[ms office - o365] Shared Computer Activation

[Gongalong]

Hi folks,

 

Any O365 Pro Plus deployment gurus here?

 

I'm confused by Shared Computer Activation, and whether it will help us. We have O365 A1, and have licenses of ProPlus. We use RM Unify which is federated with O365. When we create user accounts on our local DC it syncs using an RM product to Unify in the cloud, which then creates accounts in O365 via the federation. I would like to deploy O365 ProPlus over the Summer hols, as part of our Win 10 rebuild.

 

At the moment we have very few users with O365 PP, and when we do we assign them a license manually, and they have to login to O365 PP first with their account email address and password, which grants them the license. It obviously would not be practical for students to have to do this over and over as they move between machines for lessons, so I would like to license O365 PP in some sort of perpetual fashion, like Office 2019 etc. Does Shared Computer Activation allow me to do that, or is there some sort of ADBA/KMS key for O365 PP, or can users only use O365 PP by logging into it every time?

 

Thanks

[Boredguy]

Device Based Activation is a lot easier compared to Shared Computer Activation as long as

a) you have SCCM available to deploy it and have it configured to do your updates so you get the monthly/semi annual updates for Office

b) A1 Plus for Faculty/Student licences available to your tenancy

[Gongalong]

I am rebuilding the PCs with an SCCM task sequence, and have dabbled once (and already forgotten) using the O365PP wizard in SCCM.

 

How do I setup device based activation though, do Microsoft provide an ADBA key for O365PP?

[k-strider]

i have set-up shared computer activation, but in order for them to sign in seamlessly you need to be federated and some sort of SSO - we have and ADFS server to do that but even with this it doesn't work flawlessly see my post here... and everyone needs a o365PP license otherwise the apps open in read only mode.. you could put office 2019 on and activate it using your KMS key and ADBA.

[jmak]

I had read that you can deploy Device Based Activation by GPO - even using it to replace existing Office installs. What advantage does SCCM give?

[Gongalong]

@k-strider With Microsoft pushing people towards O365PP, and the fact it's kept updated, it seems the better choice over 2019. I do have 2019 with ADBA setup, it's a shame licensing of O365PP isn't so straightforward.

 

@jmak We already use it to image PCs, and it has a deployment tool specifically for O365 built-in.

[free780]

i have set-up shared computer activation, but in order for them to sign in seamlessly you need to be federated and some sort of SSO - we have and ADFS server to do that but even with this it doesn't work flawlessly see my post here... and everyone needs a o365PP license otherwise the apps open in read only mode.. you could put office 2019 on and activate it using your KMS key and ADBA.

 

 

 

 

Not sure about this. I have a special accounts that aren't synced with office 365 and DBA works. It is however not officially supported out of the US.

[Gongalong]

I have looked again at Device Based Activation, and tried to create a deployment using this guide https://sysadminedu.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/step-by-step-guide-to-deploying-office-365-pro-plus-with-device-based-activation-with-sccm/

 

The problem is that when it tries to activate the license it gives this error: SKUCheck unsuccessful - please verify that the Office 365 Education Plus for Students license is available in your tenant.

 

I spotted this Reddit thread https://www.reddit.com/r/msp/comments/92qnek/office_365_device_based_activation_for_education/ and spoke to Microsoft Support, and as per this Microsoft blog thread https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/nzedu/2017/05/03/device-based-activation-for-office365-proplus-great-for-education/ Device Based Activation is not supported outside of the USA, and support would not convert my licenses. Great! :mad:

[CHiLL]

I have looked again at Device Based Activation, and tried to create a deployment using this guide https://sysadminedu.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/step-by-step-guide-to-deploying-office-365-pro-plus-with-device-based-activation-with-sccm/

 

The problem is that when it tries to activate the license it gives this error: SKUCheck unsuccessful - please verify that the Office 365 Education Plus for Students license is available in your tenant.

 

I spotted this Reddit thread https://www.reddit.com/r/msp/comments/92qnek/office_365_device_based_activation_for_education/ and spoke to Microsoft Support, and as per this Microsoft blog thread https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/nzedu/2017/05/03/device-based-activation-for-office365-proplus-great-for-education/ Device Based Activation is not supported outside of the USA, and support would not convert my licenses. Great! :mad:

So that effectively means that unless you're a school using 1:1 deployment, Office 365 ProPlus won't work and can only use Office Professional Plus 2019?

[Gongalong]

I'd forgotten about Shared Computer Activation, which is an alternative. This has some caveats though, as it could mean students have to login at least once to Office (not sure if more times are required). Depends if you have SSO enabled.

[mullet_man]

I'd forgotten about Shared Computer Activation, which is an alternative. This has some caveats though, as it could mean students have to login at least once to Office (not sure if more times are required). Depends if you have SSO enabled.

I use SCA for my new deployments so got about 20 staff using it on laptops/PCs, never had any issues so far. We are replacing staff laptops over summer so everyone will have this setup so hope it continues to give us no problems.

 

We do have SSO so everything does seem to just work.

[free780]

I use SCA for my new deployments so got about 20 staff using it on laptops/PCs, never had any issues so far. We are replacing staff laptops over summer so everyone will have this setup so hope it continues to give us no problems.

 

We do have SSO so everything does seem to just work.

Are you using ADFS/Password hash sync/PTA?

[mullet_man]

Are you using ADFS/Password hash sync/PTA?

 

We use IAMCloud. (just done down a few mins ago so people are struggling to sign into anything office related!)

[Gongalong]

We're using Unify, and there is an SSO setup, but tried to enable it on Friday and not working so far. Support call logged...

[mullet_man]

We're using Unify, and there is an SSO setup, but tried to enable it on Friday and not working so far. Support call logged...

 

The office apps just log in without any issues normally, the only time I've had a problem was with some legacy staff having the wrong domain on there AD account.

 

OneDrive signs in automatically which is good too, we are going to push Office 365 and OneDrive next year so hopefully SSO will help.

[free780]

I wondered if those who've had issues are using ADFS rather than PTA/Password hash sync.

[CHiLL]

I wondered if those who've had issues are using ADFS rather than PTA/Password hash sync.

We are encountering these issues and using ADFS. I've just had a quick Google of Azure AD Pass-Through Authentication - and that looks like a massive undertaking, to switch from ADFS to AzureAD. I'm not sure if I currently have the skill-set to do that myself, so maybe if that's something we were going to do, we'd get a third party in to do it. Unless this is something we can use Microsoft's support for, given that we have A1 licenses and also one P1 license?

 

Has anyone switched from AD FS to Azure AD Pass-Through Authentication? If so, how was it?

[free780]

If your a FE/HE org you are probably using Shibboleth and/or UK Federation. Basically put your can't move that workload to AzureAD easily. You could just move authnetication for Office365 to PTA or password hash sync. It seems overkill just to get licencing working correctly.