Moving from OVS to MS A3

[neonetman]

I'm looking at our licensing options at the moment and trying to work out if it is worth us moving to Microsoft 365 A3. From what I'm reading it covers the following that we need:-

 

* Windows 10 and Office 365 licenses

* Server CALs

* System Center Configuration Manager license

* Rights to run Exchange and SharePoint servers on premises.

 

So on this basis, I can drop the following items from my OVS renewal, freeing up those funds to pay for M365

 

* Desktop Enterprise CAL suite x number of FTE's

* SCCM core license

* Exchange server license

* SharePoint server license

 

Whilst retaining the rest of our OVS subscription to cover our on-premises servers. I also understand that for each members of staff, we gain licenses for up to 40 students FOC

 

 

Can any of you licensing guru's confirm if my thinking is correct, and if not then correct my thought flow

 

Many thanks

[foofighterjim]

Big thing to note about the Windows aspect of the M365 A3 license. You are only covered for Windows 10 if the devices are AAD or Hybrid AAD joined, at least 1903 (I think) and the device must have a Windows 10 pro license. Any pre existing activations with say, a KMS key are not technically valid, it must be activated with the digital license that the device has.

 

So, for instance, if you have any older hardware that only has a Windows 7 or 8 licence, that you are now running Windows 10 on through OVS entitlement, these devices are not valid for the license. This aspect has recently caught me out, so don't let it happen to you.

[neonetman]

So how would that work if we added a license using a MAK key prior to the changeover? That then shows in Windows as a digital license

[TechMonkey]

Yes, we have fallen foul of this. If you use KMS currently you will no longer be able to, you will have to ensure the machine is reset to the firmware embedded key.

 

Also be aware you will no longer have access to Window images, you will have to use either Auto Pilot or the installation media creation tool.

[3s-gtech]

This pretty much stops us from going to A3. We have lots of stuff on older licenses, and nothing AAD joined.

[free780]

I'm not convinced by some of the claims. I think you still get access to ISOs for all Windows versions. In terms of activation you can use AD Activation still. Microsoft would like to use subscription licensing as it enables devices to be provisioned away from the network. Its worth noting in HE/FE Microsoft has driven the change to A3/A5 away from the older campus agreements. I'm guessing other orgs will be the same?

Shared devices need to be AAD/HAADJ for Office.

[foofighterjim]

I'm not convinced by some of the claims. I think you still get access to ISOs for all Windows versions. In terms of activation you can use AD Activation still. Microsoft would like to use subscription licensing as it enables devices to be provisioned away from the network. Its worth noting in HE/FE Microsoft has driven the change to A3/A5 away from the older campus agreements. I'm guessing other orgs will be the same?

Shared devices need to be AAD/HAADJ for Office.

 

No, you don't keep access to the ISOs. It is not a Volume license agreement so you get nothing in VLSC under Windows 10. Nor can you get them from the Licensing and Billing section in O365. I thought it was a mistake initially, after speaking to MS they confirmed that this is the case because it is not a volume license. You can only get the ISO from: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/vlacademicwindows10iso and this is only the current release.

 

You can't activate Windows on a M365 license away from Azure. The license is user based and must be authorised against Azure AD.

 

You can actually use M365 Apps (Office) on a standard domain joined machine. Users just have to sign into it when they open an application for the first time. You can configure this with a roaming token, under shared device activation, to a share, so users can move computers without being prompted to sign in again.

[Primus]

It's like they enjoy making it difficult to understand!

[Roberto]

It's like they enjoy making it difficult to understand!

 

I don’t think it’s difficult to understand. This is the “cloud all the things” deal and is fairly clear in that. The issue seems to be when people apply their own filter to it.

[Primus]

I don’t think it’s difficult to understand. This is the “cloud all the things” deal and is fairly clear in that. The issue seems to be when people apply their own filter to it.

 

You don't think Microsoft licensing is difficult to understand?

[HereIGoAgain2601]

Hi,

 

We are looking at getting a CSP agreement. To confirm, we have devices currently on Windows 10 but not sure how it’s been licensed by the old IT guys. There are no VLSC agreement in place so assuming it was built into the OS.

 

Some are still on Windows 7 Pro and will need upgrading.

 

If we buy the A3 and blanket wipe to Windows 10 Pro Will they connect to our intune and activate windows 10?

 

Thanks

Joel

[HereIGoAgain2601]

I should add that they are domain joined currently so must have some windows 10 pro license of some sort but not sure if it would be hardware or a MAK key that the old IT company had “found”

 

Thanks

[psydii]

Hi,

 

 

If we buy the A3 and blanket wipe to Windows 10 Pro Will they connect to our Intune and activate windows 10?

 

Yes and No.

 

We had a load of laptops bought during lockdown with the wrong Windows 10 licence. They wont activate if re-imaged to Pro/Education and they wont upgrade to Education if left with the factory installed OS.

 

I have an enterprise MAK on a homebrew machine, and a VM that is Azure AD Joined. The VM wont activate because the host machine doesn't have an eligible key in the firmware.

