[ms office - o365] Office 365 - Shared Activation Issues

[CHiLL]

We have been using Office Professional Plus 2016 for years and earlier this year we trialled Office 365 ProPlus across a couple of IT suites and it was an absolute nightmare. The issue was with activation, specifically 'Shared computer activation' - I had configured 365 using the Office 365 Client Management Dashboard in SCCM, which uses the Office Deployment Tool to configure the suite settings. I specifically toggled 'Shared computer activation' to 'On' and our users are all correctly licensed with 'Office 365 A1' for students and 'Office 365 ProPlus' licenses.

 

Office 365 worked perfectly for a short while, with it activating for users and they could use it. However a little later most users started having issues where Office 365 was complaining about not being able to activate. This appears to be caused by the user using six or more computers that have Office 365. Presumably it's linked with the fact that students can license up to five devices and when they go onto a sixth, it won't allow them to use it. If multiple users use Office 365 on one computer - it works fine, however it's when one user activates Office on a number of computers that's causing the issue.

 

When we raised this with Office 365 support, they said that Office 365 is meant for 1:1 deployment, not for shared devices. When he checked one of the user's licenses, they saw 10 activation on the account (despite the 'limit' being 5) and he was confused as to why that many had been allowed.

 

Has anyone else experienced this or managed to get it working? Or is 365 just not the right version?

Edited June 26, 2019 by CHiLL

[altecsole]

I'd be interested in any updates on this as we're thinking of moving from Office 2016 to Office 365 ProPlus via SCCM and shared computer activation.

[Arthur]

I think you will need to setup Device-based Activation.

 

https://sysadminedu.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/step-by-step-guide-to-deploying-office-365-pro-plus-with-device-based-activation-with-sccm/

[CHiLL]

I think you will need to setup Device-based Activation.

 

https://sysadminedu.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/step-by-step-guide-to-deploying-office-365-pro-plus-with-device-based-activation-with-sccm/

Cheers. I'm looking I'm looking into that now.

 

Edit: @Arthur Does that require any pre-requisites? We're having issues with it getting stuck on provisioning and errors out saying it can't.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]53999[/ATTACH]

 

Apparently one of the possible solutions is to create a service principal for our AD FS domain and other configurations, including creating certificates. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure-stack/operator/azure-stack-create-service-principals#manage-service-principal-for-azure-ad

Edited June 26, 2019 by CHiLL

[Arthur]

I can't view your attachment for some reason.

 

 

@bushby mentioned in another thread that you have to use your onmicrosoft.com domain with the OPPTransition.exe tool.

 

Not sure about ADFS.

[CHiLL]

I can't view your attachment for some reason.

 

 

@bushby mentioned in another thread that you have to use your onmicrosoft.com domain with the OPPTransition.exe tool.

 

Not sure about ADFS.

Strange. I have amended the post with the correct attachment, but I'll put it here too:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]53999[/ATTACH]

 

We did specify our onmicrosoft.com URL and that error was being produced.

[Arthur]

Thanks for the screenshot.

 

Your tenant also needs "Office 365 A1 Plus" licenses. There was a thread about these recently...

 

www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-services/190626-office-365-a1-plus-faculty-licences-missing-2.html#post1761278

[CHiLL]

Thanks for the screenshot.

 

Your tenant also needs "Office 365 A1 Plus" licenses. There was a thread about these recently...

 

www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-services/190626-office-365-a1-plus-faculty-licences-missing-2.html#post1761278

So that's different to "Office 365 A1 for students"? (Isn't that the licence for the mailbox and stuff?)

 

I've gone through that link provided from the other thread as a student account that has never had any licenses assigned to it. After going through it, it's been automatically assigned the "Office 365 A1 for Students", which is the same as all of our other students have, except all of our other student accounts also have "Office 365 ProPlus for students" assigned to them for the Office 365 suite. No extra options have appeared in the available licenses to assign.

Edited June 26, 2019 by CHiLL

[Arthur]

So that's different to "Office 365 A1 for students"?

The A1 Plus licenses are definitely the ones that enable you to use device-based activation and are different from the regular A1 licenses. It sounds like you may need to contact Microsoft to add them to your tenant.

 

This is what the licenses look like in mine...

 

Edited June 26, 2019 by Arthur

[altecsole]

The A1 Plus licenses are definitely the ones that enable you to use device-based activation and are different from the regular A1 licenses. It sounds like you may need to contact Microsoft to add them to your tenant.

 

This is what the licenses look like in mine...

 

 

I've just tried deploying Office 365 ProPlus as a shared computer license, using SCCM, and it seems to be working. We use Seamless SSO and my test user is automatically signed in when they open Word and, under About Word, it shows as 'Shared Computer Activation'. I've checked the user in the Office 365 Admin portal and they don't have any Office installs showing, or activations on any devices (I gave this about 90 minutes to see if it updated). We use Office 365 A1 Plus licenses for students and faculty.

[altecsole]

I think you will need to setup Device-based Activation.

 

https://sysadminedu.wordpress.com/2017/01/07/step-by-step-guide-to-deploying-office-365-pro-plus-with-device-based-activation-with-sccm/

 

Maybe you don't need to do this using the latest versions of Office 365 ProPlus? It seems to be working for me without doing this.

[free780]

The A1 Plus licenses are definitely the ones that enable you to use device-based activation and are different from the regular A1 licenses. It sounds like you may need to contact Microsoft to add them to your tenant.

 

This is what the licenses look like in mine...

 

DBA actually creates an Azure AD account per PC/Laptop for DBA and licences with A1. I've had to delete the odd Device user when it won't activate.

[Arthur]

DBA actually creates an Azure AD account per PC/Laptop for DBA and licences with A1.

Does that mean the A1 non-Plus licenses should work fine for @CHiLL despite the SKUcheck being unsuccessful in the screenshot in post #4?

[free780]

Does a user called _Device_ exist and does have a A1 Plus for students licence? I think you do need the plus licences. Its a dark art with licencing.

Yes you get A1 Plus by licensing thtrough OVS or similar. However MS are transitioning to Microsoft 365 so we may have to use SCA at some point. Though I've found with RDS and ADFS sometimes there is a delay and a user is unlicensed. This is only in Server 2016 RDS and I think MS shouldn't have supported Office 365 Proplus on RDS.

Edited June 26, 2019 by free780

[CHiLL]

So it has created a _Device_ user but has not assigned any licenses to it. A1 Plus still isn't appearing in the list of available licenses.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]54006[/ATTACH]

[mullet_man]

I've just tried deploying Office 365 ProPlus as a shared computer license, using SCCM, and it seems to be working. We use Seamless SSO and my test user is automatically signed in when they open Word and, under About Word, it shows as 'Shared Computer Activation'. I've checked the user in the Office 365 Admin portal and they don't have any Office installs showing, or activations on any devices (I gave this about 90 minutes to see if it updated). We use Office 365 A1 Plus licenses for students and faculty.

Am seeing this too, but I don't have the A1 Plus licenses assigned but the user but office 365 works fines and doesn't not activate. The about office section doesn't even mention the product being activated or belonging to a user.

 

I have seen if I log in with a user who's UPN is not @school.sch.uk office doesn't work and says product is unlicensed. This makes me thing Office365 activates for the users domain.

 

Did you ever contact MS about Office 365?