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Hello all, I'm new to using Teams. Previously, Teams were setup with a Powershell script but I can't get it working properly so have setup the free Salamander utility and have it creating CSV files which Upload to SDS. This is updating Team memberships ok. My question is, what will happen on the first day I run it for the new school year? I know SDS no longer creates the classes automatically and the Teachers need to do this now but what is the exact process for the creation of those classes? For example, if we currently have a class called ComSci-10-1, will that automatically be renamed to 2019/2020 ComSci-10-1 then a new class called ComSci-10-1 be available or do I manually need to archive the class? Any help would be much appreciated. Gary

Evening all. It's Saturday night on a bank holiday weekend so I'm hoping I'm not the only one working. I've got to create a new SDS profile (thanks tot he cleanup process not working as expected). Anyone know if Salamandersoft SDS sync supports the 2.1 CSV format?

Hello, I've been working to find a way to opt out an email address from Teams weekly digest and have finally come up with a manageable solution that I thought I'd share. We have SIMS for our MIS and Salamander Active Directory provisioning Teams Classes and Parent data via the Microsoft SDS sync. Salamander creates nightly uploads of the SDS csv file set and they offer this for free using their tool here... https://www.salamandersoft.co.uk/free-utilities/salamander-for-school-data-sync/ This fix is for those that have an automated SDS sync upload rather than the free run-once option. The problem: A parent contacts the school to say that they do not want to receive the Microsoft Teams weekly digest email. You need to keep the email in the MIS for other systems. The Microsoft SDS already has the parent email address and it's only possible to remove the email from the Azure Active Directory by using the reset_guardians.ps1 script provided here: https://github.com/OfficeDev/O365-EDU-Tools/blob/master/SDS%20Scripts/Reset-Guardians.ps1 Once you reset the guardian contacts for a student, all of the contacts are removed from the student, not just the one that wish to opt out. The other contacts for the student do not automatically reappear on the next csv file upload and it's only possible to get the contact data back again if you run a Full Sync reset on the SDS profile - something that cannot be automated (at the time of writing this). Removing an individual is possible via PowerShell if you read into the script. You can adjust the contact array on the student object in the graph data to contain what you want manually or via a script. However that's not so easy for your admin/data/pastoral teams to manage themselves and would be an administrative headache for any IT Support Team. A simple solution: Rather than thinking about removing the parent from the student contacts on the Azure object, we can simply update the email address to a new value instead. The SDS sync process will push changes to values and add new values but will not remove them. So all we need to do is flag the contact in the MIS and have the process replace the email with a non existent one that will bounce. Simple! For our setup we added a User Defined Field in SIMS in the Contacts data set. I called ours "NoTeamsEmail" and set it as a True/False type value. I then asked Salamander to add the new "NoTeamsEmail" UDF to the parent data extract, and use the value of the field to determine what the email address will be in the users.csv file creation workflow for SDS. The logic is that if the value of "NoTeamsEmail" field in SIMS is set to True (ticked) by the school's staff, Salamander will use a fixed value of "[email protected]" instead of the actual parent email address. SDS will then process this change when the files upload and the parent will no longer be receive the weekly email. Note: The email address you choose should be at your own school domain or a domain that you control to ensure that it is never going to exist. This works in any automation on SDS if you can identify the parent/guardian users somehow and just replace their email in the process if they are flagged. Thank you to Salamander who have implemented this for us - developers changed their SDS process to accommodate it. Top marks Thanks, Chris

I pressed the start a new term button thinking it'd look like my instructions to start an archive. it didn't look like my instructions at all, so I cancelled. This was a mistake as it is now archiving the profile and I've set no options on how I want this done. Just an FYI I guess, I'll have to see what happens next..

Hello, Has anyone successfully got the new Microsoft Teams Education Insights premium working? We use salamander to sync SIMS with SDS and that works fine, however we get validation errors when trying to connect to insights. Microsoft SDS support and Salamander don't seem to know why as the uploaded data looks good.

so the actual error is: "Not adding user id XXXXX to output file teacherRoster.csv as id not found in user list." (about 6 times) I'm using SIMS and I can't find a corresponding ID field in SIMS to see who isn't getting synced.

