Microsoft 365 Certified: Administrator ExpertImplement and manage Microsoft Entra IDMedium
A company is implementing Microsoft Entra Connect. They have a single on-premises Active Directory forest with 10,000 user accounts. However, due to compliance regulations, only users located in the 'Sales' and 'Marketing' departments should be synchronized to Microsoft Entra ID. All other users, including service accounts and administrative accounts, must remain on-premises and not be replicated to the cloud. You need to configure Microsoft Entra Connect to meet this requirement. Which filtering method should you use?
- AOrganizational Unit (OU) filtering
- BDomain-based filtering
- CAttribute-based filtering
- DGroup-based filtering
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Attribute-based filtering
To synchronize only users from specific departments ('Sales' and 'Marketing') while excluding all others, attribute-based filtering is the most precise method. You can filter based on an attribute like 'department' to include only the desired users.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. OU filtering is effective if 'Sales' and 'Marketing' users are precisely segregated into their own OUs, but attribute filtering is more flexible if they are mixed or department is a specific attribute.
- B. Domain-based filtering is for multi-domain forests, not specific departments within a single domain.
- D. Group-based filtering would require maintaining a synchronization group and adding/removing users, which is less automated and potentially more error-prone than attribute filtering for department-based selection.
Microsoft Entra Connect Attribute Filtering
A filtering method in Microsoft Entra Connect that allows administrators to define which objects synchronize to Microsoft Entra ID based on the values of their attributes.
- Provides granular control over synchronization.
- Can be used to include or exclude objects based on specific attribute values.
- Configured using the Synchronization Rules Editor.
- More flexible than OU filtering for complex inclusion/exclusion criteria.
Memory trick: Attribute Filtering: Apply rules to Specific Attributes.