This document contains hands-on labs for the MS-220 certification.
- Lab 1: Troubleshoot Mail Flow
- Lab 2: Resolve Exchange Online Connectivity Issues
- Lab 3: Investigate Spam and Phishing Issues
- Lab 4: Troubleshoot Mobile Device Access
- Lab 5: Investigate Calendar Sharing Issues
- Lab 6: Analyze Exchange Online Protection (EOP)
- Lab 7: Troubleshoot Hybrid Exchange Issues
- Lab 8: Investigate Retention and Compliance Issues
- Lab 9: Troubleshoot Public Folders
- Lab 10: Document and Escalate Support Cases
Objective: Use mail flow tools to diagnose email delivery issues.
Steps:
- Go to https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com and navigate to Mail flow > Message trace
- Enter sender and recipient email addresses
- Set date range to last 7 days
- Click Search
- Review the trace results showing message path
- Click on a message to view detailed trace information:
- Status (Delivered, Pending, Failed)
- Events (Authentication, Filtering, Delivery)
- Actions taken
- For a failed message, note the error code and reason
- Click Message trace details for complete information
- Identify the failure point (spam filter, routing, connector, etc.)
- Document the troubleshooting path and root cause
Objective: Diagnose and resolve client connectivity problems with Exchange Online.
Steps:
- Go to https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com and navigate to Recipients > Mailboxes
- Select a user experiencing connectivity issues
- Check the mailbox details:
- License status
- Last activity
- Email address
- Go to the user's mailbox in Outlook on the web to verify access
- If Outlook desktop client has issues, check connectivity:
- Open Control Panel > Mail > Show Profiles
- Select the profile and click Properties
- Verify Exchange server connection
- Check account authentication:
- Go to https://myapps.microsoft.com to verify access
- Check if MFA is configured properly
- Test from a different device to isolate client issues
- Review Outlook client logs for error details
- If issues persist, reset user password and reconfigure Outlook
- Document the troubleshooting steps and resolution
Objective: Analyze and troubleshoot spam and phishing detection.
Steps:
- Go to https://security.microsoft.com and navigate to Email & collaboration > Threat policies > Spam filter
- Review the default spam filter policy
- Check High confidence spam actions - set to Quarantine or Delete
- Go to Quarantine and review quarantined messages
- Look for false positives (legitimate emails marked as spam)
- Click on a quarantined message to view details:
- Sender
- Subject
- Detection rule
- If it's a false positive, click Release and check Should this have been filtered?
- Go to Anti-phishing policies and review settings
- Check User impersonation protection is enabled
- Go to Threat & vulnerability management > Reports > Email security to view threat analytics
Objective: Diagnose mobile device mailbox access problems.
Steps:
- Go to https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com and navigate to Mobile > Mobile device mailbox policies
- Review your organization's mobile device policies
- Check for any policies that restrict device access
- Select a user having mobile access issues
- Go to https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com > Recipients > Mailboxes
- Select the user and check mobile device details
- Look at Mobile device access settings
- If access is blocked, verify the device meets policy requirements:
- Device encryption enabled
- Password meets complexity requirements
- Use Set-CasMailbox PowerShell command to test access
- Monitor device sync status and troubleshoot any remaining issues
Objective: Troubleshoot calendar permission and sharing problems.
Steps:
- Go to https://outlook.office.com and navigate to Calendar
- Right-click on a calendar and select Properties
- Check current sharing permissions
- Try to share the calendar with another user
- If sharing fails, verify the recipient is a valid user
- Go back to mailbox in admin center and check Calendar permissions
- Manually add sharing permissions using PowerShell if needed
- Have the recipient accept the calendar invitation
- Verify calendar appears in the recipient's Outlook
- Test updating and modifying calendar entries between users
Objective: Review and test Exchange Online Protection policies.
Steps:
- Go to https://security.microsoft.com and navigate to Email & collaboration > Policies & rules > Threat policies
- Review all threat protection policies:
- Spam filter
- Malware filter
- Anti-phishing
- Advanced protection
- Check Outbound spam policy for outbound message filtering
- Go to Reports > Email security to view threat reports
- Review Malware detections by date and type
- Check Phishing and spam detection trends
- Go to Quarantine and review quarantined messages
- Analyze why specific messages were quarantined
- Review administrator-only messages
- Create a summary report of threat protection effectiveness
Objective: Diagnose hybrid Exchange mail flow and connectivity.
Steps:
- Go to https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com and navigate to Mail flow > Connectors
- Review inbound and outbound connectors
- Verify connector health and test connectivity:
- Click on a connector
- Click Test to validate settings
- Review connector settings for:
- Smart hosts
- TLS configuration
- Certificate validation
- Go to Message trace and search for messages between on-premises and cloud
- Verify mail is routing correctly
- Check Organization relationship for federated organizations
- Test calendar sharing between on-premises and cloud mailboxes
- Review hybrid configuration settings
- Document any mail flow issues and remediation steps
Objective: Troubleshoot retention policies and compliance holds.
Steps:
- Go to https://compliance.microsoft.com and navigate to Data lifecycle management > Retention
- Review all retention policies in your organization
- Check which policies apply to specific mailboxes
- Select a user mailbox and verify retention tags applied
- Go to eDiscovery > Core eDiscovery and create a case
- Search for messages from a specific date range
- Verify messages older than retention period are included
- Place a hold on search results
- Verify held messages are preserved
- Search for messages that should have been deleted and verify they're removed
Objective: Diagnose and resolve public folder access and replication issues.
Steps:
- Go to https://outlook.office.com and navigate to Folders
- Look for Public Folders in the left panel
- If public folders don't appear, check admin settings
- Go to https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com and navigate to Public folders
- Review public folder structure and permissions
- Create a test public folder
- Verify access to the public folder from multiple users
- Check public folder mailbox status
- Monitor public folder replication and health
- Test adding and removing public folder items
Objective: Create and manage support cases with complete documentation.
Steps:
- Go to https://admin.microsoft.com and navigate to Support > New service request
- Click + New service request
- Fill in case details:
- Title: Exchange connectivity issue - User mailbox
- Description: Detailed explanation of the issue
- Affected services: Exchange Online
- Severity: Choose appropriate level
- Attach supporting documentation:
- Message trace results (screenshot or CSV export)
- Mailbox configuration
- Error logs
- Include Steps to reproduce the issue
- Click Create to submit the case
- Note the case number for reference
- Go to Your support tickets to track progress
- Add follow-up information as needed
- Document the final resolution and lessons learned