I stupidly created a new profile before archiving last year's profile which meant that many teams have been filled with this year's and last year's students. Example, 8A-EN1 has students from both last year's 8A-EN1 and this year's 8A-EN1. I have expired the new profile in hope that I could get the new students out however when running the section cleanup, it fails and does nothing. So do you know the answer to these questions: Any ideas how we can get the teams back to how they were so we can archive them then pull in our new data? Do we need to expire the old profile to make the section cleanup work? Is there a way of getting the new students out?

I've been tasked with setting up School Data Sync so we can get Teams up and running for remote working for students and staff. However it seems to be choking on my School.csv? My School.csv looks like this: ID,DfE Number,Name,Principal Name,Principal Secondary Email,Address,City,State,Country,Postal Code,Phone LRSFC,Cambridgeshire-8601,Long Road Sixth Form College,Yolanda Botham,[email protected],Long Road,Cambridge,Cambridgeshire,CB2 8PX,+441223631100 What's missing? It says it expected 11 columns but only found 10, but helpfully doesn't tell me what column is missing. EDIT: it's because I'm an idiot and missed out the Country!

Hello, My school currently uses SIMS and O365; however, the two are not joined together and teachers have to create their own groups which, although we are a small school, seems terribly inefficient. I came across school data sync which looks like a way to go - my question is how easy is it to set up with SIMS? It looks like I need to generate csv files to import into SDS. My IT people aren't particularly proactive and said it looked like a big job! I suggested Salamander School Data Sync (https://www.salamandersoft.co.uk/sds/) but again they seemed to think that this would not be too easy. I'm not sure if I am being fobbed off, so am looking for some advice from others that have probably done this already. I am not an IT specialist and am not sure about the O365 side of things (ie the active directory stuff) but I have a reasonable knowledge of SIMS. Thanks in advance for any suggestions, Martyn

Hello everyone We are beginning to deploy Teams, Salamander and SDS and I have a few questions - can anyone shed some light on them please? If a student moves group, will they will be removed from one team and added to another? How does this affect any work they have done in OneNote? Is the data transferred? Can the data be transferred? Does it disappear? What about at the end of each academic year? Fanx peeps

Couldn't find this online easily so thought I'd post a quick guide to help others. Ran into a situation where I needed security groups via student year and figured I could use the Grade SDS attribute to do it with dynamic security groups in AzureAD/EntraID. You can Use extended attributes in dynamic groups to it was just a case of finding the name and using it in a rule. Some searching found a PowerShell script to pull the attributes back out of Azure so I had an easy reference for the extension names. https://github.com/OfficeDev/O365-EDU-Tools/blob/master/SDS%20Scripts/Get-All_SDS_Attributes.ps1 In the dynamic rule builder, I just added an expression to pick out the year level for each group and made sure the accounts were live: Year1: Rule Syntax: (user.accountEnabled -eq True) -and (user.extension_fe2174665583431c953114ff7268b7b3_Education_Grade -eq "1")

Not sure of the terminology but I think it's called a markdown. Soon the new yr7 intake will happen and there is supposed to be a process of archiving all the old class teams groups. This is then ready for the groups to be recreated with the new pupils for the new year. Does anyone know how this process works? I'm using CSV and I'd set the end of term date in SDS, so maybe it's automated?

