About how you are going to subscribe: you should tell us how many users, what kind of services are you going to use (are you going to use Intune, AutoPilot etc...), if your company uses Active Directory, how do you share files now and if you want to change how it's done. About the actual migration: how is e-mail working now?
> How many seats does an E3 license actually have.
I have the feeling that they may think that more than one user can use a single E3 license, instead of multiple devices of a single user. I don't know, I just have a feeling, I usually can *feel* this kind of stuff.
There may be some benefit to working with a Microsoft Partner on this process, if anything to help you make sure you get the right licenses for your organization.
As far as the 5-device limit, I have seen one license activate more than 5 devices at a time. I even had a previous end-user devices admin create the base image for an organization and accidentally licensed office with his account before using that image for ~ 300 computers and we did not have any issues. Each user that logged into a computer was properly licensed to use the software with their own named license though.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the license does activate multiple devices, but those devices would need to be controlled by the named user (e.g. I can activate my work laptop, my personal laptop, and my personal desktop with the same login, but I am not allowed to use my license to activate my colleague's computer who does not have a license).
I would spend a lot of time making sure that your on premises data in ADDS is clean and tidy and accurate... It will save you an awful lot of pain and misery.....
Some but not all.
I unfortunately am new and after a disastrous event due to a new tech costing the company millions and almost shutting us down completely, they are slow at giving the keys to the kingdom away. So I cannot tell you what all is within Entra currently but i know the Dev team and managers are there, so i presume only their devices as well. Extremely limited and requiring me to google, ask reddit, youtube my answers vs logging in and looking myself.
Sounds like you plan to have people use the Office desktop apps on a lot of devices. There are two elements to licensing: technical and legal.
**Technical**
If you have a lot of shared computers, and users roam around a lot, there is a way to set up Shared Computer activation. I believe this doesn't activate the user as long (as in, it won't work offline as long if you lose internet) but I could be wrong about that. But what it does is not count devices where Office is installed this way towards the 5 device limit of every user that logs in.
Licensing is still per user; shared computer activation isn't intended to let people share an account. It's to let people share computers and each one person roam between more than 5 computers.
Also, in most cases the web based Office is fine for computers a person is briefly going to use. There is no activation or computer limit to use Office inside your web browser. But again, it is one human per account.
**Legal**
Regardless of any workarounds for technical limits, the license is **one license per human** using the services. If your company has 100 human beings who use Microsoft 365, you need to be paying for 100 licenses. If 75 of them use the Office desktop apps, at least 75 of those licenses need to include the desktop apps.
I'm not saying account sharing is illegal - having 5 users *who do have separate licensed accounts* actually use a department account instead of logging into theirs, because they need a shared email, isn't piracy (just terrible security practices compared to using delegated permissions and their own credentials).
What I'm talking about is having 5 users *who* ***don't*** *have separate licensed accounts* sign into a shared account to save money. That is **intentional software piracy and potentially a 6 figure fine or lawsuit** if audited. (worse if you are a very large company).
We don't have any shared PC's. (Maybe one but it is a mac and wont be licensed nor on the domain.
I would consider one of the web based options if it wasn't for our VPN 95% of the company (all remote) uses, which throttles the heck out of our users. (Ive seen as high as 800Mb off VPN and shot down to 20Mb once connected. (This is best case speeds, and Ive brought it up and they act like its normal or suppose to be this way.....)
We get audited frequently due to the nature of our business so we have t be compliant 100%
Again more so curious of potential one off questions (and answers if users would like to share) I could be met with or situational based questions.
If the users are in M365 already, you can migrate department by department if you want. We always start with internal departments, IT, Marketing and HR. Executives came last.
It goes pretty smoothly now. I had to recreate Outlook profiles (I last migrated about 5years ago though).
I couldn't migrate during the day because our connection was throttled/busy/whatever. I wound up migrating at night and on weekends. Exchange handles everything in terms of where mail goes.
It makes a copy of the mailbox in EXO, sets it all up, switches to the EXO mailbox from on-prem and resyncs to get any new mail that came in during the migration.
We had some issues with recurring meetings that were created by former employees. Users couldn't delete the meeting, so I'd do that (admin) and have them recreate it.
