Upgrading users to A3... Do they still need A1 ?

[mikkydoos]

Hi all,

 

 

Daft question to save me some time....

 

 

I'm upgrading a load of staff users to A3 on a new EES Microsoft 365 for Faculty license.

 

 

What happens if I remove their Office 365 A1 license ? Is this still needed at all?

 

 

 

 

Cheers in advance

Edited October 22, 2024 by mikkydoos

[CHiLL]

This isn't something I've done as we're still on A1, though it's something we're planning on upgrading to (A3). It's my understanding that users would only need A3, as A3 is effectively A1+extras, so all A1 features are also included.

[FragglePete]

Hi all,

 

 

Daft question to save me some time....

 

 

I'm upgrading a load of staff users to A3 on a new EES Microsoft 365 for Faculty license.

 

 

What happens if I remove their Office 365 A1 license ? Is this still needed at all?

 

 

 

 

Cheers in advance

A1 not needed if applying A3 - just check and uncheck - will carry on regardless and the user won't ever know.

 

Even when you remove a license it's on hold for 30 days before anything is lost - you just re-apply the license and everything will come back.

 

We have used A3 for a couple of years now. and assign it by Group Based licensing. Depending on which AD group they are on determines the licenses (and sub licenses) that get applied. I use A1 for staff that have 'left' so it maintains their Mailbox and OneDrive for a period so we can go back and get stuff if need be before they are actually deleted.

 

Pete

[StephenPink]

I didn't think you could assign both - the A3 will replace the A1.

[FragglePete]

I didn't think you could assign both - the A3 will replace the A1.

 

On group based licensing, you will get an error and it will just stay on the original license so you need to set one or the other - not both. Group Based Licensing makes it so easy to administer - our users get created in Locker automatically and dependent on Staff or Student a AD Group gets assigned which is picked up when Azure AD Sync does its thing and the license is applied. Same when they leave, Locker disables the Account and removes the majority of AD groups automatically but also assigns a new group which I use to apply the A1 license.

 

The only annoyance recently is Microsoft moving the Group Based Licensing from the Entra portal to the M365 Admin portal recently which had me scratching my head for a bit when I needed to make a few changes.

 

I also have a specific group for 'controlled assessment' accounts which applies an A3 license so M365 Desktop Apps Work (Word, Execl, Etc), but doesn't setup an Exchange Mailbox or allow other services. These accounts are used during set sessions only where students work on the assessment but the accounts are only enabled when required. Only downside of this is the AD Sync can take 20 minutes to enable the account online so some planning and notice is needed for when we disable and enable accounts..... sorry, I'm waffling....

 

Pete

[mikkydoos]

So I've hit a snag with assigning these A3 licenses..... has anyone been through this ?... I've inherited a pretty chaotic 365 tenant.

 

Currently we have freebie A1 licenses assigned by membership of an AD group synced to Entra. This is for all staff at this particular school... over 200.

 

I need to group assign 85 of these people M365 A3 licenses, and the rest leave with A1.

 

When assigning A3 I'm getting 'Conflicting Service Plans' errors when trying to assign the license in the admin centre, even if I turn off all of the plan2 and plan 3 services.

 

I don't really want to break the AD group sync then re-assign licenses in M365 admin ... will this lose users data ?

 

 

Anyone ??

[snagrat]

So I've hit a snag with assigning these A3 licenses..... has anyone been through this ?... I've inherited a pretty chaotic 365 tenant.

 

Currently we have freebie A1 licenses assigned by membership of an AD group synced to Entra. This is for all staff at this particular school... over 200.

 

I need to group assign 85 of these people M365 A3 licenses, and the rest leave with A1.

 

When assigning A3 I'm getting 'Conflicting Service Plans' errors when trying to assign the license in the admin centre, even if I turn off all of the plan2 and plan 3 services.

 

I don't really want to break the AD group sync then re-assign licenses in M365 admin ... will this lose users data ?

 

 

Anyone ??

 

Won’t lose anything. Even if you unlicensed you have 30 days to re-license to get it back.

 

I would create a new AD group for the A3 users (if not already) and assign that group the A3 license.

Then remove these users from the group assigning A1.

 

If it’s a group you can’t remove them from, create a specific A1 group and put the users you want in there, and the users you want A3 in the new group.

Then remove the A1 assignment to the original group for all.

 

A1 users will get A1, A3 will get A3.

Any direct assignment may need to be manually removed

[mikkydoos]

Thanks @snagrat

 

I basically did that last night with a test account and all appears well. License is assigning and at least their OneDrive and Outlook are there.

 

We're currently migrating this school to online etc and will be managing the groups online rather than AD.... but it works.

[dapaulio]

Done this for a couple of our schools now, and the most efficient way I found doing this is

Don’t rush it. My first attempt I created so many errors transferring the license quickly it didn’t have time to remove the direct assigned a1 before group assigning the a3. Even for azure it can take a number of minutes to fully propagate all licenses as a bulk request

 

Things to note a1 has a surplus 365 app license you had to apply to use office apps. A3 has this included. So in my case I was removing 2 licenses and adding 1.

 

Also note down who has mailbox delegations as I found this cleared the delegations as well. Shouldn’t be that many really but watch out for clearing O365 users who are used as shared mailbox accounts as these will need an a1 still applied and tend to have delegates assigned

 

- create an ad/ azure ad security group for a3 licensing. (Don’t add the users in just yet.)

- Bind the group to the license. And make sure the license is ready to be applied.

- take an export of the users before

- bulk remove all a1 licenses so all users became unlicensed

- check you know all the a1 licenses have been removed

- add all your a3 users to the security group

- ad sync if your a hybrid

- check license applies

- after 10 mins check for conflicts / error and correct in Entra identity | groups | a3 security group. If any error it will show as a banner when you click the group