Filtering on Azure AD Connect

Introduction

This article will add a filter for Azure AD Connect for only syncing user accounts that have a valid email address. Additional options may be required by the organization and more detail can be found here.

Preparation Tasks

The following tasks should be completed before starting the process:

1. Azure AD Connect is installed and configured – see “Getting Started with Azure AD Free Edtion“
2. Administrator Access for Azure AD Connect Server

Adding the Filter

The following tasks should be preformed on the Azure AD Connect Server:

Disable scheduled task

To disable the scheduled task which will trigger a synchronization cycle every 3 hours, follow these steps:

1. Start Task Scheduler from the start menu.
2. Directly under Task Scheduler Library find the task named Azure AD Sync Scheduler, right-click and select Disable.
   
3. You can now make configuration changes and run the sync engine manually from the synchronization service manager console.

After you have completed all your filtering changes, don’t forget to come back and Enable the task again.

1. Open “Synchronization Rules Editor“
2. Click “Inbound“
3. 
4. Find “In From AD – User Join” rule, click “Edit“
5. 
6. Click “Yes“
7. In “Precedence“, enter “500“
8. Click “Next“
9. Only include user that a have email address
   1. Click “Add clause“
   2. Attribute Field choose “mail“
   3. Operator field choose “ISNOTNULL“
   4. 
10. Add Company email domain (Optional – checking if user have a email address solves most cases)
    1. This rule assumes you only have one email domain, will not work for multi-domain
    2. Click “Add clause“
    3. Attribute Field choose “mail“
    4. Operator field choose “ENDSWITH“
    5. Value enter “<email>.<domain-name>”
    6. 
11. Apply and Verify changes
12. Enable Scheduled task

Conclusion

Completion of this article, the organization will only sync user accounts that have a valid email address into Azure AD.