Preparing on-premises Active Directory for Azure AD Connect

Azure Active Directory Connect is Microsoft’s replacement for DirSync and Azure Active Directory Sync tools. In Skill 4.1 from Exam Ref 70-346 Managing Office 365 Identities and Requirements, 2nd Edition , explore how to prepare your on-premises Active Directory environment for synchronization of user accounts, group accounts, and more.


This skill deals with preparing your on-premises Active Directory environment for synchronization of user accounts, group accounts, and mail-enabled contacts to the Azure Active Directory instance that supports the Office 365 tenancy. To master this skill, you’ll need to understand the different Active Directory synchronization tools, the steps needed to prepare an on-premises Active Directory instance for Azure AD Connect, what to do if your on-premises Active Directory uses a non-routable domain name, what to think about when it comes to planning filtering of user account objects for synchronization, and what to do if you have a multiple forest environment.

This section covers the following topics:

  • Active Directory synchronization tools

  • Cleaning up existing Active Directory objects

  • UPN suffixes and non-routable domain names

  • Plan for filtering Active Directory

  • Support for multiple forests

Read Skill 4.1 here.