How to Create an Azure Subscription, Resource Group, and Microsoft Entra ID User

Introduction
If you are starting your cloud and DevOps journey, three foundational Azure tasks are worth learning early: creating an Azure subscription, creating an Azure Resource Group, and creating a Microsoft Entra ID user. These components help you organize Azure resources, control access, and build a structured cloud environment.
This guide walks through the process using the Azure Portal. The exact screens and available options can change over time, so use the current Microsoft Learn documentation as the authoritative reference when a portal label differs.

Prerequisites

1. A Personal Computer
2. A Microsoft account or organizational account that can sign in to the Azure Portal.
3. For a new paid subscription, the required billing permissions or an eligible Azure offer/trial.
4. For creating Microsoft Entra users, a role such as User Administrator or Global Administrator, depending on the operation.
5. A web browser and internet connection.

1. Create an Azure Subscription
An Azure subscription is a billing and management boundary for Azure resources. Resources such as virtual machines, storage accounts, databases, and networking services are associated with a subscription.

Step 1:Sign in to the Azure Portal
Open the Azure Portal and sign in with your Microsoft account or organizational account.
Step 2:Open Subscriptions
In the Azure Portal, search for “Subscriptions” and open the Subscriptions service.

Fig 1 – Search for ‘Subscriptions’ in Search Bar

Step 3:Start the subscription creation process
Select Add to open the Create a subscription page.

Fig 2 – Landing Page – Select ‘+Add’

Step 4:Complete the subscription details

1. Enter a meaningful Subscription name, such as “Sales Subscription”.
2. Select the appropriate Billing account, Billing profile, and Invoice section when those fields are required.
3. Choose the appropriate Azure plan. For development or testing, a DevTest offer may be available depending on your account.
4. On the Advanced tab, select the Microsoft Entra directory where the subscription should be created.
5. Select the subscription owner(s) if the workflow asks you to do so.
6. Optionally add tags to help identify the subscription.

Fig 3 – Showing Steps 1 to 3 above

Fig 4 – Showing Step 4 to 5 above

Fig 5 – Showing Step 6 above

Step 5: Review and create
Select Review + create. If validation passes, review the configuration and select Create. After creation, reload the page and the subscription should appear on the Subscriptions page.

Fig 6 – Review & Create

Fig 7 – Receive Notification of Success

Fig 8 – New Subscription (Sales Subscription) showing in ‘Subscriptions’ Page

Important note about subscription creation
The exact fields shown during subscription creation depend on your billing agreement and Azure account type. This interphase is for ‘Pay-as-you-go’ Account Type. For example, Microsoft Customer Agreement subscriptions use billing accounts, billing profile, and invoice-section information.

2. CREATE AN AZURE RESOURCE GROUP
A Resource Group is a logical container for Azure resources that you want to manage together. For example, a development project could have a resource group containing its virtual machine, storage account, network resources, and other related components.

Step 1: Open Resource Groups
In the Azure Portal, search for “Resource groups” and open the Resource groups service.

Fig 9 - Search for “Resource groups”

Step 2: Select Create
Select Create to open the resource group creation form.

Fig 10 – Click on ‘CREATE’

Step 3: Select the subscription
Choose the Azure subscription in which the resource group will be created.

Fig 11- Choose ‘Azure Subscription’ from the Dropdown

Step 4: Enter the Resource Group name
Choose a clear name, for example “Strowetech-rg”. A consistent naming convention makes cloud environments easier to manage.

Fig 12 – Showing the input of the Resource Group Name

Step 5: Choose a region
Select an Azure region for the resource group's metadata. The region does not force every resource in the group to be deployed in the same physical region; resources in a resource group can be located in different regions.

Step 6: Review and create
Optionally add tags to help identify the subscription. Select Review + Create, confirm that validation passes, and then select Create.

Fig 13 – Showing the Newly Created Resource Group

3. CREATE A MICROSOFT ENTRA ID USER
Microsoft Entra ID is Microsoft's cloud identity and access management service. An Entra user can represent a person who needs to sign in to Microsoft services and access organizational resources.

Step 1: Open Microsoft Entra ID
In the Azure Portal or Microsoft Entra admin center, search for and open Microsoft Entra ID.

Fig 14 – Search for ‘Microsoft Entra ID’

Step 2: Open Users
Navigate to Entra ID → Users.

Fig 15 – ‘Microsoft Entra ID’ Landing Page

Step 3: Select New user
Click on the ‘+Add’ dropdown. Sect User, then choose Create new user.

Fig 16 – Select New User

Fig 17 – Landing Page of ‘New User’ Selection

Step 4: Enter the user's basic information

1. Enter the user's display name.
2. Enter a unique User principal name (UPN), such as [e-mail], using a domain available in your tenant.
3. Configure the password according to your organization's requirements. You can use an automatically generated password or specify one when permitted.
4. Leave Account enabled selected if the user should be able to sign in immediately.
5. Save the initial credentials securely in an Excel Workbook for recollection.

Fig 18a – User Information Input

Fig 18b – User Information Input

Step 5: Configure optional properties and roles
Depending on your environment, you can add groups, directory roles, job information, or other properties. Use the principle of least privilege: give a user only the permissions required to perform their job.

Fig 19a - Configure optional properties and roles

Fig 19b - Configure optional properties and roles

Step 6: Review and create
Select Review + create and then Create. Reload the browser to effect changes. The user should change the temporary password during first sign-in when required by the tenant's configuration.

Fig 20a – Review and Create

Fig 20b – Landing Page after Browser Reload

Fig 20c – New User Shown on User Page

How These Three Components Relate

Common Beginner Mistakes to Avoid

1. Using unclear resource group names that make projects difficult to identify.
2. Giving users more administrative permissions than they need.
3. Forgetting which subscription a resource is being created in.
4. Ignoring Azure costs when experimenting with paid services.
5. Sharing passwords or storing temporary credentials in plain text.
6. Assuming that the Resource Group region means every resource must be deployed in that same region.

Conclusion
Creating an Azure subscription, Resource Group, and Microsoft Entra ID user gives a beginner a practical foundation for working with Azure. The subscription provides the management and billing boundary, the Resource Group organizes related resources, and Microsoft Entra ID provides identity management. Once these basics are familiar, the next useful steps are learning Azure RBAC, deploying resources, Azure CLI, infrastructure as code, and monitoring.

Official Microsoft Learn References

1. Create a Microsoft Customer Agreement subscription — Microsoft Learn
2. Manage resource groups in the Azure portal — Microsoft Learn
3. Quickstart: Create and assign a user account — Microsoft Learn
4. How to create, invite, and delete users — Microsoft Learn