 by Imran Rashid

Reading Time: 3 minutes

What is an Azure Virtual Network (VNet)?

An Azure Virtual Network also known as a VNet is a representation of your network in the cloud. It is a logical isolation of the Azure cloud dedicated to your subscription. You can use VNets to provision and manage virtual private networks (VPNs) in Azure and, optionally, link the VNets with other VNets in Azure known as VNET peering. You can also connect a VNET in Azure to your on premises IT infrastructure to create hybrid or cross premises solutions. Each VNet you create has its own CIDR block and can be linked to other VNets and on premises networks as long as the CIDR blocks do not overlap. You also have control of DNS server settings for VNets, and segmentation of the VNet into subnets.

You can use VNets to:

Create a dedicated private cloud only VNet. Sometimes you don’t require a cross premises configuration for your solution. When you create a VNet, your services and VMs within your VNet can communicate directly and securely with each other in the cloud. You can still configure endpoint connections for the VMs and services that require Internet communication, as part of your solution.
Securely extend your data center. With VNets, you can build traditional site to site (S2S) VPNs to securely scale your data centre capacity. S2S VPNs use IPSEC to provide a secure connection between your corporate VPN gateway and Azure.
Enable hybrid cloud scenarios. VNets give you the flexibility to support a range of hybrid cloud scenarios. You can securely connect cloud based applications to any type of on premises system.

How to create an Azure Virtual Network step by step

Login to the Azure portal via portal.azure.com
Search for Virtual Network within the search bar, or click Create a resource and locate and click Virtual Network

3. Click Add

4. Complete details (Screenshot below for demo purposes), and click next

5. Complete the IP Addresses tab. For the purpose of this demo, I have completed the details as shown below, click next when done

6. Moving onto the Security tab, you will be provided with a few options. For the purpose of this demo, I will leave the defaults but I have provided links to each feature below.

BastionHost
DDos Standard Protection
Firewall

7. For the purpose of this demo no tags will be used. You can click the following link to find out more about Azure tags

8. Click Review and create and then create. You’re done with your first basic VNET creation. Give it a try in your test Azure portal. Microsoft also offer a free 30 day trial you can take benefit of. Click Azure Free Trial

How to install Terraform

Posted on September 3, 2020 by Imran Rashid

Reading Time: 2 minutes

What is Terraform?
Terraform is a tool for building, changing, and versioning infrastructure safely and efficiently. Terraform can manage existing and popular service providers as well as custom in-house solutions.

Configuration files describe to Terraform the components needed to run a single application or your entire datacenter. Terraform generates an execution plan describing what it will do to reach the desired state, and then executes it to build the described infrastructure. As the configuration changes, Terraform is able to determine what changed and create incremental execution plans which can be applied.

How to install Terraform?

1) Visit https://www.terraform.io/
2) Click download