Project Overview
Objective
Build and operate a controlled Microsoft 365 environment for a fictional organization, Apex Services Lab, using Microsoft 365 Business Premium.
The project focuses on practical Level 1 IT Support and junior Microsoft 365 administration tasks across identity, email, collaboration, document management, and endpoint management.
The environment was used not only to configure Microsoft 365 services, but also to simulate user requests, controlled service failures, troubleshooting, corrective actions, and verification.
What Was Built
The Microsoft 365 environment includes:
Microsoft 365 & Identity
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium tenant
- Microsoft Entra ID users
- Department-based organizational structure
- Security and Microsoft 365 groups
- Distribution groups
- User licenses and account administration
- Email aliases
- External mail contact
Exchange Online
- User mailboxes
- Shared mailboxes
- Room/resource mailboxes
- Calendar delegation
- Send As and mailbox access permissions
- Message trace testing
- Quarantine review
- Mailbox conversion to a shared mailbox
- Email forwarding and automatic replies
Collaboration & File Services
- Microsoft 365 Groups and associated Teams
- Teams membership administration
- OneDrive file sharing
- SharePoint team site
- SharePoint document library
- Document sharing and collaboration testing
Microsoft Entra ID & Intune
- Windows 10 Microsoft Entra ID join
- Intune automatic enrollment
- Intune-managed Windows endpoints
- Windows compliance policy
- Configuration profile
- Microsoft Store application deployment
- Company Portal installation
- Device compliance troubleshooting
User Support Scenarios
The completed environment was used to perform 16 support tickets covering common Level 1 IT Support and Microsoft 365 administration scenarios, including:
- Shared mailbox access
- Distribution group membership and email delivery
- Email alias troubleshooting
- User onboarding
- Password reset
- Missing Microsoft 365 license
- Calendar delegation
- Out-of-office configuration
- Email forwarding
- SharePoint document library creation
- Outlook Mobile testing
- Conference room booking
- Mailbox conversion
- Employee offboarding
- Teams membership and access
- Intune device compliance failure
Each scenario was performed in the lab and documented using evidence from the relevant configuration, test, troubleshooting, and resolution steps.
Organization
Apex Services Lab
Tenant:
apexserviceslab.onmicrosoft.com
The organization, users, devices, and support scenarios are fictional and were created specifically for hands-on training and portfolio demonstration.
The environment is a controlled lab rather than a production Microsoft 365 deployment. Its purpose is to demonstrate practical administration, troubleshooting methodology, and evidence-based technical documentation.
Project Approach
The project follows the workflow:
Learn → Build → Test → Break → Troubleshoot → Document
For support scenarios involving a controlled failure, a working configuration was intentionally changed or removed to reproduce a user-facing problem. The issue was then investigated, corrected, and verified.
This approach was used to demonstrate not just the ability to configure Microsoft 365, but also the ability to approach problems from a support technician's perspective.