AZ 104 problem 01

My Experience with Microsoft Entra ID P2 Free Trial Creating a New Tenant

🧩 Background

I recently tried to activate the Microsoft Entra ID Premium P2 free trial as part of my learning journey in Azure identity and access management. I already had an Azure Free Trial subscription under my personal Microsoft account, and I expected to enable the P2 features within the same tenant. However, things didn’t go as planned.

❗ What Happened

• I had already signed up for an Azure Free Trial using my personal Microsoft account.
• When I went to activate the Entra ID Premium P2 free trial, I assumed it would apply to my existing Azure directory.
• Instead, I was not allowed to proceed under my current tenant.
• Thinking that was expected, I proceeded using the same email, but I filled out new setup details.

• As a result:
  • ✅ A new Microsoft Entra tenant was created where the P2 trial was successfully activated.
  • ❌ However, this new tenant did not include my existing Azure Free Trial subscription. Now, I ended up with two completely separate tenants:
  • 1.My original tenant: has the Azure Free Trial, but no Entra ID P2 license.
  • 2.The new tenant: has the Entra ID P2 license, but no Azure subscription.

🔍 Analysis: What Went Wrong

• Apparently, when you activate a P2 trial, Microsoft creates a new tenant if the existing one doesn’t meet certain conditions.
• Even though I used the same email address, the system treats the two tenants as entirely separate identities.
• The process didn't give me a clear warning — so I unknowingly created a work account linked to a new directory.
• The problem is: tenants can’t be merged, and the P2 trial can only be used once per account.

📌 Official Explanation (Unchanged)

If you have registered for Azure Free Subscription from your personal email address, then you will receive default Microsoft Entra ID (not P1 / P2 trial) license with subscription.
Because the P2 trial requires a separate license, it wouldn't activate on the same tenant and instead created a new one with your new email. So this is expected behaviour.

🧾 Summary

I tried to learn Entra ID P2, and I ended up with two disconnected tenants. I can’t merge them, and I can’t activate another P2 trial on my original tenant.

Now I have:

• A P2 trial on a new tenant that can’t deploy Azure resources,
• An Azure subscription on my original tenant that can’t use P2 features.

Sources: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1805696/i-did-a-microsoft-entra-id-p2-free-trial-but-inste