How to Create Admin Account in Microsoft 365?
Admin account has a crucial role in managing your Microsoft 365 environments. If the admin account has not been properly created or configured. Then, you may face some serious risks. So, here I am providing a proper step-by-step tutorial to create an Office 365 admin account. Carefully follow these steps and also find out the practices to secure your admin accounts.
Several small, mid-sized, or large companies use Office 365 in their day-to-day work. And all the management and control of these activities is done by the administrators through the admin account. It is a key to managing your users, assigning licenses, securing your data, and many other things.
A properly created admin account also protects from many issues, like failed email migration, protects your organization’s security, etc. So, if your admin account is not properly configured, or if you are having a problem creating the account. This blog will help you.
Understanding Admin Roles in Microsoft 365
Before continuing this, you must understand the role of an admin in Office 365. Microsoft 365 provides you with numerous admin roles with specific responsibilities and permissions. Not all these admin roles are the same; they are used for different purposes, such as.
- Global Administrator: The administrator has complete control over the Microsoft 365 activities, like users, billing, security, and services.
- Billing Administrator: Its purpose is to manage the subscription, purchases, billing details, and invoices of the Office 365 subscription.
- Exchange Administrator: This particular manages the Exchange Online settings like mail flow, mailbox permissions, and distribution groups.
- SharePoint Administrator: It organizes the SharePoint Online sites, permissions, and sharing policies.
- Teams Administrator: Those administrators who only manage Microsoft Teams settings, policies, and integrations.
- Hepdesk and Password Admin. These admin-only roles are to reset Office 365 passwords and provide basic support tasks for end users.
There are other admin roles that are provided by Office 365. But these are widely used. Among them, the global administrator is very important, and I will talk about this account later in this blog.
Preparations Before Creating Admin Account
To create an Office 365 admin account, users have to prepare themselves to create the account smoothly. Here, they have to prepare these prerequisites.
- First of all, the subscription to Office 365 must support admin roles. Plans like Business Standard, Business Premium, and Enterprise contain admin features. So, make sure that you have a valid subscription.
- You need an already existing global administrator account to create a new one. Because it is a high privilege role in Office 365 whcih you are required to have another administrator’s permissions.
- If your domain is custom-made, then it must be properly verified with Office 365.
- Ensure that you have enough available licenses in your subscription to assign a new admin account.
- It is also advisable to enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for the admin account to prevent any unauthorized access.
After applying these prerequisites. Now, you are ready to create the admin account. Follow the above steps and the next procedure carefully.
Create Office 365 Admin Account from Admin Center
The process of creating a new admin account in Microsoft 365 is simple. First of all, log in to the Office 365 using the existing Global admin account. Then, below are the rest of the steps.
- Go to the Admin center. From the Office 365 menu, click on the Users option.
- Select the Active Users option.
- In the Active Users Dashboard, press the + button to create a new account.
- Enter the necessary details like First name, Last name, Display name, Username, enter a password, and leave the boxes under the password unchecked. Click on the Next button.
- Copy and paste the password that you created in the Customer To-Do Items document.
- Assign the Office 365 license and hit the Next button.
- From the Optional Settings, expand the Roles, choose Admin Center access, and Global Administrator. Press the Next button.
- Now, confirm all the information that you have provided and finish adding.
- After that, message the Project manager that you are going to create a new Office 365 admin account.
Create Global Admin Account with Azure AD Portal
Sign in to the Azure portal or Microsoft Entra admin center with the account that has user administrator permissions.
- Select the Identity option and then click on the Users option.
- Choose all users from the left panel.
- Click on the new user and then Create new user option.
- Enter the necessary details: user principal name, display name, and password.
- From the Assignment tab, click on the + Add role option.
- Select the Global administrator role or any admin role.
- Review your settings and click on the + create option.
Use PowerShell to Create a New Admin Account
PowerShell is also used to create the admin account. But, for this, you must have the global administrator details and install the MSOnline module. Then, use the following commands.
- Open PowerShell as the Administrator and connect to Office 365 with the admin credentials: Connect-MsolService.
- Now, create a new user account using this command: New-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName [email protected] -DisplayName “New Admin User” -FirstName New -LastName Admin -UsageLocation US -LicenseAssignment yourtenant:ENTERPRISEPACK.
- Assign the admin role to the user from this: Add-MsolRoleMember -RoleName “Company Administrator” -RoleMemberEmailAddress [email protected]
- Verify that your new account is now an admin: Get-MsolRoleMember -RoleName “Company Administrator”
These are the three ways to create an Office 365 admin account. If you properly follow them, then you can easily use it. But, only creating the admin account is not enough; it is also important to secure the admin account and its data. For this, I have some security tips that can help you.
How to Secure Office 365 New Admin Account?
An Office 365 admin account provides you control over the users, data, and other services. But, it has also become a main target for cyberattacks, insider threats, etc. Although Microsoft provides you with MFA and other security features. But, they do not guarantee that your data will be secure or recovered after Office 365 is compromised or misused.
In that case, SysTools Office 365 Backup Software would be very helpful. You can save your entire Microsoft 365 mailbox to a secure place and protect it against any problem. It is such a great software that you can easily export Office 365 mailboxes to PST format and use them from any location, like Windows and Mac OS. Hence, it is your responsibility to protect your data and secure your admin account.
Conclusion
If you are having a problem creating a new admin account. This article provided you with three different ways to do it. In addition to that, I also explained the prerequisites that you have to fulfil before following the methods. Lastly, it is also important to secure your admin account and its data. So, I shared an expert tip that can help you.
Read Also: How to Switch Office 365 Admin Center to Microsoft 365 Admin Center?