Adding and configuring a DNS domain

You can access domain configuration options from the administration portal from Setup | Domains.

For system administrators familiar with managing DNS, the options available to you in Office 365 will seem extremely straightforward. For everyone else, they'll seem like arcane language from the phylactery of a long dead necromancer.

By default, the only domain configured for your Office 365 tenant will have a name like tenant_id.onmicrosoft.com. Chances are that you'll actually want to use your real domain name, something like mycompany.com, to receive emails and things like that. To do so, you'll have to provide proof to Microsoft that you own the domain name you want to connect with your tenant.

But why, you say, can't Microsoft just tell that I own that domain for mycompany.com and not make me jump through flaming hoops and fight velociraptors to make it work in Office 365? The answer here is quite simple. Microsoft is not the all-knowing, all-seeing eye of Sauron they would like everyone to believe that they are.

In fact, your domain name was most likely registered with some other company who specializes in that sort of thing, such as Network Solutions, Register.com, relative newcomer GoDaddy, Namecheap, or easyDNS—our personal favorite. There are literally thousands of ICANN-certified registrars to choose from.

If you have a domain registered with GoDaddy or one of a handful of other registrars with whom Microsoft has developed a deep partnership, your configuration in Office 365 could be quite easy. For these select few, Microsoft will provide a wizard that you can walk through: provide your credentials and they will do the rest for you. They've even been kind enough to make sure you can establish ownership of your domain without breaking your current email service. Isn't that nice?

For everyone else, we get to do things the hard way. There are three stages to DNS configuration in Office 365. For the sake of illustration, let's call them authorization, integration, and cutover.