Microsoft-Entra-Management-Tasks: Perform basic Group Management tasks

Introduction:

In modern cloud environments, Microsoft Entra plays a crucial role in managing identity and access across organizations. Understanding how to perform basic group management tasks is an essential skill for any aspiring cloud engineer. This exercise introduces you to the foundational operations in Microsoft Entra — creating groups, assigning members, managing access, and linking licenses — all of which mirror real-world administrative tasks in enterprise settings.

Exercise - Perform basic Group Management tasks

In this exercise you will explore the beginner level tasks associated with creating and using groups. You make a new group and assign members and set some basic access levels.

Task 1 - Create a Microsoft 365 group

1. Open the Microsoft Entra admin center at https://entra.microsoft.com.
2. Log in using the credentials for your tenant.
3. From the menu on the left, select Groups and then All groups.
4. Select New group option.
5. Enter the requested information:

Field	Value
Group type	Microsoft 365
Group name	Project23
Group description	This group consists of members of the new AI Simulation software with codename Project23
Membership type	Assigned

1. Under the Members heading, select No member selected.
2. Add Bhogeswar Kalita, by marking the box and choosing the Select button.
3. Select the Create button.

Task 2 - Create a Security group

1. Open the Microsoft Entra admin center at https://entra.microsoft.com.
2. Log in using the credentials for your tenant.
3. From the menu on the left, select Groups and then All groups.
4. Select New group option.
5. Enter the requested information:

Field	Value
Group type	Security
Group name	Guest Users
Group description	This group has all the Guest users currently in the tenant.
Membership type	Dynamic User

1. Under the Dynamic user members** heading, select Add dynamic query. **
2. Create a dynamic query with the following values:

Field	Value
Property	userType
Operator	Equals
Value	Guest

1. Select the Save item from the top of the page.
2. Select the Create button. Note - It will take up to 2 minutes for the group to be populate.
3. From the Groups select the Refresh item.
4. Select the Guest Users group we just created.
5. Select Members.

Task 3 - Add an existing user to a new group

1. Open the Microsoft Entra admin center at https://entra.microsoft.com.
2. Log in using the credentials for your tenant.
3. From the menu on the left, select Groups and then All groups.
4. Select the Project23 group we created in Task 1.
5. Select the Members option from the menu.
6. Select + Add members from the menu near the top.
7. Mark the box next to External User and use the Select button.

Subtask 1 - Alternative method to add an existing user to a new group

1. Open the Users menu, then select All users.
2. Find and select External User from the list.
3. Select the Groups item from the menu.
4. Select the option to + Add memberships.
5. Mark an existing group and use the Select button to add them.

Task 4 - Add licenses and owners to a group

1. Open the Microsoft Entra admin center at https://entra.microsoft.com.
2. Log in using the credentials for your tenant.
3. From the menu on the left, select Groups and then All groups.
4. Select the Project23 group we created in Task 1.
5. Choose the Owners option from the menu. Note - Your tenant administrator will automatically be added as the owner of a group, if no owner is specified.
6. Select the + Add owners menu item.
7. Mark the box next to Bhogeswar and use the Select button.
8. Notice the new owner has been added to the group.

Subtask 1 - Adding a license to a group

1. Open a new tab in your browser.
2. Connect to Microsoft 365 admin center at https://admin.microsoft.com.
3. From the menu on the left, open the Billing section and select Licenses.
4. Select the Microsoft Power Automate Free license.
5. Choose the Groups tab from the newly opened screen.
6. Select the + Assign licenses item.
7. Use the dropdown on the right side of the screen to select the Project23 group created earlier.
8. Use the Assign button at the bottom of the screen.
9. Close the You assigned licenses… notification. # Note: In carrying out the assignment of microsoft power automate free, I used my mentor's microsoft 365 account to assign this license to the Project group 233. The assignment was un-successful due to the pre-assignment done by the account holder.
10. Use the Refresh button to see the added group licenses.

Summary

This exercise demonstrated how to:

• Create a Microsoft 365 group for collaboration.
• Create a Security group with a dynamic membership rule.
• Add existing users to groups using multiple methods.
• Assign owners and licenses to groups. These are the building blocks of group management in Microsoft Entra and Microsoft 365.

Conclusion

Group management is central to identity governance. By mastering these tasks, administrators can ensure that users are properly organized, permissions are consistently applied, and resources are securely managed. This exercise highlights how assigned membership and dynamic rules complement each other in different scenarios.