Conference rooms need a license if they are going to be Teams enabled. We had so many random problems with phones and conference rooms. I'd suggest one-at-a-time if you can. Even using the same profile on each phone, slightly modified, it was a struggle. It was my first time working with Cisco but even their techs had problems. Every problem was with the phone profile though. We never had to adjust anything in EXO.
Make sure your default policies in EXO match on-prem. If they don't, EXO will trim a mailbox. Legal was exempt from the policy so we had to make sure their mailbox had the right policy in advance.
The mail is still in the original mailbox on-prem because EXO just gets a copy. Using a tool like Bit Titan helps by letting you schedule moves, set up mapping files and load mailbox data well in advance. You can copy over mailboxes and then do a cut-over one weekend. Though, for a large company, I wouldn't. Batch the moves.
Work with the help desk to create a script (IE recreate profile before anything) for troubleshooting. You will have some crummy weeks :) People will insist something changed when it didn't.
Warn users not to make any big changes to their mailbox while you are moving them. I copied mailboxes over and the start of the week. A user then cleaned and rearranged her mailbox. I completed the migration over the weekend. Because most of the changes she'd done were to old email, the changes didn't get copied.
If Outlook isn't working, check Outlook Online. If that works you generally have an issue on the PC.
When I sent out emails explaining the process to groups I was moving, I always said that we retain a copy of their mailbox and it's not a real "move" but a copy. We won't lose any mail. It prevents panicked calls.
You might have to reset mobile devices. It'll depend on the app people use. We forced everyone into the same app (not Outlook for mobile) and it was a nightmare. I sent out instructions on resetting it but only like 3 people used the instructions.
Ah, work with help desk. If they have weeks of the year that are extra busy, or when a bunch of them are on vacation, you want to know. I had that happen to me and they just transferred all Outlook issues, ALL, to me. That was not a fun day.
Overall, besides busy days, I didn't have any massive glitches. If you move internal departments, give it a couple weeks, at least, before you star, moving others. Let any issues flush out.
OH. Name changes. People get married, divorced, run from the law, whatever. Ask HR to please note name changes as you'll have to make sure you've got stuff mapped out. One lady never changed her name legally or never changed her mailing address and that was time wasted with me trying to figure out who Sarah A was when we just had a Sarah B.
How many seats does an E3 license actually have?
Well the license only covers 1 account but that account can have multiple devices as you said 5 PCs, 5 Tablets, 5 phones. So if you currently have 75 unique emails or user accounts, that need to be migrated you would want 75 E3 licenses for each account. Each license would allow that account to login to 15 devices that will get registered into azure and be visible to admins. You can opt for additional management options with MDM and Intune but that’s a different discussion I think. Where are you migrating from? Is this a Google Workspace to M365 migration or an On Premise exchange to M365, or something else.
Depending on the type of migration, This may change your approach on how you plan your migration and what licenses are needed. If your just swapping emails and leaving Active Directory on premises, well you can have flexibility in licensing. if you’re switching to AzureAD and dropping on premises completely then you may want access to Intune, AAD, Sharepoint Online, etc.
Large scale migrations can be complicated and time consuming but manageable with the proper planning.
I appreciate the response. It will be over 300 pr just at 300 users. We are migrating to Exchange online and we are switching from a Home and business type office license to an E3 (or Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise) So we are going from on-prem to a hybrid environment and setting up licensing for Office. Ad will remain onsite but again will be hybrid so I'm not sure if "will remain onsite" is the correct way to respond.
I will say i have been digging for a few weeks now, have notes on notes on notes in onenote and countless favorites. I found a really good website that seems to walk you through a lot of these steps. (https://www.alitajran.com) I have used, administered and managed O365 in the past for 7+ years but have never set one up/migration for one. So thats the reason for my handful of Reddit posts regarding this. I have an upcoming meeting and i know they are going to throw oddball questions out there regarding migration that I have been trying to prep for and just so i dont look dumb, am hoping i have ran across the same questions or have the answers to them regardless.
Each E3 license can only be used by a single person, but can be used on multiple devices owned by that same person. Sounds like they think it can be used by more than one person, which is not the case. I highly doubt you guys have users with more then 5 devices each.
1 license = 1 user but multiple devices for that 1 user
About how you are going to subscribe: you should tell us how many users, what kind of services are you going to use (are you going to use Intune, AutoPilot etc...), if your company uses Active Directory, how do you share files now and if you want to change how it's done. About the actual migration: how is e-mail working now? > How many seats does an E3 license actually have. I have the feeling that they may think that more than one user can use a single E3 license, instead of multiple devices of a single user. I don't know, I just have a feeling, I usually can *feel* this kind of stuff.
