Using Office 365 ProPlus with RDS, ESD, App-V and VDI

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This is a very common topic I am getting with my education customers and student labs, etc. My colleague James Baker created this excellent post:

Using Student Advantage with Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH), Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) , and Electronic Software Distribution (ESD) systems.

With the launch of Student Advantage there are many questions customers have around using the Office 365 Pro Plus install within different environments that may have previously depended on a MSI model.  Rest assured there are solutions for you RDSH, VDI and ESD scenarios with Student Advantage.

Electronic Software Distribution (ESD) systems.

All Electronic Software Distribution can work to deploy Office 365 ProPlus. The ESD just runs a setup.exe bootstrapper (from the Office Deployment Tool for Click-to-Run) at the end of the day, more or less like the Office MSI package or anything software that installs via an EXE.  You can find more information on deploying with the Office Deployment Tool for Click-To-Run here

Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH)

You’ll need to use a Volume Activation package (Office Professional Plus or Standard 2013) to install on the server with the RDS role enabled.  More information can be found here in a blog post by my co-worker BVA who spoke about this install for the O365 E SKUs

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

For VDI architectures where each student has a dedicated virtual machine (aka Personal VM), normal Office 365 ProPlus works as long as that machine meets system requirements and periodically connects to the Internet to validate the user’s subscription.

For VDI architectures where there are shared machines (aka Pooled VM) you’ll need to use a Volume Activation package (Office Professional Plus or Standard 2013) to install on the machine.  Same scenario as the RDSH scenario above. 

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I also found an excellent Office Garage Series video going through these Office 365 ProPlus deployment scenarios along with App-V deployment of Office 365 ProPlus here or click below:

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