Who are we? We are a Microsoft Partner that specialises in creating engaging innovative solutions for SharePoint, Microsoft Teams and Office 365. Our passion is to enhance the classroom and workplace with technology that delivers real benefits to schools and businesses. As our customer base is growing, we are looking for an experienced support consultant/technician to help us maintain our level of support to our new and existing customers. We pride ourselves on being at the cutting-edge of SharePoint and Microsoft Teams solutions in the world education market with customers in the UK and abroad. We help our customers and the wider community through blogs, open source software and YouTube video guides. What we need you to do You will be joining the team to help us remotely install and support our range of SharePoint MIS integration products into schools. The main products you will be working with are our range of integration products, linking the school MIS to SharePoint, Teams and Office 365. Our work is conducted from our own homes, although some occasional travel and hotel stay may be needed to allow us to meet as a team and best support our customers. We also have an office in Hull will be used as a workplace if you are local to the area. What we will do for you 21 days paid holiday per year plus bank holidays Flexibility in working hours when required, although our customers’ needs must come first The opportunity to get rid of your daily commute Expenses paid on any business travel Support you in improving your current skills and to work with and develop new ones The opportunity to attend some conferences/events/training during the year Who we are looking for We are looking for someone with great communication and technical skills. This is a customer facing role and you will be required to contact customers and colleagues via phone, Teams and email. You will strive for perfection and a project will only be finished when our customers are happy with the end-product. Although you will need to be able to work independently and with little supervision, the team is always in contact via MS Teams, email and phone. However, home working isn’t for everyone, some need the face-to-face contact an office gives! Office 365 is constantly evolving, and you will need to be a quick learner with a passion for technology. We will provide a laptop and all the relevant software, you will need a suitable area for working in your home with a reliable broadband connection. Key Skills we are looking for: Experience with SharePoint and/or Teams, preferably in a School Environment Some experience maintaining Active Directory, preferably in a School Environment Experience with scripting PowerShell Office 365 It would be great if you had – but don’t worry if you haven’t: Knowledge and experience of SIMS.Net/Facility CMIS or other School MIS systems Scripting experience XML and windows foundation workflows One or more Microsoft Certifications Experience working with Excel or other products for analysing data Experience with Office 365 Administration Some experience of managing IT projects Next Steps If you are interested in joining our team, please email us at [email protected] with anything you want to support your application. Links to social media and community involvement would be great as well. If you would like more information or to arrange an informal chat about the role, please contact Tony Phillips [email protected] Interviews will be conducted via Microsoft Teams Video Call ASAP. It is hoped that the successful candidate will start as soon as possible **APPROVED**

Hi all, I am currently setting up School Data Sync to create Teams for a large FE College. I've ran a few test profiles and they appear to be syncing up and creating teams without too many issues (after a lot of fiddling). Can anyone share any ideas on best practices regarding the organisation of teams? Our current best idea is to create teams for each course (eg. AS Chemistry) and have channels for each class (Class 1, Class 2 ...) within each team. Is this possible? I've currently got one team for the course with all the teachers and students in it and it has automatically generated channels named after each tutor, but with all students and other teachers inside. Thanks very much for any help.

Has anyone had any success with Sims ID lite and SDS syncing correctly using the OneRoster API to create groups in O365. The issue I’m having is Group duplication and the duplicates not having any owners or members. Any help would be appreciated as I'm stumpted as are Capita !

Hello all, We use Teams and previously, Teams were created with a complex powershell script written by the previous IT Manager. I don't want to use this script for various reasons. I was planning to use Salamandersoft but have just read on here that MS have stopped the automatic creation of groups. Does this mean they can't be created through Salamandersoft? Also, if it does, what are the main benefits of using the paid for version? Will it make life a lot easier for someone like me who isn't great with scripts, powershell etc? Many thanks for any help.

Hello all, I've been using Salamander free edition since September. It has worked well for creating the csv's and initially creating the Teams but we are having all sorts of issues with memberships not being accurate despite not getting errors in SDS after upload. We have decided to opt for a managed service and this will give us lots of other benefits. I'm curious what peoples thoughts are on both Locker and Salamander? (or any others) Are many people using these paid for versions? Does it all work as expected or do you still get niggles? Many Thanks!

Has anyone made a custom report(s) that will work with the Microsoft SDS toolkit and create properly formatted CSV exports for it/ it'd save me some work This might be a half term project otherwise..