Office 365 + DirSync - What's going to happen to the accounts?!

[L3OUGH]

Hi all,

 

We are in the process of migrating to O365, when we first set up DirSync we left the 'sync all directories now' check box ticked. Obviously that synced the whole of AD. We have now realised that using DirSync OU filtering will be a better way of doing things as a lot of old/unused accounts have been pulled up to the cloud and they won't be using O365. These unwanted accounts also have valid licenses assigned to them.

 

So my question is now I've set up the OU filtering within DirSync, whats going to happen to all the unwanted/no longer synced accounts that are already in the cloud when the next sync runs? Or more importantly what happens to the licenses?

 

Will the accounts be deleted/removed from the cloud and the licenses revoked and given back to the license pool?

 

Thanks

Liam

[LinkZ]

The accounts will stay there and so will the licenses, it just won't sync changes made to them in AD any more. You'll have to remove the accounts manually (or with a powershell script) or if it's easier and you haven't properly transitioned over to it then remove all of your O365 accounts and sync from scratch with the OU filtering in place.

[L3OUGH]

Thanks for the response @LinkZ, if we were to get CSV together with the unwanted accounts in and were to bulk remove them with powershell then what would happen to said licenses?

[LinkZ]

I think the licenses will stay with them for 30 days while they sit in the deleted users section then the licenses will be put back in to your pool after the accounts get removed.

 

If you want to make sure you get the licenses back you can use a powershell script such as the one on "IDENTITY AND ACCESS MANAGEMENT" - Rajiv Dewan (Oracle Identity Governance Certified Professional): Office 365 - Add / Remove License in Bulk to give it a csv list of all the users then remove their licenses first before you delete them.

[L3OUGH]

Thanks @LinkZ for the help, will definitely check out that link.

[Firefox]

Have you simply unselected some OU's you no longer want to sync? if so follow the initial sync flow which should be

 

Full Import Full Sync on the AD Connector

Full Import Full Sync on the Windows Azure AD Connector

Export on Windows Azure AD Connector

 

This will delete everything out of O365 you no longer need (I believe the licenses also return to the pool)

[garethEds]

We found that they went into the recycle bin for O365. Because I was cleaning and experimenting with our setup I found a force delete/clean script that I could run that emptied the O365 recycle bin. Very handy it was.

 

GJE