Installing O365 Pro Plus onto a RDS Server / Multiuser Enviroment

by Lee Robinson 25. June 2018 Hosted Services, Microsoft Office 365, Server 2016, Windows Server 0

I have recently had the need to deploy O365 onto a Server that in effect has multiple users connecting to it. This post outlines some of my findings . Now this is only possible with O365 Pro Plus

To enable shared computer activation when you deploy Office 365 ProPlus, you need the current version of the Office Deployment Tool, which is available for free from the Microsoft Download Center.

The Office Deployment Tool, combined with a simple text file, is used to install Office 365 ProPlus on the shared computer, and to enable shared computer activation for that computer. Add the following lines when you create the text file.

An example of the text file is as follows with the key Lines being as follows

<!-- Office 365 client configuration file sample. To be used for Office 365 ProPlus 2016 apps, 
     Office 365 Business 2016 apps, Project Pro for Office 365 and Visio Pro for Office 365. 

     For detailed information regarding configuration options visit: http://aka.ms/ODT. 
     To use the configuration file be sure to remove the comments

     For Office 365 client apps (verion 2013) you will need to use the 2013 version of the 
     Office Deployment Tool which can be downloaded from http://aka.ms/ODT2013

     The following sample allows you to download and install Office 365 ProPlus 2016 apps 
     and Visio Pro for Office 365 directly from the Office CDN using the Current Channel
     settings  -->



<Configuration>

  <Add OfficeClientEdition="32" Channel="Monthly">
    <Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
      <Language ID="en-us" />
    </Product>
  </Add>

<Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />


<Property Name="SharedComputerLicensing" Value="1" />


<!-- <Logging Path="%temp%" /> -->


<!-- <Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="1" /> -->

</Configuration>

<!-- Office 365 client configuration file sample. To be used for Office 365 ProPlus 2016 apps,

Office 365 Business 2016 apps, Project Pro for Office 365 and Visio Pro for Office 365.

For detailed information regarding configuration options visit: http://aka.ms/ODT.

To use the configuration file be sure to remove the comments

For Office 365 client apps (verion 2013) you will need to use the 2013 version of the

Office Deployment Tool which can be downloaded from http://aka.ms/ODT2013

The following sample allows you to download and install Office 365 ProPlus 2016 apps

and Visio Pro for Office 365 directly from the Office CDN using the Current Channel

settings -->

</Product>

</Add>

</Configuration>

Now that we have our Configuration file written we need to then do the following

Download the EXE – this will be stored at the path you dictated when setting up the Microsoft configuration tool

C:\IT Support\O365Deployment>setup.exe /download configuration2.xml

2. Run the installation by opening command prmpt and navigating to the directory of the installation

C:\IT Support\O365Deployment> setup.exe /configure configuration2.xml

You will now notice that Office begins to Install onto the server

Now Office is installed there ar2 2 points for consideration here

Ensure Shared Computing is enabled

How the users are going to Authenticate – If SSO is not enabled due to no connection with AZURE / AFDS then we will need to make sure the users are aple to sign in with their O365 Credentials

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