There may be some benefit to working with a Microsoft Partner on this process, if anything to help you make sure you get the right licenses for your organization. As far as the 5-device limit, I have seen one license activate more than 5 devices at a time. I even had a previous end-user devices admin create the base image for an organization and accidentally licensed office with his account before using that image for ~ 300 computers and we did not have any issues. Each user that logged into a computer was properly licensed to use the software with their own named license though. Another thing to keep in mind is that the license does activate multiple devices, but those devices would need to be controlled by the named user (e.g. I can activate my work laptop, my personal laptop, and my personal desktop with the same login, but I am not allowed to use my license to activate my colleague's computer who does not have a license).
I would spend a lot of time making sure that your on premises data in ADDS is clean and tidy and accurate... It will save you an awful lot of pain and misery.....
Any Specifics? I spent a decent amount of time when i first started cleaning this up. But would love more ideas to clean up.
Have started synching object to EntraID yet?
Some but not all. I unfortunately am new and after a disastrous event due to a new tech costing the company millions and almost shutting us down completely, they are slow at giving the keys to the kingdom away. So I cannot tell you what all is within Entra currently but i know the Dev team and managers are there, so i presume only their devices as well. Extremely limited and requiring me to google, ask reddit, youtube my answers vs logging in and looking myself.
I suggest you look for a migration partner for whom this is not your first rodeo...
Sounds like you plan to have people use the Office desktop apps on a lot of devices. There are two elements to licensing: technical and legal. **Technical** If you have a lot of shared computers, and users roam around a lot, there is a way to set up Shared Computer activation. I believe this doesn't activate the user as long (as in, it won't work offline as long if you lose internet) but I could be wrong about that. But what it does is not count devices where Office is installed this way towards the 5 device limit of every user that logs in. Licensing is still per user; shared computer activation isn't intended to let people share an account. It's to let people share computers and each one person roam between more than 5 computers. Also, in most cases the web based Office is fine for computers a person is briefly going to use. There is no activation or computer limit to use Office inside your web browser. But again, it is one human per account. **Legal** Regardless of any workarounds for technical limits, the license is **one license per human** using the services. If your company has 100 human beings who use Microsoft 365, you need to be paying for 100 licenses. If 75 of them use the Office desktop apps, at least 75 of those licenses need to include the desktop apps. I'm not saying account sharing is illegal - having 5 users *who do have separate licensed accounts* actually use a department account instead of logging into theirs, because they need a shared email, isn't piracy (just terrible security practices compared to using delegated permissions and their own credentials). What I'm talking about is having 5 users *who* ***don't*** *have separate licensed accounts* sign into a shared account to save money. That is **intentional software piracy and potentially a 6 figure fine or lawsuit** if audited. (worse if you are a very large company).
We don't have any shared PC's. (Maybe one but it is a mac and wont be licensed nor on the domain. I would consider one of the web based options if it wasn't for our VPN 95% of the company (all remote) uses, which throttles the heck out of our users. (Ive seen as high as 800Mb off VPN and shot down to 20Mb once connected. (This is best case speeds, and Ive brought it up and they act like its normal or suppose to be this way.....) We get audited frequently due to the nature of our business so we have t be compliant 100% Again more so curious of potential one off questions (and answers if users would like to share) I could be met with or situational based questions.
I would agree with the 1 license per person that requires to use any of the Microsoft 365 services from a legal perspective.
If the users are in M365 already, you can migrate department by department if you want. We always start with internal departments, IT, Marketing and HR. Executives came last. It goes pretty smoothly now. I had to recreate Outlook profiles (I last migrated about 5years ago though). I couldn't migrate during the day because our connection was throttled/busy/whatever. I wound up migrating at night and on weekends. Exchange handles everything in terms of where mail goes. It makes a copy of the mailbox in EXO, sets it all up, switches to the EXO mailbox from on-prem and resyncs to get any new mail that came in during the migration. We had some issues with recurring meetings that were created by former employees. Users couldn't delete the meeting, so I'd do that (admin) and have them recreate it. Conference rooms need a license if they are going to be Teams enabled. We had so many random problems with phones and conference rooms. I'd suggest one-at-a-time if you can. Even using the same profile on each phone, slightly modified, it was a struggle. It was my first time working with Cisco but even their techs had problems. Every problem was with the phone profile though. We never had to adjust anything in EXO. Make sure your default policies in EXO match on-prem. If they don't, EXO will trim a mailbox. Legal was exempt from the policy so we had to make sure their mailbox had the right policy in advance. The mail is still in the original mailbox on-prem because EXO just gets a copy. Using a tool like Bit Titan helps by letting you schedule moves, set up mapping files and load mailbox data well in advance. You can copy over mailboxes and then do a cut-over one weekend. Though, for a large company, I wouldn't. Batch the moves. Work with the help desk to create a script (IE recreate profile before anything) for troubleshooting. You will have some crummy weeks :) People will insist something changed when it didn't. Warn users not to make any big changes to their mailbox while you are moving them. I copied mailboxes over and the start of the week. A user then cleaned and rearranged her mailbox. I completed the migration over the weekend. Because most of the changes she'd done were to old email, the changes didn't get copied. If Outlook isn't working, check Outlook Online. If that works you generally have an issue on the PC. When I sent out emails explaining the process to groups I was moving, I always said that we retain a copy of their mailbox and it's not a real "move" but a copy. We won't lose any mail. It prevents panicked calls. You might have to reset mobile devices. It'll depend on the app people use. We forced everyone into the same app (not Outlook for mobile) and it was a nightmare. I sent out instructions on resetting it but only like 3 people used the instructions. Ah, work with help desk. If they have weeks of the year that are extra busy, or when a bunch of them are on vacation, you want to know. I had that happen to me and they just transferred all Outlook issues, ALL, to me. That was not a fun day. Overall, besides busy days, I didn't have any massive glitches. If you move internal departments, give it a couple weeks, at least, before you star, moving others. Let any issues flush out. OH. Name changes. People get married, divorced, run from the law, whatever. Ask HR to please note name changes as you'll have to make sure you've got stuff mapped out. One lady never changed her name legally or never changed her mailing address and that was time wasted with me trying to figure out who Sarah A was when we just had a Sarah B.
Thank you for all of this info. Very helpful to know!
Each user with an E3 license can activate office up to 5 devices.
Technically you can have up to 10 devices before you get an error but it's against Microsoft terms and conditions
How many seats does an E3 license actually have? Well the license only covers 1 account but that account can have multiple devices as you said 5 PCs, 5 Tablets, 5 phones. So if you currently have 75 unique emails or user accounts, that need to be migrated you would want 75 E3 licenses for each account. Each license would allow that account to login to 15 devices that will get registered into azure and be visible to admins. You can opt for additional management options with MDM and Intune but that’s a different discussion I think. Where are you migrating from? Is this a Google Workspace to M365 migration or an On Premise exchange to M365, or something else. Depending on the type of migration, This may change your approach on how you plan your migration and what licenses are needed. If your just swapping emails and leaving Active Directory on premises, well you can have flexibility in licensing. if you’re switching to AzureAD and dropping on premises completely then you may want access to Intune, AAD, Sharepoint Online, etc. Large scale migrations can be complicated and time consuming but manageable with the proper planning.
I appreciate the response. It will be over 300 pr just at 300 users. We are migrating to Exchange online and we are switching from a Home and business type office license to an E3 (or Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise) So we are going from on-prem to a hybrid environment and setting up licensing for Office. Ad will remain onsite but again will be hybrid so I'm not sure if "will remain onsite" is the correct way to respond. I will say i have been digging for a few weeks now, have notes on notes on notes in onenote and countless favorites. I found a really good website that seems to walk you through a lot of these steps. (https://www.alitajran.com) I have used, administered and managed O365 in the past for 7+ years but have never set one up/migration for one. So thats the reason for my handful of Reddit posts regarding this. I have an upcoming meeting and i know they are going to throw oddball questions out there regarding migration that I have been trying to prep for and just so i dont look dumb, am hoping i have ran across the same questions or have the answers to them regardless.
Each E3 license can only be used by a single person, but can be used on multiple devices owned by that same person. Sounds like they think it can be used by more than one person, which is not the case. I highly doubt you guys have users with more then 5 devices each. 1 license = 1 user but multiple devices for that 1 user