 

This sort of shenanigans keeps us locked to KMS for our legacy hardware, anything bought since 2016* has a Windows 10 Pro or 'better' licence key in the Firmware - allowing u/g to Education via MS365 licencing.

 

*except for those blasted laptops.

[AliG]

I'm looking at our licensing options at the moment and trying to work out if it is worth us moving to Microsoft 365 A3. From what I'm reading it covers the following that we need:-

 

* Windows 10 and Office 365 licenses

* Server CALs

* System Center Configuration Manager license

* Rights to run Exchange and SharePoint servers on premises.

 

So on this basis, I can drop the following items from my OVS renewal, freeing up those funds to pay for M365

 

* Desktop Enterprise CAL suite x number of FTE's

* SCCM core license

* Exchange server license

* SharePoint server license

 

Whilst retaining the rest of our OVS subscription to cover our on-premises servers. I also understand that for each members of staff, we gain licenses for up to 40 students FOC

 

 

Can any of you licensing guru's confirm if my thinking is correct, and if not then correct my thought flow

 

Many thanks

 

Hi, Did you make the switch to M365 Licensing I am just looking at this and although it will be approx £2k cheaper and feature rich (via a JISC membership) I have concerns around Windows 10 Home on some devices, OS and Office M365 activation via M365. Did you make the switch and did you have any difficulties or regrets?

 

 

Thanks,

 

AliG

[HereIGoAgain2601]

Hi,

 

We did make the move to the M365 licensing and activation for Windows 10. There was difficulty getting Microsoft to provide the upgrade key for Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro/Education. Even though there is an article clearly showing your entitlement, it took us a few weeks to get them to approve this academic upgrade license. Even when they did, they limited us to 100 devices on the MAK key they issued - I think this was in relation to the number of M365 A3 licenses we had purchased. The 100 sorted out most of our devices (as it was a 3 form primary) that had purchased 50 A3 licenses. There are probably around 20 that are 'not activated' properly, but these have just moved up to the top of our replacement priority. The devices are 3rd gen i3/i5 with 4GB RAM and HDDs so we decided it wasn't worth the hassle of contacting Microsoft again and are just looking to replace these this academic year.

 

We were lucky in that the SBM and HT were the ones really encouraging the cloud migration - so they were in effect happy to pay the difference to make it work. We had this discussion at length prior to migration and they were happy to assume the cost and risk of the move to A3 license.

 

There is also a bit of a pain about part time staff who would normally only be 1 FTE on the old way of licensing... but will now need 2 licenses for M365... but it was just one of those things we accepted as part of the strategy to go fully M365 / Intune based and the costs were factored in.

 

It was a bit nerve wracking at the time doing away with KMS and wondering what would happen, but has to be said the best thing we ever did and we have no regrets. The whole thing is just so much easier to work with day to day and we aren't tided to any on premise deployment or management systems.

 

We just need to get PaperCut MF moved to Hive and then we are completely serverless at this particular site.

 

Good luck!

 

Thanks.

[localzuk]

There seems to be some confusion in this thread about access to KMS keys and the like. We moved from OVS to EES, with A3 licenses. We still have KMS keys, access to VLSC and access to ISOs?

 

It may be different if you're looking at CSP though. But I think this is due to everyone needing to be careful about which scheme you're referring to exactly. A3 licenses are not a licensing scheme in themselves, they are a license. They are then bought through OVS-ES, EES, CSP etc...

[AliG]

Yes I think you are right regards to the confusion between EES and CSP I am looking at moving from OVS to EES too and at the moment it just seems a no brainer, its cheaper and more feature rich. I'm just concerned about the technical side of activating the licenses. I am told Windows 10 Home is a qualifying OS for EES, but I believe CSP would be more problematic and would require a Windows 10 Pro MAK upgrade key from Microsoft which would be limited to the EQU count.

[AliG]

Does anyone know that if I am in year 2 of a 3 year OVS can I move to M365 or do I need to honour the 3 year OVS term? I am getting mixed advice from different resellers.

[TechMonkey]

Does anyone know that if I am in year 2 of a 3 year OVS can I move to M365 or do I need to honour the 3 year OVS term? I am getting mixed advice from different resellers.

 

I am not an expert but as far as I can recall you can add M365 licenses to your OVS whenever. Separately you can move to CSP when you are out of term, which is geared more to cloud based services. They are separate streams.

[johnlevis]

You can't add M365 to an OVS agreement, it's only available on CSP. You can add the O365 Use Benefit licences to an OVS which is probably where the confusion lies.

 

Microsoft's position is that all Qualifying Products on an OVS ie Windows/Office/Core Cal Suite must run to the end of the agreement term. Whether it would be enforced or not is anyone's guess.

[minimoo]

You can't add M365 to an OVS agreement, it's only available on CSP.

 

shouldn't that be:

 

You can't add M365 to an OVS agreement, it's only available on CSP or EES.

[dmattox]

Thanks jthornton1605