Preparing for the MS-100 Microsoft 365 Identity and Services Exam (February 2021 Update)

This month MS-100, MS-101 are both being updated, and MS-500 has just been updated. As I view these as a series of exams that you should have traditionally started with MS-100 before proceeding to the others, it makes sense to update this guide first. Why MS-100 first? It’s the gaps that preparation for this is exam are going to start to fill that are very closely related, if not identical to topics that you will see in MS-101 and MS-500.

Now, I know that many people chase MS-500 first because it’s a single exam that gives you a certification – Microsoft 365 Certified: Security Administrator Associate, but something I’ve seen happen way too many times is people failing this exam on topics that the other two exams would have more than prepared them for. However, with this update the MS-100 has really expanded the areas it can test you on, with much more of an emphasis on the Office 365 workloads and less overall on the pure Azure Active Directory side, and this is even reflected in the weightings.

So, what’s my current recommendation? If you have a good Office 365 and AAD base, start with this exam, and then MS-101 will start pulling in more Microsoft 365 security and compliance topics, and then MS-500 is going to be a natural third exam in this series. However, if you are already mostly focused on just the security and compliance capabilities of the workloads, without too much care or focus on the workloads themselves, then maybe MS-500 might be an easier first exam for you.

For the latest updates to exam prep guides please check https://intunedin.net/exams

Design and implement Microsoft 365 services (25-30%)

Plan Architecture

plan integration of Microsoft 365 and on-premises environments
- Prepare your organization’s network for Teams
- Office 365 URLs and IP address ranges
identify deployment workloads team
- Deployment planning checklist for M i crosoft 365
plan an identity and authentication solution
plan enterprise application modernization
- Authentication methods

Deploy a Microsoft 365 tenant

manage domains
configure organizational settings
- Customize your organization theme
- Customize Sign-in page
complete the organizational profile
- Change your organization’s address, technical contact, and more
add a Microsoft partner or work with Microsoft FastTrack
- Add, change, or delete a subscription advisor partner
complete the subscription setup wizard
- Try or buy Microsoft 365
plan and create a tenant
- Plan your setup
edit an organizational profile
- Change your organization’s address, technical contact, and more
plan and create subscription(s)
- Subscriptions, licenses, and tenants
configure tenant-wide workload settings
- About the Microsoft 365 admin center

Manage Microsoft 365 subscription and tenant health

manage service health alerts
- Service Health and Continuity
create & manage service requests
- Contact support for business products
create internal service health response plan
- Service Health and Continuity
monitor service health
- Service health
monitor license allocations
- Manage user accounts and licenses
configure and review reports, including BI, Operations Management Suite (OMS), and Microsoft 365 reporting
schedule and review security and compliance reports
schedule and review usage metrics
- Usage analytics

Plan migration of users and data

identify data to be migrated and migration methods
- Migrate to Microsoft 365 – Migrate to SharePoint and OneDrive
identify users and mailboxes to be migrated and migration methods
- Migrate email to Microsoft 365
- Exchange Deployment Assistant
plan migration of on-premises users and groups
- Plan for directory synchronization
import PST Files
- Overview of importing your organization PST files to Office 365

Manage user identity and roles (25-30%)

Design identity strategy

evaluate requirements and solutions for synchronization
- Hybrid Identity Design Considerations Overview
- Install and run the IdFix tool
evaluate requirements and solutions for identity management
- Understanding Microsoft 365 identity and Azure Active Directory
evaluate requirements and solutions for authentication
- Determine identity requirements

Plan identity synchronization

design directory synchronization
- Hybrid Identity Design Considerations Overview
implement directory synchronization with directory services, federation services, and Azure endpoints by using Azure AD Connect
- Managing federation with Azure AD Connect

Manage identity synchronization with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD)