Office 365 Directory Synchronization

Dirsync is required to support Single Sign On (SSO) and creates Mail Enabled Users (MEU) in the cloud tenant. Installing Dirsync allows you have a unified Global Address List (GAL) between on-premise and cloud (Office 365).  It also allows you to on-board/off-board users to and from Office 365 (this requires a 2 way sync).

Note: When user accounts are first sync’d they are marked as non-activated (therefore do not consume any licenses)

Here are the steps for installing and verifying Disync has completed. Also to verify Dirsync has completed check the event logs for:-

  • Source = Directory Synchronisation with an Event ID of 4 ‘The export has completed’

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Steps

Action

Activate directory synchronisation from the online portal

Sign in to the online portal https://portal.microsoftonline.com, under Admin (as per above steps) click users

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Select ‘Activate’ Active directory Synchronization

Note:

User users that there are no synchronized users from your on-premise AD

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Select Step 3 ‘Active directory Synchronization’ and click ‘Activate’

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Select ‘Yes’ to activate Directory Synchronization

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Now we need to install the Directory Synchronization Tool

Launch the Directory Synchronization Tool by double clicking on Dircync.exe

Click next on the welcome screen

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Accept the license agreement and default install location

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The Directory Synchronization Tool will install and click finish when it’s completed

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On the Directory Synchronization server launch ‘directory Sync configuration’ and click next on the welcome screen

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Specify your Office 365 administrator credentials

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Specify Enterprise Admin credentials to create the service account

Note:

The credentials specified here are not saved or cached in memory.

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Click Next on the configuration page

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Verify the ‘Synchronize directories now’ is selected and click finish

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Review the wizard and click ok

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Verify users have been synchronized

Note:

If might take a few minutes for the user appear, if they don’t appear refresh your browser

Sign into the online portal https://portal.microsoftonline.com

All changes to the user account needs to managed on-premise and then the changes will synchronised to Office 365 by the directory synchronization tool.

On the home page, select ‘Admin’ the under management select ‘Users’

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Directory synchronization will occur every 3 hours, but you can force synchronization if required

Navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Online Directory Sync and Double-click DirSyncConfigShell.psc1. Then run Start-OnlineCoexistenceSync

 

Update your domain to a shared domain

On the home page, select Admin and then manage under Exchange Online (this takes you into the Exchange Control Panel (ECP))

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In the ECP, select ‘Mail control’ then ‘domains and Protection’ and select company.com as a shared domain

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Written by Daniel Kenyon-Smith